About CASLE
This section covers:
Mission
"We are committed to the advancement of the profession of Surveying in the Commonwealth, and to the enhancement of the skills of Surveyors in the management of the natural and built environments for the common good."
Aims
Foremost among CASLE’s aims are:
- the encouragement of provision in Commonwealth countries of adequate facilities for professional and technician education
- the transfer of technology throughout the Commonwealth, and
- through programmes of continuing professional development, the constant up-dating of professional skills and the application of rapidly advancing technologies to a wide variety of surveyors’ functions.
Objectives
CASLE was formed in 1969 as a federation of independent professional societies representing surveying and land economy in Commonwealth countries. CASLE is an organisation which is non profit-making in nature, and any monies raised, or any surplus monies made from its activities are deployed into activities which are intended to support its aims as set out in Article 2 of the Constitituon.
It currently comprises over 40 societies in 32 countries and it has approved Associate Members and correspondents, some of whom are in 19 other countries. Its objectives have accordingly been defined as:
- fostering the development of the profession in all Commonwealth countries.
- fostering appropriate standards of education for surveying and land economy and the establishment of appropriate facilities for education and training.
- helping to develop professional techniques and practices attuned to national needs.
- facilitating the transfer of technology within the Commonwealth and assisting national programmes of continuing professional development designed to keep surveyors up-to-date.
- encouraging dialogue between its member societies and national governments on all matters of national policy on which the profession is competent to offer informed opinions and advice.
CASLE achieves these objectives through conferences and seminars, lecture tours, publications, manpower studies and direct advice to governments, universities, other educational bodies and its own member societies. In the period 1969 - 2002 CASLE organised eight General Assemblies and many regional conferences, seminars, workshops and lecture tours.
During the period 1998 - 2002 CASLE is to offer a new programme of lecture tours and tutorials on specially selected topics which are judged to be of prime interest to the profession at this time. In some instances these will be offered in the successful CASLE "Road-show" format which consists of CPD activities, covering a spectrum of surveying topics. These involve a small group of specialist surveyors consecutively delivering a lecture and workshop programme to adjacent centres within a region of the Commonwealth.
Topics which have been delivered in recent years include building maintenance, sustainability in construction, new practices in property valuation, developments in information technology and land information; project management; construction cost information; and the management and marketing of professional practices. The CASLE manuals on topics of interest to the profession have been a success, and some are being updated so as to provide a basis for Road-show presentations. Copies of manuals are provided to all participants and available to others so as to facilitate further study and future reference.
CASLE also publishes
A regular newsletter, reports of general assemblies and regional conferences and seminars, information of interest to the profession, including advice on Education for Surveying and Land Economy.
CASLE and Sustainability
CASLE believes that many of the problems facing the world in respect of the use of scarce resources may be mitigated by careful planning. Within the scope of the three professional fields, the education and experience of surveyors may be drawn upon to provide advice on the effective use of resources in new projects, and the long-term resource and cost consequences of planning, design, and construction decisions.
There are many definitions of the term "sustainability", which tends to obscure the fact that things can be improved in practice with currently available skills. CASLE believes that the modification of the environment to serve human needs can and must be more sensitively managed. Whilst some Governments and developers are already alive to the issues, CASLE is keen to encourage the wider use of surveyors’ and others’ complementary skills, within their specialist fields of competence, to solve problems. To these ends, CASLE became accredited to, and was represented at the 1996 UN Habitat 2 conference in Istanbul as a "Non-Governmental Organisation", and also contributed to the "pre-CHOGM" workshops which were held in Edinburgh just before the 1997 Commonwealth Heads of Government meetings in that City.
In the latter case, CASLE joined with the complementary Commonwealth organisations representing Architects, Engineers, and Planners, to deliver a one-day programme of seminars and workshops on issues relating to sustainability. This initiative is part of a continuing committment by CASLE, to encourage the development of constructive attitudes towards sustainability, at all levels in public and private sector clients and their professional advisers, throughout the Commonwealth. CASLE followed up these initiatives in 2001 with a presence at the ‘Istanbul +5 meeting in New York, and also contributed to the ‘pre-CHOGM’ events in Australia.