As some of our longstanding supporters will know, Get Kids into Survey was created in 2017 (6 whole years ago!!!) when Elaine Ball was asked to create some materials to promote surveying at an annual industry conference. Working with a cartoonist, Elaine created the first geospatial themed ‘countryside’ poster which flew out of the door, heading to all sides of the globe…
I think we hit a rather big gap in the market! 👀
With that came the development of the ‘Get Kids into Survey’ brand, targeted at 8-12 year olds, which soon released more posters followed by other types of complementary resources. Sister, Elly Ball joined the team to head up the brand, passing the baton onto Erin Hull in 2021 to which she still stands. We work with companies all over the world who help to fund the initiative by sponsoring resources, and liaise with our team of volunteer Brand Ambassadors who help to teach the next generation.
The team at GKiS try their hardest to work globally, but being based in the UK has some downfalls, time zones, lack of local knowledge and inability to attend all industry shows. In 2023 it was decided that in order to provide more personalised support to surveyors and survey manufacturers that we needed to be present in as many countries as possible.
Now we welcome our first Franchise – West Coast Get Kids into Survey! 🤩
Headed up by our long standing sponsor and top notch supporter, Trent Keenan from Diamondback Land Surveying. Based in Nevada, USA he has taken on 13 states including: Alaska (AK), Arizona (AZ), California (CA), Colorado (CO), Hawaii (HI), Idaho (ID), Montana (MT), Nevada (NV), New Mexico (NM), Oregon (OR), Utah (UT), Washington (WA), Wyoming (WY).
Trent is the main contact for West Coast GKiS but is helped by Heather Keenan, Tyler Godown and Lisa Keenan. They work together to provide new sponsorship opportunities and localised support for our community based in these states. We are super excited to see what they get up to and are here to support them all the way.
By having a franchise model we are able to quickly scale up, developing strong relationships with proven businesses who strive to achieve our shared goals of inspiring future geospatial experts. With the mission: To get every child to understand the terminology of survey and geospatial in every language globally, resulting in them wanting to be part of the industry, reducing demand for staff.
Keep up to date with the latest from West Coast GKiS:
The Website:
Those who are in the West Coast Territory may have already noticed some slight changes to some of the pages. This is because if you are in the territory then you are automatically transferred to the West Coast site, very similar but complete with localised information/links, unique sponsorship opportunities and your own West Coast Newsletter!
Brand Ambassadors:
When you sign up to be a Brand Ambassador in one of the West Coast states the process is still exactly the same as normal:
-Your application will be received by Heather, who will review and approve your submission. Followed up by an email asking for your profile information.
-Heather will add you to the West Coast mailing list and global Brand Ambassador database.
-Once you send back your Brand Ambassador profile/images your blog and map point will be sent to the global website to be displayed on the main map/page.
We are hopeful that opportunities will be more frequent for outreach events now there is more localised support from GKiS.
If anyone has any questions please reach out to anyone from Get Kids into Survey, we are happy to chat 🙂