The Survey Mercenaries are a collection of Ozark cave surveyors that work primarily in Central Missouri, but are also heavily involved in projects in Southern Illinois and Northern Arkansas. Our members come from a variety of grottos, and a large range across several states. New members are always welcome, and we only have two requirements for joining:

1-You must cave at least once a month somewhere

2-You must be a surveyor, or be willing to learn how to survey on your first trip

The Survey Mercenaries are heavily associated with the MSS (the Missouri Speleological Survey), but not officially. This is a state of mind, and not an officially recognized grotto (and never will be), the members are associated to the MSS through their regular local grottos. We also have similar loose ties with many other groups.

Meetings are typically held weekly on Saturday morning, in some random parking lot near a cave. Meetings are considered adjourned when everyone has arrived (or eaten breakfast), and the meetings are followed immediately by surveying.

PROJECTS
Since cave locations are sensitive information, those will never be posted here. Don't ask for them either. And since there is much debate over how much cave information, in general, should be posted on the internet, we have chosen to not use any cave names, and all cave reports will be referenced by their MSS number.

We are not the people to talk to about getting started with caving. However, if you are interested, contact your local grotto, and they are the people that will help your get started with your caving career (the same place most of us got started.) Grottos can be located through the National Spelogical Society.

UPDATES
This page is still pretty new, and there is alot more work to be done. I am keeping a running list of updates over the last month here. Feel free to contribute anything, even if it is just ideas.

This page is maintained by Goska . If you are needing one of my other pages, try http://www.goska.us or http://www.umr.edu/~goska