MAY 2006 ISSUE
Professional practice & Ethics Corner
APEGGA members with professional practice or ethics questions are welcome to send them to Ray Chopiuk, P.Eng., Director, Professional Practice, APEGGA, 1500 Scotia One, 10060 Jasper AVE NW, Edmonton, AB T5J 4A2; fax 780-426-1877; e-mail rchopiuk@apegga.org.
Q I’m an APEGGA professional member and an executive of a non-consulting industrial firm. I find APEGGA’s Continuing Professional Development Program to be onerous and time consuming. I’m not even sure if I’m practicing. How can I avoid APEGGA making me resign?
A Firstly, APEGGA would not make a member resign his or her professional registration. The Continuing Professional Development Program recognizes the diversity of APEGGA’s membership and allows for flexibility and choice in meeting the program requirements.
Perhaps the first decision to make is whether you are actively engaged in the practice engineering, geology or geophysics as defined in the Engineering, Geological and Geophysical Professions Act. If you are not, the act’s regulations permit you to maintain your registration and be exempted from the requirements of the CPD program by submitting a Non-Practicing Declaration, stating that you are not actively practicing.
You must submit the declaration yearly and cannot engage in practice or be a Responsible Member for an entity holding an APEGGA permit while the declaration is in effect. If in the future you wish to resume active practice, you must submit an application to APEGGA’s Practice Review Board and receive the board’s permission first. The board may require that you meet certain conditions, depending on your circumstances, before granting permission.
On the other hand, if your job function meets the act’s definition of engineering, geology or geophysics, or if you have technical influence over the professions, you are considered to be engaged in professional practice and cannot be exempted from our CPD requirements.
If you influence the practice of engineering, geology or geophysics in a broader, non-technical sense, you could file a non-practicing declaration and be exempt, or you could retain your practicing designation by meeting the program requirements. In your case, there are a number of non-technical professional development activities that can qualify in meeting the required yearly minimum average of 80 professional development hours.
Firstly, 50 of those hours would come from your everyday job function. The balance of the 30 professional development hours could conceivably come from activities in which you already engage, including formal and informal activities, participation and presentations. For example, if you attend conferences, workshops, meetings of managerial or professional organizations (including APEGGA) or if you engage in self-study such as reviewing journals pertinent to your job, you can claim those hours under the category for informal professional development.
If you serve on public boards or committees, or on committees of professional or managerial societies, or if you mentor less-experienced professional members, those hours qualify under the participation category. If you prepare and give presentations outside your normal job function at meetings, workshops or seminars, either within or outside your firm, such time qualifies for the presentation category.
There are also activities such as industry or institutional courses that exceed a half-day in length, which would count as formal professional development hours. Development of published codes or standards, and publishing or reviewing or editing articles for publication can be claimed as contributions to knowledge.
The flexibility to claim such activities usually means that members have little difficulty in meeting the required number of hours across a minimum of three activity categories.
The above is only a sampling of the choices available. APEGGA’s Continuing Professional Development Program Guide contains additional details and is available online at www.apegga.org.
To accommodate those members who only practice part time, the Practice Review Board does consider requests for special consideration for reduced CPD requirements. The application form is also available on APEGGA’s website, along with other documentation related to the program.