Possible changes in the Texas Board Rules regarding Continuing Education requirements
Several engineers have recently (11-08-08) forwarded us copies of letters they have received from the Texas Board of Registration stating that they are being audited for Continuing Education Program compliance. (See copy here.) Although we have seen copies of these letters in the past, these appear new, and possibly change the rules.
In the past, we considered that the review materials on this site fell well within their statement:
What courses, presentations, or activities count?
1) Is the specific activity on the list of
activities in the rule? (see below for an excerpt from the rule)
2) Is the activity relevant to the practice of a technical profession and does it include technical, ethical, or managerial content? If the activity is related to engineering in a technical, managerial, or ethical manner, then it will count.
Their statement on "list of activities in the rule":
PDH units may be earned as follows:
(1) Successful completion or auditing of college credit courses.
(2) Successful completion of continuing education courses, either offered by a
professional or trade organization, university or college, or offered in-house
by a corporation, other business entity, professional or technical societies,
associations, agencies, or organizations, or other group.
(3) Successful completion of correspondence, on-line, televised, videotaped, and
other short courses/tutorials.
(4) Presenting or attending qualifying seminars, in-house courses, workshops, or
professional or technical presentations made at meetings, conventions, or
conferences sponsored by a corporation, other business entity, professional or
technical societies, associations, agencies, or organizations, or other group.
(5) Teaching or instructing as listed in paragraphs (1) through (4) above.
(6) Authoring published papers, articles, books, or accepted licensing
examination items.
(7) Active participation in professional or technical societies, associations,
agencies, or organizations, including:
(A) Serving as an elected or appointed official;
(B) Serving on a committee of the organization;
(C) Serving in other official positions.
(8) Patents Issued.
(9) Engaging in self-directed study.
In the past we considered statement (3) above to cover our materials, just like commercially produced tapes, webinars, DVDs, etc. sold by ASCE, NSPE, and other companies.
However, the following new statement from the Texas Board's letter of
audit could change this (in Texas only):
"Documentation must include a
certificate of completion/attendance in a course/seminar; a grade transcript; or
a flyer/agenda from a presentation or meeting. You may use another document as
long as it shows the date
It seems that some of the commercial suppliers satisfy this by including a certificate with the materials sent to you. (Purchase a CD or DVD either by phone or online with a credit card or by check. You will receive your DVD or CD along with your certificate in the mail. If you purchase using a credit card you will receive your certificate instantly.) As always, it is incumbent upon you to actually watch and learn from the materials, whether you actually looked at the DVD or not.
The requirement for certificates with valid signatures also brings into question: Who is going to certify and sign your 5 hours of self-study? Who also will certify your reading of the ethics material on the Board's website if you wish to use it to satisfy your required 1 hour of ethics? (Quote from the Board: "You can meet the ethics requirement ... by reviewing the Texas Engineering Practice Act and Board Rules.")
We don't know. We would assume that the statement "You may use another document as long as it shows the date, location, duration, sponsor and type of activity being claimed." would cover the materials, were it not for the next statement "The CEP log sheet alone will not be accepted. It must be accompanied by the back-up documentation". Certificates must have a date and a valid signature."
We are contacting the Board to see if we can clarify this, but until that time you might want to play it safe and claim no more than 5 hours of the material on this site. You can go to Discountpdh.com and they will give you a free 1 hour ethics course to cover your ethics requirements along with a certificate. It does not include a signature, but the seal will probably pass muster with the Board.
Finally, please don't contact us regarding this. We will post whatever we know as soon as we know it, here. We will certainly be unable to tell you what to do if you are "attending qualifying seminars, in-house courses, workshops, or professional or technical presentations made at meetings, conventions, or conferences sponsored by a corporation, other business entity, professional or technical societies, associations, agencies, or organizations, or other group." (statement 5 above) to satisfy your requirements. I have been to hundreds of these and have never been given a signed paper proving I signed up, much less that I actually stayed during the presentation, much less that I listened to the presentation rather than texting my associates to work on other pressing problems.
We don't have a clue.
And good luck asking an "other business entity" to give you a signed certificate for the convention you attended. They will think you're nuts.