Submitted
by: Richard L. Moberly, P.G.,URS Corporation,
Overland
Park, Kansas
As most Geologists in Kansas know, the Kansas State Board of Technical
Professions (Board) regulates the profession of Geology as well as four
other professions (architecture, professional engineering, landscape architecture,
and land surveying). There are 13 board members representing the
five technical professions and the public. The mission of the Board is
to provide maximum protection of the public by assuring that the practice
of the technical professions is carried out only by those persons who are
proven to be qualified as prescribed by the statutes and rules and regulations
of the Board of Technical Professions. It is not the Board's purpose
to protect the professional interests of the various technical professions.
The Kansas Board currently has 13,381 individual licensees (in all five
professions) and 1,264 corporations. There are 579 geologists licensed
in Kansas with 70 percent of them having Kansas addresses. There are three
individuals now licensed in Kansas by examination. On November
1, 2002 the Board made a regulation change establishing an "intern geologist"
category. The Board issues an intern geologist certificate upon passing
the fundamentals of geology examination and graduation from college.
In the recent (October 2002) examination, 10 individuals took the Fundamentals
Test and 2 individuals took the Practice Test.
Both the Fundamental of Geology (FG) and Practice of Geology (PG) tests
are prepared by a Council of Examiners under the direction of the National
Association of State Boards of Geology (ASBOG). This group meets
in the spring and fall of each year (in 2002, they met in Indianapolis,
IN and Biloxi, MS) to evaluate test questions, review the statistical analysis
of the test results, and prepare new test questions for future use.
In 2002, the first legal challenge of the FG and PG Examination culminated
in a victory for both the Florida Department of Business and Professional
Regulations and ASBOG. The results of this administrative hearing
speak strongly to the quality and fairness of the ASBOG testing process.
The upcoming geology license renewal process will include a continuing
education requirement. K.A.R. 66-14-1 states, "Beginning with the application
for renewal of license which expire on June 30, 2003, each geologist shall
have completed 30 PDH units of acceptable continuing education requirements
during the two-year period immediately preceding each biennial renewal
date as a condition for license renewal as defined in K.A. R. 66-6-6..."
These 30 hours can be of technical, ethical or managerial content; however,
the Board has the final authority with respect to approval of courses,
credits and professional development hours or courses or other methods
of earning credit. Professional Development Hours (PDH) can be earned
in many ways and these have been described in the Kansas Technical Professions
Newsletter. For consideration, the Board has published the following criteria:
1. Professional development
in course work, seminars, workshops, or professional or technical presentations
at meeting, conventions or conferences (1 hour X number of hours of actual
time of each program).
2. Teaching a course
or seminar (first time only). This does not apply to full time faculty
for teaching their regularly assigned courses. (2 X number of hours taught).
3. Published paper,
article or book authored by the licensee, directly related to licensee's
profession (10 hours).
4. Active participation
in a professional or technical society. Must serve as an officer
and/or actively participate in a committee of the organization (2 hours
for each organization).
5. One college or
unit semester hour of approved courses (45 hours).
6. One college or
unit quarter hour of approved courses (30 hours).
7. One continuing
education unit (10 hours).
The geologists of Kansas can be quite proud of themselves. As expected,
the Board has had only one complaint case on a geologist that was closed
with no action taken. Keep up the good work.
x|xx 
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January - February 2003