Member Competence Task Team Recommendations To Council

Adopted November 16, 1999

Overview

In accordance with Council's request to determine a way forward after a mandatory professional development proposal was voted down by the membership in 1998, and having received and considered the survey of stakeholders, the Member Competence Task Team recommends the following:

1. APEGM should not proceed to implement a mandatory program for professional development, and should communicate this to its membership.
   Stakeholders of engineering and geoscience services within Manitoba have indicated that they are largely satisfied with the current situation and they believe the public to be adequately protected both in terms of competency and ethics.
2. APEGM should proceed to promote & support voluntary professional development by its members, with respect to both competence & ethics.
   While stakeholders do not perceive major problems with competency or ethics, they have indicated that on-going professional development by practicing engineers and geoscientists is highly desirable and they support overwhelmingly voluntary professional development as the best way to achieve continuing competency & ethics review.
3. A recommended first step is the preparation by APEGM of a Guideline on Professional Development.
   The Guideline is a good measure in terms of due diligence.
4. APEGM should incorporate mandatory professional development as part of its disciplinary system.
5. APEGM should proceed to develop improved means to educate/inform the public what to do if they encounter ethical or competency problems with professional members.
6. APEGM should proceed to publish a non-confidential summary of the results of the stakeholder survey (i.e. names or references to stakeholders removed) in a manner that will allow broad exposure to Members of the Association, Stakeholders, the Minster of Labour, the public-at-large of Manitoba, and other Engineering Associations.
7. APEGM should proceed to address the important issues raised by stakeholders in the "APEGM's RELATIONSHIP WITH STAKEHOLDERS AND THE PUBLIC" portion of the survey, pages 7 through 10 inclusive.
8. As described in the survey, Stakeholders were very impressed with the initiative taken to ask their opinion and look forward to maintaining that relationship. Therefore, APEGM should undertake to formalize a strategy to maintain a relationship with Stakeholders.

In response to Item 3, the Association has prepared a brochure to assist APEGM members in maintaining and enhancing their competence. A sample activity form is also provided, as well as 3 examples: 1, 2, 3 (PDF format).