NCEES: ASPRS Membership, the Model Law, and More


The National Council of Examiners for Engineering & Surveying (NCEES) Annual Meeting was held in Honolulu in mid-August.  The following is a summary of issues that are of interest to ASPRS members.

ASPRS Membership Ratified
 The full NCEES Council ratified an earlier NCEES Board action approving ASPRS as a member of the Participating Organizations Liaison Council (POLC).  ASPRS now takes its place on the Council along with American Congress on Surveying and Mapping, National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS), American Society of Civil Engineers, and many other professional organizations.  I thanked the full Council, on behalf of ASPRS, for allowing us to participate, and briefly explained the photogrammetric community’s interest in the modifications outlined in the multi-organization Task Force report.  The report, which addressed several issues of concern to photogrammetrists, was transmitted to NCEES in December 1997.  NSPS President Bob Prescott also addressed the full Council and strongly supported the Task Force recommendations.

Savings Clause Passed
 The full NCEES Council passed a motion to adopt a “Savings Clause” as a part of the Model Law on Surveying.  The “Savings Clause” is the NCEES technical term for the “grandfather” language that protects those currently practicing photogrammetric surveying when a given jurisdiction (state) adopts the 1995 revised NCEES definition of surveying, which includes photogrammetry.  The language in the Savings Clause adopted by NCEES is essentially identical to what the Task Force recommended, and accomplishes all of the intent.

Nomenclature Discussed
 The NCEES Surveying Forum discussed many of the recommendations contained within the Task Force report, with little overall dissension.  Time did not permit a full elaboration of the report, as the discussion became focused on the NCEES Uniform Practices and Legislative Guidelines (UP&LG) Committee’s motion to remove the term “land” from “land surveying” throughout the Model Law.  The UP&LG Committee had recommended, and the NCEES Board had endorsed, this action as the first step in addressing the nomenclature concerns of the Task Force.  It was designed to set the stage for further work on a three-tier strategy recommended by the Task Force (Surveying and Mapping Intern, Geomatics Professional, and Land Surveyor).
 There was clear resistance to the motion during the Surveying Forum, although many who expressed concern also agreed that the overall thrust the Task Force report’s recommendations were sound.  Representatives from North Carolina raised some of the strongest concerns.   They concentrated on the fact that the Model Law is both a “titling” act (what the practice is to be called, and consequently what terms are off limits for non-licensed individuals) and a “definition of practice” act (which activities require licensure and which do not).  Although the Task Force made recommendations about both titling and the definition of practice in its report, only the “definition of practice” was clearly addressed by specific Task Force-recommended language changes to the Model Law.
 The discussion continued during an informal meeting with representatives from North Carolina, Virginia, and Kentucky.  Given the legal ramifications, and Board attorneys involved, it became clear that before the Council considers additional changes to the Model Law, further work needs to be done to more clearly address the “titling” language concerns expressed by the Board attorneys.  The UP&LG Committee motion was withdrawn from the full Council debate until a later time.  The full Council, consequently, did not debate the motion to delete the term “land” from the Model Law.

UP&LG to Continue its Work
 From follow-up discussions with NCEES President Andrew Liston, I believe the UP&LG Committee will be charged to continue its work with the Task Force report during the 1998-1999 work cycle.  I anticipate that UP&LG will work with the NCEES Law Enforcement Committee and the Task Force on the three-tier approach.  In addition, I believe the Examinations for Professional Surveyors Committee will be charged to work on the recommendations concerning the inclusion of photogrammetric practices within the examination structure.  Hopefully sufficient progress will be made during this cycle to place additional proposed actions before the full Council at its

Task Force on the NCEES Model Law for Surveying



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(19 January 1999)