1998 - No to Mandatory Continuing Education       Mr. Longson reported that Brian Munday was hired as the Association’s new Executive Director while Lyall Pratt accepted the position of Director of Practice Review. Furthermore, former Cabinet Minister Ernie Isley was appointed the pubic member on Council.   With the membership directing Council to initiate a process leading to a mandatory continuing education program in 1996, the Association had formed a continuing professional development sub-committee. Now that a specific motion was on the floor at the 1998 Annual General Meeting, the membership reviewed the mandatory continuing education proposal much more carefully and there was much more discussion at this Annual Meeting than had taken place on the subject in any recent previous annual meetings. The greatest concern of the members seem to be being able to correlate acquiring points for certain activities with becoming better Alberta Land Surveyors. A number of members expressed concern that not having the requisite number of points would result in the loss of their commission. As a result, the membership defeated this motion.   At the same annual general meeting, the membership was told that the Provincial Government started an initiative in 1993 to review existing legislation with the goal of creating a simpler, more streamlined and efficient regulatory process. This meant that the regulations under the Surveys Act had to be reviewed by December 31, 1998. As a result, the membership approved asking the government to rescind the regulations and to agree to place them in the Manual of Standard Practice. Once this motion was passed at the Annual Meeting, the membership then set about to amend the wording as to what had been in the regulation in order to bring it up to date.   Mr. Longson announced that the first round of Systematic Practice Review had been completed.  While the Practice Review Board expressed concern at the statistics revealed in the phase one evaluation report, they as a whole felt that the report was positive. Most issues raised in a practitioner's individual review were dealt with by the practitioner in a positive and professional manner. Mr. Longson also reported that Council formed the Historical and Biographical Committee and that retired Alberta Land Surveyor, Doug Barnett, had agreed to chair the Committee. Mr. Barnett chaired two meetings of the Committee before health concerns prompted him to step down and Bob Baker took over. Back - 1997 - High on Energy Forward - 1999 - Digital Submissions