New Members, Life Members

It was fascinating this week to spend some time in Vancouver meeting with some of APEGBC’s Past Presidents and attending the new registrants’ Induction Ceremony. I enjoy meeting and chatting with members about their interests and opinions, and finding out how I might be able to help them get the most out of the association.

Past Presidents’ Forum:

Some presidents from past councils have an ongoing interest in the success of the association. These individuals meet twice a year for a number of reasons: to keep themselves informed about what the current APEGBC Council is working on; to discuss what is happening, what has changed and what has not; and to meet with each other and catch up. Most important to me, however, is that they freely offer advice and guidance to any current council members who are able to attend.

I attend these events as often as I can.

Our Past Presidents tend to keep themselves informed about current events that impact the engineering and geoscience professions. They are thoughtful and considerate in their advice. I value their comments and questions quite highly.

The meeting this week was especially informative because the Past Presidents had included in the agenda an opportunity to delve into a number of interesting topics in small groups. Key discussion points were shared with the larger group at the end.

One of the topics the people at my table talked about was how new members are obtaining their technical education from diverse institutions. They expressed their concern that so few were coming from UBC, the sole provider of engineering and geoscience education back in the day. Through the conversation that ensued, we noted that the institutions across the province today are nationally accredited to the same standards as UBC and that international degrees become approved through the rigorous application process that we have at APEGBC. Apparently, we are national leaders in this area, as well, with our competency-based application process and our registry of approved degree-granting institutions. We discussed at length how the registration process has changed over the years to ensure that all members are appropriately qualified through both education and experience.

Other topics we discussed included:

• how best to support BC engineers and geoscientists who approve the engineering work that is produced overseas by non-BC companies;
• how best to best articulate the benefits of maintaining our dual purpose (unlike the Ontario model in place now, which separates PEO regulation from OSPE member advocacy, APEGBC is both Regulator of and Advocate for the professions) by being clear that our primary purpose is public safety; and
• how best to promote the regulation of technologists as Engineering and Geoscience Licensees, in order to enhance public safety and public knowledge, and elevate the clear value of technology practice for the benefit of individual technologists and of the companies for which they work.

Induction Ceremony

After a brief socializing break, we all moved over to the Fairmont Vancouver Hotel’s gorgeous ballroom in which the Induction Ceremony was held. What a beautiful room…

Ann English, P.Eng., CEO and Registrar of APEGBC, was an excellent master of the ceremony, keeping the awards moving, giving a stirring talk about the obligations of engineers and geoscientists to uphold public safety and pronouncing all those names very well, indeed!

Life Members were recognized first. Their lists of accomplishments through their long careers were inspiring.

After the presentations of their gold foils, the 129 newly registered professional members walked across the stage. The inductees received their licenses to the sometimes raucous applause of friends and families. I met some new inductees at my table who have already begun interesting careers. Their supporters were clearly very proud.

Congratulations to all!