Surveyor News and Articles
Blueline Geo
Archive for September, 2009
TBPLS New board Members
Sep 28th
The Governor appointed two new public members, Robert “Bob” Price and James “Jim” Childress to replace Ty Runyan and Kelley Neumann. Bob is the Director of Public Works with the City of Southlake and a professional engineer. Jim is an attorney in San Saba and owns a title company.
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Requirements for TBPLS License Renewal
Sep 28th
You will need 8 hours of Continuing Education Credit to renew your license to practice in 2010. Please continue to report CE credit to the Board throughout 2009, as you have done in the past. New rules have been proposed that WILL NOT impact the reporting of continuing education this year. The new rules will impact CE reporting in 2010. Next year, 2010, you will be responsible for maintaining your own record of CE courses. When renewing, you will be asked if you have completed the required 8 hours of CE credit. If you answer yes, you will be able to renew. If you answer no, you will not be able to renew. The Board will audit approximately 5% of all registrants and ask for verification of the CE. If you are unable to provide verification, your license to practice will be suspended until such time as you are able to provide verification. See the proposed rules printed below for additional information.
The Board is aware of confusion regarding the number of continuing education hours needed for license renewal. The Board has proposed rules that require 8 hours of continuing education credit for license renewal. These rules do not change the number of hours needed. The rules do change the method of reporting the hours. Starting in January 2010, the Board will no longer maintain a record of CE courses taken. Each registrant will be responsible for maintaining their CE information, which will be subject to audit as noted above.
Rule 663.19 (4) states “Courses shall be referenced by notation upon the survey plat to an identifiable line for directional control.” In order for a line to be identifiable it must be physically marked.
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TBPLS New Rules
Sep 28th
Since the last Newsletter (September 2008), the following rules have been amended:
661.44 – Rejections. Added deadline dates for the board to consider additional information for rejected applications. Additional information must be received on or before the next application deadline (either January 15 or July 15).
661.45 – Examinations. Added language for examination candidates that have been called into active U.S. military duty. The examination may be postponed once the board has received copies of orders and a request to postpone the examination. The candidate must notify the board within 60 days of release to resume the examination cycle.
661.53 – Active Duty Military. New section regarding registrants who are active duty are exempt from penalty if they failed to renew their license on time and can show the board they were on active duty outside of Texas.
661.55 – Surveying Firms Registration. Added the definition of “full-time” employee.
661.56 – Surveying Firms Renewal and Expiration. The change clarifies that each certificate of registration is valid until December 31 of the year registered and then must be renewed yearly.
661.62 – Complaint Process. Language was added that a contested case hearing or an Informal Settlement Conference must be requested within 20 business days of receiving notice of the violation.
663.10 – Disciplinary Rules. Added language to clarify that a land surveyor may be guilty of only one of the behaviors noted.
663.17 – Monumentation. The change removed language that was redundant. All monumentation must comply with subsection (b) of this section.
664.4 – Types of Acceptable Continuing Education. The authorship of technical papers must be in a board approved publication.
664.7 – Determination of Credit Units. There is not a specific number of hours for authorship of technical papers. Each will be credited on a case by case basis.
664.13 – Exemptions. New section to list reasons a registrant may be exempt from obtaining continuing education.
A complete copy of all rules can be found on the Board’s website, www.txls.state.tx.us
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Blueline Geo Article Archives
Sep 23rd
This will soon be our ever growing professional surveyor articles and news archive section. We will try and write, print or round-up all of the best and most informative articles in the Professional surveyor world. If it will be helpful to you or helpful to us we will put the article or news about it in here.
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