PROFESSIONAL ETHICS AND PRACTICES - COLUMN 160
partially built with metric units and part with English units? It didn’t work.
Texas Continuing Professional Development—Discipline for Failure to Comply with Requirements
I reported that “The Texas Board of Professional Geoscientists recently reported that much of its enforcement activity involved licensees who (1) didn’t think they had to report CPD, (2) failed to report their CPD, or (3) did an inad- equate job of doing so.” I examined the Texas Board’s summary of Disciplinary Actions,
www.tbpg.state.tx.us/enforce- ment/disciplinary-actions/, on June 8th. There were 6 concluded disciplin- ary actions in February and April 2016 for failure to obtain or properly report the required 15 hours of CPD includ- ing an hour of professional ethics each year. Nine such actions were concluded in 2015.
Professional seals and name changes
A CPG contacted AIPG Headquarters regarding the use of her Certification Seal, which was needed for a report. The problem was that her Seal used her former last name, not her current one. General solutions to this problem depend on whether the Seal was an embossing stamp, a rubber ink stamp, or an elec- tronic stamp. Electronic stamps such as the Texas PG stamp may well be easy to change but AIPG has not adopted elec-
tronic CPG stamps; see PE&P column 111 and Martin Andrejko’s column, both TPG. Embossing and ink stamps will have to be replaced with new ones.
Women change their last names more than men, usually as a result of a change in marital status.4 More and more women are electing not to change their last names following a marriage. Many women have chosen to continue using their birth names professionally even if they adopt their spouse’s birth name socially. This is particularly true when there has been a significant pro- fessional practice prior to the marriage.
In noting that this is usually a prob- lem faced by women, I’m merely rec- ognizing the current social customs. Whether someone wishes to change her/his name is a personal decision. However, the decision has consequences either way. Where a change is made, then the change needs to be made on professional seals along with changes to passports, driver’s licenses, credit cards, airline boarding databases, etc.
Electronic Professional Seals
The preceding topic notes that some organizations allow the use of electronic professional seals while others, includ- ing AIPG, do not. The use of professional seals in general and whether electronic seals were appropriate has been a topic over the years. In the October 1995 TPG, I published “Draft policy on the use of professional seals: 2nd draft, September 11, 1995.” The November 1995 TPG
contained “Report verification: avoid- ing forgeries, deletion, and additions,” a further discussion of the topic. That article begins, “Robert Colpitts, CPG- 7702, responded to the Draft Policy on the Use of Professional Seals in the October TPG noting, ‘I would be very careful about electronic reproduction of any professional seals. With the avail- ability of high-resolution scanners and laser printers increasing, how will you be able to tell if you have a copy or forgery of a person’s seal? ... The object of sealing is to ensure authenticity of a particular document.” The focus of the discussion was how to ensure that report was indeed a true and correct copy of what the author(s) wrote. AIPG never adopted a policy on the use of its professional seal.
Embossed seals are obvious in origi- nal copies. Good photocopies can show that an embossed seal was used. I have sent clients an original report with an embossed seal and electronic copies that clearly show that the sealed page had the embossed stamp. While use of an embossed seal is perhaps the best form of verification when compared with rubber ink or electronic seals, even embossed seals can be recreated by the unscrupulous. I’m not aware of this hap- pening, but it could be done. Electronic seals would be easiest to fraudulently duplicate. The other method of verifica- tion, one I use when appropriate, is to send the author of the original report a copy of the version I received. It is easy compare electronic documents. If the original author(s) confirm the version I have, well and good. If the versions vary, then other issues arise.
4. One of my nephews changed his middle name to his wife’s birth name when they married.
Geologic Ethics & Professional Practices is now available on CD
This CD is a collection of articles, columns, letters to the editor, and other material addressing professional ethics and general issues of professional geologic practice that were printed in The Professional Geologist. It includes an electronic version of the now out-of-print Geologic Ethics and Professional Practices 1987-1997, AIPG Reprint Series #1. The intent of this CD is collection of this material in a single place so that the issues and questions raised by the material may be more conveniently studied. The intended ‘students’ of this CD include everyone interested in the topic, from the new student of geology to professors emeritus, working geologists, retired geolo- gists, and those interested in the geologic profession.
AIPG members will be able to update their copy of this CD by regularly downloading the pe&p
index.xls file from the
www.aipg.org under “Ethics” and by downloading the electronic version of The Professional Geologist from the members only area of the AIPG website. The cost of the CD is $25 for members, $35 for non-members, $15 for student members and $18 for non-member students, plus shipping and handling. To order go to
www.aipg.org.
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