Email from Texas Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors

April 03, 2023

In This Issue

Focus on Compliance
Board and Committee Meetings
Exam News
Webinars and Outreach
Agency Vacancies

Focus on Compliance

Board Records and Notification

The Board relies on its licensees, registrants, and firms to assist it in keeping its records current and ensuring accurate information is maintained by the Board and provided to the public. One of the Board’s focuses this year is ensuring that the employment records between individual licensees and their firm are current and accurate.

Professional engineers and land surveyors have an obligation to notify the Board of certain changes within 30 days of them happening. Specifically, Board rules 137.5 and 138.5 require licensed engineers and surveyors to notify the Board, in writing, of any change to:

The licensee or registrant’s legal name
The licensee or registrant’s personal mailing address
A change in the licensee or registrant’s employment status, including the full legal trade or business name of the employer, the physical location and mailing address of the business, the telephone number of the business.

Licensees and registrants must also notify the Board of any conviction of a misdemeanor or felony, other than simple traffic violations, and of any sanction imposed against them by another state’s engineering or surveying licensing board.

In addition to individual licensees or registrants, engineering and surveying firms also are obligated to notify the Board of certain changes within 30 days. Board rules 137.73 and 138.73 require engineering and surveying firms, respectively, to notify the Board of any change to the business’s mailing address, email address, telephone number, officers or directors of the company, the employment status of any engineers or surveyors working for the firm, and the dissolution of the firm or any branch or subsidiary branches.

Failure to promptly notify the Board of the aforementioned changes is a violation of Board rules and could result in enforcement action. The Board appreciates its licensee’s and registrant’s cooperation in reviewing their Board records and making all necessary updates.

Individual licensees or registrants and firms may review their Board record by accessing their individual profile in the Board’s online ECHO system at: https://pels.texas.gov/echo

Updates to Board records are most easily done in the ECHO system or can be completed by submitting one to the following forms to the Board either via e-mail to licensing@pels.texas.gov or via mail.

Firm Updates: https://pels.texas.gov/downloads/FirmUpdateForm.pdf
Licensee or Registrant Updates for Name Change Only: https://pels.texas.gov/downloads/DuplicateCertForm.pdf

For questions on the process of updating your Board record, you can reach out to the Board’s Licensing and Registration Department via email at licensing@pels.texas.gov.

As part of our ongoing commitment to education and outreach we are adding a new section to our eNewsletters related to compliance, enforcement and ethics issues. We will cover a different topic each newsletter as a reminder and example of the importance of different aspects of your professional practice.

If you have suggestions about a topic for us to consider addressing in a future issue, please email your idea to the Board at: info@pels.texas.gov

Board and Committee Meetings

February 15-16, 2023, Board Meeting

Agendas, minutes, and recordings are available at https://pels.texas.gov/boardmeetings.htm

Disciplinary Actions

All enforcement actions approved in the Board meeting are posted on the TBPELS website. Enforcement actions are reported based on the date of the Board meeting at which the actions were taken.

http://pels.texas.gov/disciplinary.htm

Rules and Adoptions

The board adopted a rule package related to the application review process and including an option for review at the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH) for an application proposed for denial due to criminal history.

Future Meetings

The next meetings will be held from May 10-11, 2023. Refer to our website for agendas and links to attend the meetings.

https://pels.texas.gov/boardmeetings.htm

Board Meeting Recordings

The meeting recordings have been posted on the agency's YouTube Channel and are available at https://pels.texas.gov/boardmeetings.htm . Viewing these recordings or attending the live stream qualifies for continuing education credit under the category of self-directed study. A maximum of five credit hours may be accrued for engineer self-directed study. The maximum credit for surveyors is four hours.

Exam News

Engineer Exams

F.E. P.E. and F.S exams are all computer-based except structural exams, which are still paper-and-pencil.
Refer to NCEES for specific exam dates and deadlines - https://ncees.org/exams/schedule/.

Webinars and Outreach

TBPELS provides online outreach presentations at no charge to license holders, associations, societies, and companies.

The following guidelines are used in reviewing outreach requests:

The default method of presentation is via webinar.
A minimum of 50 attendees is recommended for a face-to-face presentation request.
All requests are subject to review and approval.
Request processing can take up to 14 working days.
Please submit your request at least three (3) weeks prior to the proposed date of the event.
Rescheduling will require a new request.
Presentations are typically 1 hour in length.

Request an event by clicking on the link below.

https://pels.texas.gov/outreach.html

Engineer and Surveyor Ethics Webinars

The Board is offering these one-hour, free ethics webinars to assist license and registration holders with meeting their ethics requirements. Each webinar provides an up-to-date overview of agency activities, case studies, and a review of professional ethics topics.

The next ethics webinar is April 19, 2023 at 10 a.m. CDT each day. Registration is open. Please note that each registration is capped at 1,000 attendees per webinar and will close when this cap is reached.

https://pels.texas.gov/webinars.html