The consultants Network Affinity Group convened on Tuesday April 27^th for its monthly meeting and as expected, the largest turn out of this year was registered for this occasion. The topic to discuss was “Professional Engineer Licensure” by Mr. Henn Rebane, P.E. who came to us highly recommended by Ms. Carrie Flynn, Carrie Ann Flynn, Executive Director of the Florida Board of Professional Engineers. Henn, who is a registered professional Electrical Engineer and a current IEEE member shared his experience as past Chairman of the Florida Board of Professional Engineers to explain to us the intricacies of professional registration as contained in Chapter 471 of the Florida Statutes (http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=Ch0471/ch0471.htm) and he presented to us a very comprehensive program of slides that covered Why Licensure?, Laws and Rules, When is licensure required, Certificate of Authorization, Exemptions from Licensure (with specific cases),the next Licensure Model (3-Es), Endorsement, Exams and when is it permissible to wave these exams, the Electrical PE, emerging issues like the PE licensure in Software Engineering. The PowerPoint presentation will be available for all to view in our Group’s Website for all to see.

The membership in attendance found these topics very interesting and generated many questions involving personal experiences and cases (I know since I did have one such case) for Henn who was very keen in responding each and every one of them to everyone’s satisfaction. Attendance to our meeting by registered PE members rendered a very practical approach to our discussion since they were able to contribute their personal experience to the various topics to be discussed. Did you know that Employees of a firm, corporation, or partnership who are the subordinates of a person in responsible charge, licensed under this chapter are exempt from licensure? For the same token, such company or organization must have a Certificate of Authorization issued by the Florida Engineers Management Corporation. Also, If you market Engineering Services to the public you must be licensed as a P.E. by the Florida Board of Professional Engineers, otherwise we understand that the penalties can be very stringent.

Given the number of questions posed, the meeting extended beyond the regular time which indicated to me that it was a very successful event since members were able to resolve personal issues associated with Licensure and this is one of the purposes of the Consultants Network Affinity Group. On behalf of the FWCS of IEEE Consultants Network Affinity Group I wish to extend Mr. Henn Rebane our sincere appreciation for his presentation and remind him that he may be called upon to do it again in the future.

Hermann Amaya

Chairman/Founder

FWCS of IEEE Consultants Network Affinity Group