CEO’s Message
APEGA
Let’s Adjust our Self-Regulation Model To Leverage the Contribution of Volunteers
BY MARK FLINT, P.ENG. APEGA Chief Executive Officer
sometimes those agendas are 700 or 800 pages long. For statutory boards, there is an expectation to perform significant analyses of complex situations. In some instances this could include ongoing efforts that continue for several years. The significance of the decisions that these boards make cannot be overstated. These are life-affecting decisions. They determine who is competent to become and remain licensed. While this is the very premise of self-regulation, I assert that we also have an obligation to properly enable these processes in a way that recognizes the need to preserve the concept of self-regulation along with the need to be efficient and responsive. We continue to ask more of our volunteers. Unless we adapt our system as we grow, we will find ourselves becoming less and less effective. Here’s a parallel drawn from our country’s history. In the late 1800s, Canada recognized the need for a full-time army. We were a colony of England, so territorial defence was provided by British troops temporarily stationed here, with support volunteers from local militias. As Canada’s permanency became clear, it was apparent that depending on a few professional soldiers and volunteer militias would not provide sufficiently for the defence of a country of Canada’s size. And so in 1871 Canada established the first permanent, regular force army unit in Kingston, Ont., and Quebec City, Que. It should not be forgotten that although Canada created a professional, full-time military, neither the First World War nor
It is unbelievable, the commitment and dedication volunteers put towards serving the professions and the public. But as our membership grows, the complexity of our business environment increases, and the demand for innovation and better service becomes even greater. We have to ask ourselves: Is the volunteer model that was the genesis of the engineering and geoscience professions sustainable in its current form? Let me be clear. It is not viable to operate a self-regulatory body of the size and complexity of APEGA without the unfailing support of volunteers. Even if APEGA engaged another 40 or so employees to offset the efforts of our 1,500 volunteers, it would still be necessary to draw on the breadth of experience available in the wider membership to advise on issues that are investigated. The issue is not whether a self-regulating profession should use volunteers. Rather, it is how to optimize the impact of the valuable knowledge our volunteers offer. Those of you who volunteer with any organization understand the balancing act it takes to juggle a full-time career, family commitments, and volunteer contributions. A common experience is that you receive an agenda of several hundred pages a few days prior to a meeting. You’re expected to digest everything in that package and be ready to discuss issues from an informed viewpoint. For those volunteering on governance boards, this typically happens four or five times a year. For those serving on some of APEGA’s statutory boards, it’s happening every month — and
Self-regulation is a powerful model. Canada is fortunate to have a system that so fully supports the standards, ethics, and qualifi- cations required of professionals to manage — in the public interest — their work, their careers, their teams, and all of their other business activities. In the early days of self-regulation, engineers banded together to create a system of ensuring professional oversight in the delivery of engineering services. It was based on a cooperative of volunteers, through which Professional Engineers would donate their time and resources to ensure that the public would be protected. The numbers were small in those days and the community closely tied. It included geoscientists, who eventually emerged with their own professions (and then a single profession) under the same regulatory umbrella. Today, the number of Members has increased significantly. The regulatory space has also increased, to include corporate practice and continuing professional development. Although the concept of self-regulation is still sound, it is time to rethink the manner by which we self-regulate. It is impossible to calculate the amount of time and effort that volunteers have given to the professions. APEGA currently enjoys the contributions of about 1,500 active volunteers. Some of them have been actively volunteering for over 40 years. Some of them work 15 to 20 hours a week to ensure that people applying to the professions are suitably competent. That’s right — 15 to 20 hours per week.
6 | PEG SUMMER 2015
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