In a 9-0 vote, the California Board for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors approved the adoption of the new 16-hour NCEES Structural Engineering Examination for use in licensing structural engineers in California beginning in April 2011.  The vote came at the April 15, 2009 meeting of the board (see minutes). The vote came after arguing that developing the 8-hour California state-specific examination currently costs between $2,000 and $3,000 per candidate.  The current 8-hour NCEES SE II examination costs the Board $800 per examination.  For applicants, this is likely a welcome development as it enhances uniformity nationwide and removes a convenient excuse to deny comity applications.

At Structures Congress 2007 in Long Beach, there were two interesting presentations given under the Business Practices track:

• Status of Structural Engineering Practice Acts Nationally, by Sam Rihani of Fairfax, VA, and
• The Structural Engineering Certification Program by Ronald O. Hamburger of San Francisco, CA.

Below are some of the highlights from each of the presentations: