3.03.2010

The Home Stretch - 5529 Passes the House

Today, March 3, ESSB 5529, the architects licensing bill, was passed out of the House unanimously. The 98-0 vote is proof of the broad support this legislation now has.

Due to the efforts of many AIA members who have contacted their legislators, and responded to our action alerts with calls and emails, ESSB 5529 now stands a good chance at passage this year!

Now the bill will return to the Senate for concurrence. The Senate may concur with the amendments proposed by the House, negotiate alternative language or the bill will end up in dispute.

If agreement cannot be reached on a bill in dispute, a conference committee consisting of members from both chambers can be appointed and, eventually, a conference committee report prepared. If the report is approved by the Senate and the bill is passed, then it may be considered by the House.

At this point, the report for the bill is either accepted or denied. If accepted, it moves on to the governor’s desk to be signed into law.

The deadline for concurrence is this Thursday, March 11.

This is important legislation for state architects. It has been 25 years since changes have been made to WA architectural licensing laws but in the meantime new technologies and modern practice methods have significantly changed the practice. This legislation will clean up confusing provisions, update qualifications standards, and simplify corporate registration.

Please look for an email update on the status of this significant bill, and other highlights from the 2010 Legislative Session, at the end of this week.

1 comment:

  1. As a prospective IDP intern (have to get the employment before I can start.)

    Under the current law, I can start now. I am concern about a couple things. One is having 12 or 15 years experience. Sounds a little over the top. The 9 years experience sounds reasonable. Just a year more then current. ok. I can accept that.

    What concerns me with is waiting 6 years of working with an Architect before I can start IDP. This means 6 years of almost always - pigeon holed into just being a CAD drafter (CAD monkey) or even lower and less relevant work experience like an office janitor. Not helpful, really. Also, internship often takes more then 3 years to complete the IDP training hours for a myriad of real life reasons. So, I would recommend that the 6 years before one can start IDP to be dropped as the current laws already allow. But one may not start ARE until after completing the required 8 or 9 years work experience. On average IDP takes between 5-10 years to fulfill all the training hours.

    However, the 8 or 9 years would be based on full time work experience. Although IDP would be 5600 Training Hours or credit of 3 years of the 8 or 9 years experience, it will account for many hours of additional work experience within the office which you can not use for IDP training hours in the respective training area because you used up all the hours in that training area. One of the common themes. Often interns will get lots and lots of CAD time but some of the office management and other experiences are rare to come by in real life and many Architects will not let you (the intern) get some of those experience until several years of experience and that you have more then just CAD drafting experience behind you.

    The idea would promote structured work experience and learning from the start. It also fosters from the start between the employee (intern) and the Employer - the understanding that the intern seeks diverse work experience and learning and IDP provides a structure for that.

    IDP is a really a sophisticated form of On the Job training sometimes called Apprenticeship. In most occupation, (regardless of duration) is structured to some degree from the start. Most work places that provide OJT has some form of structured training that all employees must have. IDP is a structured apprenticeship (internship) for OJT to train the intern to become an architect and prepare them for licensure.

    I would encourage the principle to start those on the Experience without NAAB degree to start IDP right off the bat. Letting the workplace work out the details and promotion of outside work learning (self-study & other forms of learning).

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