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Your Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Form - Tips and Hints

By Todd McCracken, P.Geo. - Chair, CPD Sub-committee

The Continuing Professional Development (CPD) subcommittee has completed the audits of the 2006 Continuing Professional Development forms.  The APGO and the CPD subcommittee would like to thank all those who participated in the audit process.  APGO member submissions showed dedication to the profession, ingenuity and commitment to their community.

The general consensus from members contacted following the audit process was that the process was neither as complicated nor as onerous as they initially thought it to be.  The APGO through the CPD subcommittee and with the continued involvement of members will continue to improve the program.  

A collection of common ‘pitfalls’, omissions, and helpful hints gleaned from the audit process are compiled below.  Also appended are a few of the creative and interesting as well as eligible activities submitted by members.  The CPD subcommittee hopes that these tips and hints will make completing future CPD forms an even easier task. The next CPD filing for members is due on or before June 30, 2008!

General Tips

  • Ensure that you select proper cycle year in cell E7 on the ‘Your Profile’ tab.  This will place the CPD hours in the proper columns on your declaration form.
  • Enter information only in the white coloured cells.  Formulas are located in the coloured cells that are designed to assist with calculating the proper CPD hours.
  • Claim the maximum hours in each category should you have enough or excess hours for the category.   Do not save or ‘bank” hours for the following year.  The carryover, which is generated automatically, should be used for this purpose.
  • Claim hours only for a single calendar year.
  • Fill out the full name of Organizations the first time it is used in the forms.  Only use acronyms after the full name has been stated.
  • If the CPD form is downloaded from the APGO website with your web-browser security settings set too high, the spreadsheet macros (designed to calculate such things as carry-forward hours, etc.) will be disabled. This can lead to the overwriting of cells containing formulas and a resulting error in the tabulation of your CPD hours.  

Professional Practice

  • Ensure that hours claimed in the Professional Practice tab are not also claimed in any other category.
  • Claim all hours, not just ‘billable’ hours when employed in the consulting field.

Formal Training

  • Hours claimed in this category are not required to be from formal educational institutions.
  • Hours claimed in this category require a certificate of completion.

Other Educational Activities

  • Annual safety training is acceptable within this category.
  • Attending local talks should be claimed in this category.
  • Mentoring, either being mentored or mentoring others should be added to this category.

Participation

  • Do not forget to include your APGO membership in the lower portion of this tab under the heading “Current Professional/Sectoral/Learned Association and Society Memberships”.
  • Include other geoscience, support industry and learned memberships in this area.
  • Claim hours spent on APGO committees, other volunteer APGO work and volunteer work for geoscience or other organizations.
  • Attendance at conferences or seminars should be claimed in this category. 
  • Participation within the community is encouraged and should be claimed in this category (see examples from 2006 CPD submissions below).

Presentations

  • Do not claim presentations that are part of your normal work routine (Daily, Weekly, or Monthly updates).
  • Claim presentations that are outside the realm of your normal work routine.  For example a presentation at: another company, at an Annual General Meeting (AGM), at a conference, and, in-house presentations that are beyond the normal scope.
  • Ensure that the hours required to prepare the presentation are included.
  • When claiming hours for giving a presentation at a conference, ensure that you also claim the hours you spent at the conference under the Participation category.

Contribution to Knowledge

  • There are maximums for the various types of papers.  The CPD hours for the different types of papers are indicated at the top left of the tab on the spreadsheet.

Interesting (& Valid) CPD Hours and Applicable Category Submitted in 2006

  • Big Brother/Big Sister – Participation
  • Lacrosse Coach for a local team – Participation
  • Technical Reading – Other Educational Activity
  • Historical Site Preservation Committee – Participation
  • Articles written for an in-house newsletter – Participation

For more information on APGO, please contact info@apgo.net

Delivery Notice: This newsletter is issued 6 times per year to all APGO members. Non-members may also subscribe and receive the newsletter with access to non-member-only content. For more information, please see www.apgo.net.

Field Notes is published by APGO and is edited by Wendy Diaz, P.Geo. If you have comments or wish to contribute material to this newsletter, please contact Wendy Diaz, P.Geo., or Andrea Waldie, P.Geo., Executive Director/Registar.

Copyright 2007, Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario (APGO)