Continuing Professional Development Committee By Mark Dailey, BCLS Chair, Continuing Professional Development Committee
W
inter tends to be one of the quieter times of the year for the CPD Committee, as the months of planning and arranging presenters for the AGM CPD program have been completed and the final arrangements for the event are tidied up. This year, the necessary shift to a virtual platform for the CPD program added a level of complexity to the planning. Rather than worrying about the usual issues associated with a large gathering of several hundred people, the focus in the weeks prior to the AGM this year was a technical run through with all the presenters with the ultimate aim of being able to run two days of high-quality webinars. But perhaps that brings us now to the issue at the heart of the matter: the pandemic has only slightly improved in British Columbia, and while there is some light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, we still have a long way to go before we will once again be able to gather in large numbers. Whilst 2020 was naturally a difficult year for the committee to plan events, so long as the current public health measures remain in effect, we know that we will have to continue to look for alternative learning resources for the time being. Fortunately, from a planning perspective it makes things a little easier. Planning the AGM CPD program is always a large undertaking, but the virtual CPD program has worked in our favour when contacting
prospective speakers over the past several months. It has been a lot easier to ask presenters to commit a few hours of their time in front of their computer, rather than a much larger time commitment of several days including associated travel time. The pandemic and associated public health orders have ushered most of us to use platforms like Zoom and MS Teams to conduct certain areas of business. This trend has been noted by the committee, and as a result we are interested if the preferences of our members regarding the delivery of ABCLS CPD offerings have changed since the start of the pandemic. As we do every year after the AGM, an online survey is circulated to our membership for their feedback. One of the questions included in this year’s survey asks whether members prefer ABCLS CPD offerings in either virtual (online) or in-person formats. Your participation and comments are extremely valuable and will help the committee plan future CPD events. Likewise, we have also seen other ABCLS events move to the online environment over the past year. The adaptation of the Getting it Right BC (GIRBC) fundamentals program
and associated modules for online learning is an exciting development for the delivery of our own in-house CPD programs. Moving to a virtual platform is hugely beneficial in terms of accessibility and convenience, especially for our members who live and work outside of the major urban centres of the province. Pandemic or not, we still have an obligation to fulfill our 45-hour CPD requirement every three years. Certain CPD events, at least for the time being, will be easier to access through online events and courses. Outside of the ABCLS, GeoEd Canada remains an extremely valuable and convenient learning resource with webinars and courses covering a wide range of topics. The committee continues to keep in contact with other provincial and federal surveying associations for applicable and relevant CPD events for our own members. As always, any new CPD events will be communicated to the membership via the ABCLS Update biweekly e-newsletter. Finally, there is an update regarding the CPD Committee itself. Towards the end of last year, we decided that we would like to add a new member to our busy committee. I am pleased to report that Carl Bjarnason, BCLS #1009 was recently appointed to the committee, and we look forward to the contributions that Carl will make during his time of service. ✥
the LINK | April 2021
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