Here we go again...yet another honest state succumbs to the education establishment.  At least, that is all I can figure out about this whole situation...as the old saying goes, "Follow the money". 

Who else benefits from requiring thousands of professionals to spend 12 to 18 hours a year at pricy seminars costing as much as $1000 a day?  It is surely not the professional or the client that benefit!  I cannot help but notice that in every state this law is enacted, true self study (a.k.a. buy a book and read it), which is most beneficial because it can be intimately adapted to the individual's situation, is always excluded.  Only expensive seminars or "home study" courses are accepted.  What if the topics don't apply?  How can pre-arranged topics possibly be expected to match the diversity of engineering experience year after year...to the tune of 12 to 18 hours a year...over a 40-year career?

Then there is the problem of policing this policy.  Who decides if a one-hour pump seminar during lunch is appropriate training for a civil engineer?  It is a mess!  Why go there?

Besides all this, what is the reason for subjecting the professional community to this distraction?  What disaster has precipitated this call-to-arms?  Despite the myth presented on the cover of ASCE magazine's January 2008 edition, there is no crisis.  Unlike the 1970's when thing were falling down every week (or so it seemed), today a failure makes the news because it is so rare.  Plus news programs (and professional magazines) love them because they are so dramatic...and draw attention to messenger! 

Finally, because other states have gone this way, Virginia is already getting "continuing education" by virtue of multiple state registrations.  I am registered in 8 states...and if one of them requires it, then all receive the benefit, whether they require it or not.  So why should Virginia go the wasted cost and effort to invoke this measure when the intent is generally being accomplished already?  Speaking of cost, when states develop this program, generally the professional fees go up to cover enforcement.  This is just not a fair situation!  However, it is a good way to run off your professionals and ensure that you have a smaller pool from which to draw when you need them most.

Summary:  the proposal is silly, unnecessary, self-serving, expensive, and will actually have the opposite result of lowering the professional standard in Virginia by running off good engineers that do not have time for such costly foolishness.