NEHA Green Book

60

Registration. The task force drafted a new "Proposed Act for the Registration of Sanitarians" which significantly revised the earlier Model Act, incorporated concerns expressed in sunset legislation, and was intended as a state guide. The following year, NEHA President Boyd Marsh appointed Stuart Richardson, Jr. of California to chair a task force to study all the information, reports and recommen­ dations on Sanitarian Registration and to develop a policy and direction for NEHA. The Executive Committee, at the 1962 annual meeting in New Orleans, approved the task force report and received Board of Directors approval of the report and the essen­ tial provisions in it. This action changed the NEHA Registration activity significantly. It abolished the Registration Committee and created a five member Credentialing Board to carry on national registration. The Board was to consist of 1) the NEHA Executive Director or an assignee, as a nonvoting member; 2) one member from the faculty of a college or university having a curriculum leading to a degree in environmental health; 3) one public member who has not worked in environmental health for at least five years; 4) two currently registered and practicing sanitarians; and 5) one representative from a state registration program. The Board's functions were to set credentialing standards, approve state programs, and make credentialing (registration) available to persons in states where there were no programs (or were minimal programs). The Board was also to address registration renewal which had been under consideration for several years. The Credentialing Board appointed by NEHA President, Dr. Trenton G. Davis (1982-83) were: Dr. Creg Bishop, Tennessee; Stuart Richardson, Jr., California; Seldon Carsey, Ohio; F. Phillip Ward, South Carolina; Dr. Catherine Cline, New York City, as the public member. Sam Stephenson, Michigan (with several years experience on the Registration Council) was appointed by NEHA' s Acting Administrator, Ida Marshall, as her assignee to serve as chairman ex-officio. The Credentialing Board, in its report to the 1983 Board of Directors meeting in Norfolk, Virginia, defined credentialing as relating to registration and certification. "In this context, registration and certification referred to non-governmental approval of personnel meeting qualifications specified by the professional association for environmental health. Such qualifications shall include completion of an accredited training program and successful performance in an examination administered by the professional group." They recommended that the National Environmental Health Association's Board of Directors authorize the Executive Office to engage in appropriate credentialing practices as defined by the National Board for Credentialing Environmental Health Practitioners. Further action concluded that registration be provided to all applicants, whether members of NEHA or not, upon submission of an appropriate application and creden­ tials, and passing the appropriate national examination with a score of 75% , minus one standard deviation. Recommended fees were established for NEHA members to include all expenses incurred by the Association in administering the program, and higher fees for nonmembers (by the amount of membership). The rationale behind the differential was that members, by virtue of their dues payment, support the National Environmental Health Association, and that without such an organization, appropriate credentialing practices would not be established. The Credentialing Board further recommended that in states where Registration had been eliminated voluntarily or "sunsetted," registration would be provided to •

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