85 The Council consists of 21 nationally recognized environmental health professionals with at least five years experience and who are providers, educators, or employers engaged in the delivery of environmental health services. Those who served on the Council at its outset were Richard L. Roberts, Chairman; Michael Sanford, vice president; Justus Baird, secretary; Francis J. Goldsmith; V. Harry Adrounie; James J. Brinda; Richard F. Clapp; Jacques Faigenblum; John 0. Fish; J. Lloyd Grannan; James Hensley; Morton W. Hilbert; John J. McHugh; William McQueen; Dr. Monroe T. Morgan; Paul Pate; Dr. Eldon P. Savage; Charles L. Senn; Harry Steigman; Joseph W. Walsh, Jr. and Dr. William G. Walter.
Criteria and Guidelines
The Council adopted criteria and guidelines for continuing education units adopted by the national body known as the Council on the Continuing Education Unit, which defines a CEU as " ... 10 contact hours of participation; in an organized continuing education experience; under responsible sponsorship, capable direction and qualified instruction.'' In accordance with the Council's adopted charter and accepted national criteria and guidelines, the Council has authority to certify one unit or more of continuing educa tion for each 10 hours of course contact time and to maintain a permanent cumulative record for sanitarians and other environmental health practitioners who participate. Participants receive a certificate acknowledging CEU credit upon successful comple tion of the course. Transcripts of their CEU credit are maintained for at least 20 years and are available upon request.
Administration
To carry out the Council's business, a contract was negotiated with the Health Officers Association of California (HOAC) in late 1980. Rigid but practical procedures were established to 1) certify meaningful continuing education programs for the members of the profession; 2) maintain transcripts and confer recognition on those individuals successfully completing Council-certified continuing education programs, and 3) promote the need for continuing education programs and encourage professional environmental health workers to pursue them. Under HOAC's administration, quality procedures, forms, accounting and recordkeep ing were established. Dr. William G. Walter was appointed as chairman of the Certification committee that certified the proposed courses as meeting the council's criteria. Although HOAC was successful in administering the Council's activities, at the 1981 meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, the Council made the decision to explore with NEHA the possibility of taking over management to facilitate centralization of all educational, training, and continuing education activities for the environmental health practitioner. The NEHA Executive Committee agreed with the concept and established a task force to study how it might be accomplished. The Task Force met during the APHA meeting in Los Angeles in 1982, and in a report to the NEHA Executive Committee dated January 4, 1983, NEHA President Trenton Davis indicated mutual agreement that NEHA would be the proper organization to administer the Council's functions. With NEHA Board of Directors approval, the final transition was accomplished in late 1983.
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