Tuesday, May 14 Colorado Licensure Interest / Kick-off Meeting (In-person and Teams option)
Members of the Colorado geology community are mobilizing again to develop policy and a strong case of evidence for the need to have registration of geologists through a state licensing board. Sean Sundermann, Principal, Golden Geotechnics, Inc. will lead a meeting on Tuesday, May 14 to hear the geo-community’s thoughts on this initiative, input to the legislation, and to solicit evidence for a legislator handout. During the meeting we hope to identify specific projects that can be used to develop our case that show a poor geologic understanding resulting from project investigators without appropriate geologic training led to potential harm to the public health, safety and welfare. We are also interested in public projects that had a significant impact to public’s financial welfare or impact to the environment due to poor geologic understanding that would have benefitted from a licensed professional geologist’s involvement.

The aim of the legislation is two-fold. The first statute will: 1) define a professional geologist and the minimum requirements for licensure, including formal education, passage of competency examination(s) and years of practical experience, and 2) create a Board of Licensure for Professional Geologists (most likely will be incorporated under the board for architects, engineers and land surveyors). The second statute will reinstate the Colorado statute that any geologic report or portion of a report which incorporates, or is based on, a geologic study or on geologic data, required by municipal, county, state or federal laws, ordinances or regulations, shall be prepared by or under the supervision of a licensed professional geologist.

The current draft legislation has both a healthy exemption for mining, petroleum exploration and development, federal employees, research or teachers, and a grandfather clause that exempts the written examination for geologists residing in Colorado that meet the other requirements for a period of one year.

We value your time and expertise and hope the Colorado geologic community will participate in this discussion and provide us with valuable input to the initiative. Dinner will be provided, reservations not needed, but please email Sean Sundermann at [email protected] to let him know if you are planning to attend. Questions or comments? Please contact Sean.

May 14, 2024 licensure discussion details: 
Tuesday, May 14, 2024
6-8 pm
Berthoud Hall, Room 243 (Building 7 on this map of campus; 243 is the flat classroom where the geology museum used to be and where we held Student Night last year)
Colorado School of Mines
1516 Illinois Street, Golden CO 80401 (Google map)
Pizza and non-alcoholic beverages provided
Parking: Mines parking restrictions are not enforced after 5 pm, so free parking is available on the street and and in the red and blue areas on this map of campus. A few handicap spaces are available in the small parking lots behind Guggenheim Hall (between the Student Center and Guggenheim Hall, on Maple Street) and on the south-ish side of Berthoud.
If attending via Teams:
Microsoft Teams Link
Meeting ID: 215 087 936 268
Passcode: sNy49e