Ethics: Or, That Little Grey Area You Need to Pay Attention to.

The professional soil scientist is pulled in many directions in their daily work.  Many times those items on the day’s “To Do” list don’t get completed because other issues popped up that needed to be taken care of or were more of a priority.  The life of many professional soil scientists is fast-paced, has long hours, and can tend to be a little over-whelming at times.  Between the demands of clients, staff, marketing, proposals, contracts, field work and billing it is sometimes difficult to have time for lunch.  With this type of schedule, one might ask where thinking about ethics and appropriate conduct fits in.  You signed a Code of Ethics when you became licensed or certified.  Have you looked at it since?  Do you remember what it says?  Do you follow it? Are you sure?  Ethics tends to be, at times, a grey area in our professional lives and a review of professional ethics is useful from time to time.  Many state licensing boards and the Soils Certifying Board have recognized that continuing education should include an ethics course.  This talk will review the general contents common to a variety of ethics codes and will provide some examples when situations dictate that a professional needs to be cognizant of the Code of Ethics as well as the ramifications should that code be violated.  This presentation will fulfill the requirement for 1 CEU as part of the continuing education program for national certification as a CPSS/CPSC as well as many licensing states, however, licensed individuals should check with the appropriate state statute/rule to determine the requirements in those states.