ARPL Gets Professional Message Out

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Summer may have been slow for some, but the Alliance for Responsible Professional Licensing (ARPL) has been hard at work telling legislators “Responsible Licensing Matters” and “One Size Does Not Fit All” when it comes to highly complex and technical professions. Prior to the National Conference of State Legislators’ (NCSL) Legislative Summit, August 5-8 in Nashville, ARPL reached 82,000 individuals on Facebook and 15,000 individuals on Twitter with these messages. This campaign represented the ARPL’s first launch of the professional licensing brand to the target audience of legislators and legislative aides.

ARPL is a coalition of professional industry groups representing CPAs, architects, surveyors, landscape architects, engineering professions and their licensing board counterparts. Layle Nelson, Senior Vice President of CRAFT, the digital agency working for ARPL, addressed NASBA’s 2019 June Eastern and Western Regional Meetings. As she explained at that time, “There is a debate taking place regarding licensing and the extent to which licensing is needed to protect the public, and it’s critical for policymakers and the public to understand how licensing can help protect the public trust and public safety if done right.”

During the September 11-13, 2019 Occupational Licensing Multi-State Consortium Meeting, presented by NCSL in partnership with the National Governors Association and the Council of State Governments, the message will again be reaching the legislators via a panel session to include spokespeople who are opposed to licensing regulation as well as those supporting it: “Mitigating Unintended Consequences” will feature a speaker from the Nevada Building and Construction Trades Council, one from the Institute for Justice, and AICPA Vice President – State Regulation and Legislation Skip Braziel representing ARPL.

Also in September, Boards of Accountancy will be receiving a list of other ARPL partner contacts. The intent of this list is to help Boards connect with ARPL organizations in their state who are also working to promote a responsible, balanced approach to professional licensing.

“Broad-brush attempts to weaken or undermine licensing requirements threaten to sweep up advanced professions like accounting, jeopardizing the fiscal integrity of the work our professionals do,” NASBA President and CEO Ken Bishop commented.

Information about ARPL and the importance of professional licensing can be found on http://www.responsiblelicensing.org. Questions about the coalition’s efforts should be directed to NASBA Legislative and Governmental Affairs Director John Johnson ([email protected]).