FSEA March 2025 Newsletter 
Remarks From Our President
Hello Structural Engineers and Affiliates,
I am honored to return as your FSEA State President and hope your year is progressing successfully. It's remarkable how quickly the first quarter of 2025 has passed.
Structural Engineering Shortage
There have been concerns regarding whether Florida has enough structural engineers to manage the anticipated influx of building recertification projects. However, I am confident our existing structural engineering firms will successfully handle the increased workload, which presents an excellent opportunity for industry growth and new job creation, particularly for early-career engineers. The State Board remains committed to collaborating with local SE chapters to foster interest among civil engineering students in our state’s colleges and universities.
Legislative Updates
Each legislative session, we closely monitor bills impacting our profession, including those related to licensure, engineering statutes and regulations, and architectural laws. Through collaboration with FES, FICE, and AIA, we actively ensure legislative actions align positively with our professional interests. Recent legislative discussions have included:
· Potential elimination of qualifications-based selection for state-funded projects.
· Consideration of sunsetting engineering licensure.
While both proposals were halted, we anticipate they may resurface, and we will remain vigilant.
FRSE Designation
The Florida Registered Structural Engineer (FRSE) designation, established through considerable effort by FSEA, is now actively in use. We encourage your feedback—positive or negative—regarding your experiences with the designation.
Visit https://fbpe.org/licensure/structural-engineering-recognition-program/ for more information and to download the application.
S.E. Licensure
Currently, there is minimal legislative support in the House for a specific Structural Engineering (SE) license. Should we decide to pursue this further, significant fundraising and lobbying efforts will be necessary. Your perspectives on the necessity of an SE license in Florida are highly valuable; please share your thoughts at here.
NCSEA
Al Spada, Executive Director of NCSEA, will attend our upcoming FSEA Board meeting in Tampa on April 24th. The recent NCSEA summit in Las Vegas was highly successful, and the next summit will take place in New York from October 13th to 17th. We encourage your participation. Additionally, the NCSEA Leadership Meeting in Chicago this June will include our delegate Tom Grogan. Please forward any national-level issues to him for discussion. Tom will also assume the presidency of the NCSEA Foundation in June, a foundation dedicated to supporting our profession; more details will follow in future communications.
Continuing Education
The State Board is planning our annual continuing education session, typically held in the fall. Specific course details will be announced in August—stay tuned for updates.
Membership
The FSEA continues to make significant contributions to our profession, supported by dedicated volunteers who invest considerable time advocating for structural engineers. Your continued membership is essential and appreciated. Additionally, please encourage colleagues who have not yet joined to visit https://flsea.com/form.php?form_id=8 and become members to further strengthen our collective influence.
Engineering Florida Magazine
This is a relatively new magazine which contains articles related to our profession. It is co-authored by FES, FICE, ASCE, and FSEA and is published quarterly. It is the brainchild of Scott Martin, former FSEA President and Past President of ACEC Florida. You should be receiving a copy of this magazine as a member of FSEA. Each issue has a section dedicated to each of the organizations listed above. If you have an article on structural engineering, a project you would like highlighted or a suggestion for an article on a topic which would be of interest please contact David Fusco, FSEA’s representative on the editorial board.
Acknowledgements
Douglas Wood: Recently retired, Doug served on the FSEA South Florida Board since the 1990s and the State Board for many years. His outstanding dedication and service to FSEA are greatly appreciated
Andrew Lovenstein: Congratulations to Andy on his recent election to the NCSEA Board of Directors!