update December 19th:

The Texas Sunset Advisory Commission voted AGAINST deregulating Registered Interior Designers.  Texas RID’s are safe for at least 12 more years UNLESS the deregulation bill proposed by Texas State Representative Bill Callegari (see below) makes it to the floor in Austin and by miracle is passed. STAY TUNED

PROFESSIONALINTERIORDESIGNER is trying to stay on top of the effort to deregulate interior design in Texas….which from the middle of Kansas is easier said than done.  If I get any of this wrong please let me know.

Here is the latest update from the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission;

http://www.sunset.state.tx.us/83rd/eng/eng_dm.pdf
Here from page #20 o is the key sentence “Staff Recommended Action
Adopt Recommendations 1.1 through 1.4.”

I am not a rocket surgeon but I read that as…despite overwhelming and compelling requests/testimony to deny the Advisory Commission’s recommendation to deregulate interior design in Texas, the Commission is still hell bent on making it happen.  NOT COOL.

To make matters worse Texas State Representative Bill Callegari is on the warpath to roll back state regulation of all sorts…including interior design;

http://www.house.state.tx.us/news/press-releases/?id=4129&session=82&district=132&bill_code=2295

So Texas Registered Interior Designers…..the sun is getting lower on your horizon.

THE HEAT IS OFF…..UNTIL THE TEXAS LEGISLATURE OPENS ITS 2013 SESSION

Scanning through the list of those who support sunset deregulation of interior design and those who speak against it amongst the usual interior decorator cum designers and NKBA extremists, PROFESSIONALINTERIORDESIGNER notes several ASID and NCIDQ members in support of the Advisory Commission’s recommendation to deregulate ID.  Those members should be stripped of their credentials.  You could say that the ASID credential is conflicted and compromised. That organization clearly tries to play both sides of the ID regulation coin and in so doing is tacitly promoting the bi-polar identity crisis we continue to suffer . But for somebody to sign in support of ID deregulation with the NCIDQ credential (displayed incorrectly I might add) is tantamount to treason….in my not so humble opinion.

Now on the third side of the professional identity/allegiance coin PROFESSIONALINTERIORDESIGNER also notes numerous AIA members signing to protest the Advisory Commission’s recommendation to deregulate ID. This flies in the face of their own professional organizations very public position to deregulate interior design.  So is it acceptable to put money in the offering basket while practicing sinful acts?  (rhetorical question- I know the answer but had to work in the religion angle just for grins)

While I vehemently support the regulation of interior designers that allows them to practice as peers with, or independent of, other licensed design professionals I must reiterate that keeping all of our professional validation cookies in Uncle Sam’s regulatory basket is a poor strategic business decision.  We must take control of policing our own professional society first and foremost. Once we have clearly defined our value to society and justified our right to be considered peers with other licensed design professional then, and only then, will we be granted the right to be regulated unfettered by the whims of conservative partisan political dogma.

More on this political conundrum and what it means for us later.