As your representative it is my job to keep you informed about what is happening locally and nationally as it affects our ability to do business in California.

California is unique among the rest of the states, in the United States. It is the only state that has a statute that supports multi exams; the NKBA Certification Exams, the NCIDQ , the CQRID and the CCRE codes exam. They are all mandated by the existing certifying board (CCIDC). The CCIDC is a private board that oversees the certification of Interior Designers.

The reason all of this is so important for our Association is that if legislation is passed that limits who can practice design it will affect not only the kitchen and bath designers but any business that employees anyone who provides design services for that company.

There are two legislative coalitions in CA. The CLCID (CA Legislative Coalition for Interior Design) and the IDCC (Interior Design Coalition of CA) at this time NKBA CA Capitol Chapter is supporting and is a member of CLCID. CLCID is the only coalition in CA that supports the existing statute.

In the United States 24 states have Title Acts, of which CA is one, and 4 states have practice acts. At this time there are 19 coalitions working on Title an Practice Acts throughout the United States

Besides attending the CLCID Board meetings I also attend national meetings on legislation and the Architectural Board Hearings as they pertain to interior design. I have recently been elected to serve on the Legislative Advisory Council for NKBA from January 2008 – December 2010. This will help our chapter to be as informed as possible about pending legislation that can affect our members.

For more information please check out the following web sites:

NKBA Legislation: www.nkba.org. Scroll down to NKBA legislation for our purpose, why it is important, proposed laws and the national position on legislation.

NKBA Legislative website: www.capwiz.com/nkba. This website keeps us up to date with current legislation in all states and sends out legislative alerts.

CLCID website: www.clcid.org

CA Legislators website: www.leginfo.ca.gov

CCIDC website: www.ccidc.com California Council for Interior Design Certification. This site has a lot of great info and a link to other sites that might be pertinent to our members.

What is our purpose?

The NKBA works to monitor legislation and protect the rights of our members to practice their profession. Additionally, the NKBA works to keep members apprised of legislation and regulations that may impact their business.

One of the primary areas of focus is on efforts by interior design coalitions seeking to regulate the profession of interior design through legislation.

Why is this important to us?

While NKBA Members do not generally call themselves "interior designers," the broad definition of interior design contained in these proposed laws clearly covers the services and work that our Members perform on a daily basis. Our Members would therefore be regulated by these laws.

What are the proposed laws?

There are generally two types of interior design legislation which we are concerned about:

Title Act: A title act regulates the use of a title such as "Certified Interior Designer," "Registered Interior Designer" or, in some cases, even the term "Interior Designer" itself. Although a title act does not prevent anyone from offering interior design services, only those who have been licensed by the State can use the regulated term.

Practice Act: This type of regulation is much more restrictive and actually prohibits unlicensed persons from practicing interior design. As noted above, the kitchen and bath services that our members provide fall within the broad definition of "interior design" as defined in the law.

The NKBA's National Position

The NKBA opposes any legislation which would limit the right of the public to obtain the expertise of a kitchen and/or bath professional and infringe upon the right of NKBA members to practice their profession without penalty.

Legislative Website

NKBA has developed a website which is dedicated to legislation and regulatory matters of interest to our members. It enables our Legislative Department to communicate directly with our members and send them legislative alerts and calls to action to target specific state legislators who are involved in legislation impacting our members. The website may be accessed by clicking on the following link: www.capwiz.com/nkba