The purpose of this information is to provide a process for any ASME Knowledge and Community Section unit to organize an ASME Event that provides Professional Development Hour (PDH) credits.  All K&C units intending to run or participate in ASME sponsored PDH events must comply with schedules and approval requirements contained herein.

Overview of PDH Credits at ASME
A third of ASME memberships are PEs. Offering a PDH event at your section will add membership value by facilitating PE continuing education. By planning to issue certificates at the completion of your event, if a participant preregisters, you will have better control of finances and post event volunteer effort.

Promote PDH Event indicating hours earned: A PDH is defined as one contact hour of instruction, presentation or study. The term PDH is commonly used in the engineering community.

The maximum PDH for a seminar that starts at 8 a.m. and ends at 5 p.m. with an hour lunch is eight (8). Short breaks are permissible as long as a minimum of 50 minutes of presentation/participation/study per hour is undertaken. If there are no breaks, or there are breaks of less than 10 minutes per hour, no additional time may be claimed.

PDH cannot exceed the actual contact clock hours. Round off PDH to the nearest half hour. No activity under a half hour will be accepted for credit. For example, a qualifying activity of 30 to 49 minutes would be reported as 0.5 PDH and an activity of 50 to 70 minutes would be reported as 1.0 PDH. PDH is sometimes called PDU (Professional Development Unit).

ASME is approved as an Authorized Provider by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET).

How to Obtain Your PDH Credits
Please review the information and associated appendices below for specific information on how to obtain your PDH credits.

• Review Appendix I - Definition of PDH, LU and CEU for more information on each.
  
  
• Prepare Appendix II - PDH Certificate Template for distribution to attendees, at the completion of the event (ideally at the event). A certificate of completion should contain the following information.

(a) title of the course or program, subject area, and any identification number assigned to it by the provider,

(b) number of hours completed,

(c) the sponsor’s name and any identifying number,

(d) verification by the sponsor of your attendance, and

(e) the date and location of the course or activity.

• At the completion of the event, send the completed Appendix III - Attendance Input Form (Recording PDH Credits) to ASME using the Volunteer E-Request Tool. ASME will retain the event attendance records for 7 years.
  
  
• Appendix IV - Personal Record of PDH's is an optional document, and may be used as a possible handout.
  
  
• For information by state, please review Appendix V - State PDH Requirements.