Be Careful What You Read

Wow.  I just scanned the certification resources housed in ASAE's knowledge center.  There's a lot of good stuff there; however, I found some garbage too.  I guess the message is this: Just because you read it in a source of an organization you trust, be careful, because most newsletters and magazines count on volunteer authors and not all those willing to write are experts! 

The information in bold below is taken verbatim from on-line resources. I didn't cite the source because it's not my intention to call anybody out, just to correct some bad advice out there.

Bad advice #1: "Require all members to apply for the professional designation."

Okay, it may be possible to justify a certification as a membership qualification if your association is just that - a membership society of certified individuals.  But, other than that - bad idea.  Can you say "tying arrangement"?   Be careful.

Bad advice #2:  "A certain class of members--for example, individuals older than 65, might be grandfathered in and exempted from future requirements."

If you want to design a special designation for retired individuals, fine - but it should be clearly distinct from your original designation so that the public can distinguish who is meeting your ongoing recertification requirements and who isn't.  That's very different from grandfathering.  Here's a past post on retiree class that goes into more detail.

Bad advice #3:  "Unlike product or services certification programs, where the association vouches for the quality of the items and therefore may incur liability, professional certification programs pose little risk if properly structured."

What?  Just like product or services certification (or accreditation), personnel certification does vouch for the quality of the individual and does incur liability.  Proceeding without legal review of key policies, procedures and communications and appropriate insurance coverage is irresponsible.

Unfortunately, there's plenty more bad advice to correct...on another day.  In the meantime, be careful what you read.