Okay, so those aren’t my words, I promise! Rather, it’s the subject of the upcoming Certification Institute Summit being held October 13-14 in DC. Here’s the session description: In this intense, two-day session we will take an in-depth look at executive-board relationships and what it takes to forge a highly effective partnership between the board and executive leaders as well as with staff, volunteers and vendors. We will address those hard questions about what it…

Retired certificants aren’t usually considered in policy-making…at least until a huge portion of the pool is about to retire. Organizations logically fear the financial implications of losing a large portion of certificants. That’s understandable, but not a good enough reason to jump on the certification retired classification bandwagon. There are many issues here that need to be considered. First and foremost, organizations should have a policy covering use of the designation and associated acronym, and…

Two more organizations have been accredited under ANSI’s Certificate Accreditation Program (ANSI-CAP): National Apartment Association Education Institute for its Certificate for Apartment Maintenance Technician (CAMT) The National Graduate School of Quality Management for its Homeland Security Certificate, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Certificate, and Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certificate I love Robert Gee’s (president and founder of The National Graduate School) quote: “Our work with ANSI on the accreditation of our Homeland Security and…

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has been recognized as an approved accreditor of crane operator certification programs by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of the U.S. Department of Labor. Under the new OSHA rule to address the safety of cranes and derricks used in construction, all crane operator certification bodies must be accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting entity. According to statistics issued by the Department of Labor, approximately 267,000 construction, crane…

If you are in the process of developing a new credentialing program, one thing you’ll want to do when considering a designation and associated acronym for the certificants or certificate holders is to conduct a a trademark search. In case you don’t know where to start, here’s the link to conduct the search. Many associations have their legal counsel conduct an official search for them, which is great, but it’s still a good idea to…

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has been named the sole approved accreditor of certification bodies by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) for its Information Assurance (IA) Workforce Improvement Program. ANSI’s designation as the accreditor for the program is stated in revisions to a manual issued under the authority of DoD Directive 8570.1, Information Assurance Training, Certification, and Workforce Management. Originally published in 2004 and revised in April 2010, the manual provides guidance and…

Join the April ASAE Professional Development Section Council Virtual Lunch conversation. The topic for this program will be “How Gaming and Simulation can make your Association Rock”, presented by Jon Aleckson, founder and CEO of Web Courseworks. Please review his article in Associations Now, February 2010 edition: Five Ways Associations Can Use Online Games. John is a nationally-recognized speaker and writer on topics such as online games and simulations, learning management and leadership for eLearning…

The American National Standards Institute recently announced the first certificate-issuing organizations that have been accredited through its Certificate Accreditation Program (ANSI-CAP); they include: U.S. Army Combat Readiness/Safety Center for its CP 12 Safety Professional Certificate U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its New Hire Investigator Training Program National Association of State Boating Law Administrators (NASBLA) for its Boating Under the Influence Detection and Enforcement Certificate SCIPP International for its End-User Security Awareness (EUSA) Certificate, Secure…