Professionalism and certification

Since I have been quoted in regard to the certification issue, I
want to understand better Jack Thompson's point of view.  Does he
think certification is now being foisted upon AIC by a small group?
Does he think that AIC has plans to try to use certification to do
things it cannot legally do?  To sum up my recollection of the
previous committee's recommendations, two of the most relevant
points were that certification cannot be carried out until there is
an organized body of written knowledge that would give applicants
access to what they are expected to know, and that certification,
which is a voluntary process, for that reason and many others, could
not do for the profession or for individual practitioners much of
what many AIC members hoped to have it do.  It is important that AIC
members understand the facts before they form an opinion.

That the AIC is now again looking at certification is a good reason
for a new discussion of the issues involved.  I hope that Jack has
provided the documents he cites to the current committee, since part
of their charge was to investigate any changes in the legal status
of certification since the last committee's work was done.

B. Appelbaum

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 11:94
                   Distributed: Tuesday, May 19, 1998
                       Message Id: cdl-11-94-001
                                  ***