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Recruiting CM Providers
AICP is committed to creating a Certification Maintenance program that encourages as many training providers as possible to become registered CM providers and offer training activities that will meet the needs of our members. As of this writing more than 3,500 continuing education activities from more than 200 organizations have qualified for CM credit. And more are being added every day. You can see a full list of registered providers here. Since the AICP Commission approved the Certification Maintenance program last April, we have contacted and met with more than 700 training providers from around the country to encourage them to register as CM providers. These include providers who participated in our voluntary Continuing Professional Development (CPD) program, as well as providers suggested to us by our members. We are also engaged in an ongoing conversation the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) and have implemented many ideas and suggestions from this collaboration. After Sue Schwartz, immediate past-president of the AICP Commission, and Paul Farmer, executive director and CEO of APA, met with the deans and department chairs of nearly 75 planning schools at the ACSP Administrators' Conference last year, changes were made in the draft Certification Maintenance program requirements. This year, Farmer met with the ACSP Board and the ACSP Task Force on CM, at which time it was agreed that APA would work with a small number of schools identified by ACSP to serve as models. We expect this effort to result in more improvements to the Certification Maintenance program. Who are registered CM providers? Any organization that provides educational activities or products for professional planners can become a CM provider. These include:
All providers, including APA and its chapters and divisions, must follow the same registration procedures and pay the same fee. CM credit is not awarded automatically for any event. Decisions are based on a clear set of standards and criteria set forth by the AICP Commission — criteria by which every activity is judged. We encourage providers to take a hard look at this set of criteria and decide which training activities are appropriate for this program and how the educational objectives of their training activities meet the needs of AICP members. Every provider must pay an annual nonrefundable $95 registration fee. We want to keep the entry fee as low as possible. Additional fees are assessed based on the number of credits for which each activity is eligible. The annual registration fee includes two CM credits. Additional fees are required for each activity submitted for CM credit beyond the two included credits. The AICP Commission will be receiving reports from staff on alternative fee schedules that may better suit certain types of training. Our hope is that we can develop a flexible fee schedule that will encourage non-APA providers to offer their training as part of the Certification Maintenance program. Some benefits of being a CM provider include:
If you have a favorite training provider, send us the organization's name and contact information, and we'll invite them to become a registered CM provider. Or download a fact sheet that you can pass along to the organization. AICP members will be the ultimate judges of whether or not a provider is of value to the Certification Maintenance program. Through our online rating system, members will have the opportunity to share comments and ideas (and critiques) about training events. This will help other AICP members decide whether to attend a providers' events. We hope providers will benefit from this, as well.
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Recruiting CM Providers