On The Road

My first road trip of 2012 is my first-ever 12 day vacation in January. My Florida-born wife is looking forward to warm weather, but it will take me largely away from cell phones, Internet and other distractions. I think I’ll survive.

However, my warmest gift for 2012 so far was the tremendous inaugural class of Certified Auxiliary Services Professionals (CASP) awardees designated in December 2011. I’ve overseen new certification programs before for other associations and those "first persons through the door" deserve special recognition. There is only one chance to be a pioneer.

Among these groundbreaking professionals, we found a breadth of education and experience:

• There were at least 10 MBAs.
• There were six additional master’s degrees.
• Experience ranged from more than 30 years (and retired) to 5 years. The majority had great experience, in some cases outside of higher education.
• 50 percent were at the Director of Auxiliary/Ancillary Services level OR ABOVE. At least three people had auxiliary services report to them in their broader responsibilities.
• It was equally good that there was a great deal of variety of operational supervision, including senior experience as directors of food service, business services, student unions, housing, facilities and others.
• We have our first Canadian CASPs.
• We expect that future groups will be made up more of those who aspire to senior auxiliary/ancillary positions or who aspire to positions with larger responsibilities. However some of our very experienced pioneering class are senior enough that they clearly wanted to see if this exam truly measured knowledge necessary to succeed in auxiliary/ancillary services. The preliminary results are that it does.

The Certification Commission is working hard to cement its policies and procedures, oversee the rigorous implementation of the management of this program, produce at least two more versions of the exam for the future, specify requirements for recertification, more widely provide both public acknowledgement of present CASP designees as well as get the word out to the broader higher education community of the success of this program. The NACAS Board is providing independence for the Commission so that it conforms to international accreditation standards. The NACAS Education Foundation continues its tremendous work to raise enough money to continue the development of this program during our growing years AND keep the CASP designation affordable for ALL of higher education.

What started as a dream in 2003, matured into a plan in 2008 (during the depths of the recession) and has now been blessed by the success of groundbreaking pioneers who took a chance that this program is all that we promised it would be. It is!

There is more to do with this program, and we’ve got our best and brightest volunteers working on it. The next exam will be offered at approximately 600 testing centers throughout the U.S. and Canada. We’re exploring review courses and support for study groups. There is more to do for the CASP, and you’ll see that in 2012 and beyond.

Agree, disagree or comment to bob@nacas.org.