Introducing Certification Council Members
August 16, 2017
It is with great pleasure that we announce the inaugural members of AASP's Certification Council (CC). The CC is the independent and autonomous governing body for the updated certification program. As you will recall, at the 2016 Business Meeting in Arizona, members voted to create the CC and give it sole responsibility for establishing, reviewing, and overseeing implementation of the policies for the certification program. The membership also voted to approve a Certification Governance Charter that outlined the composition of this extremely important council.
The CC is composed of 9 voting members and 1 ex-officio member. The 9 voting members include: a) 4 Certificant Members who are AASP members and certified, but not Fellows, b) 4 AASP Fellow Members who are also certified, and c) 1 Public Member who is not an AASP member, does not work or practice in sport/performance psychology, but is a potential consumer of the services of those who are certified. The ex-officio member of the CC is the Professional Standards Division Head on the current AASP Executive Board, and will serve as the Executive Board liaison. After a long and thorough nomination and selection process that involved a Certification Council Nominating Committee and a Fellow leader, the CC has been chosen and is beginning its work in this role. The CC members listed below have been assigned term lengths of between 1 and 3 years so as to have normal turnover to this council, but are eligible to nominate and serve on the council for 1 additional 3-year term. Details regarding the purpose, responsibilities, composition, and selection of the council are outlined in the certification program policy manual which will be available in the near future.
In February 2016, the Fellows approved a motion to create an Interim Certification Council (ICC) and empowered it to begin creating policies and procedures for certification, creating policies for the creation of a permanent certification council, and initial certification exam development. The selection and naming of the CC members initiates the transition of governance of the certification program from the ICC to the CC. At this time, discussions are taking place between the ICC and CC to ensure that the members of the CC will be up to speed with regard to the policies and procedures of the updated certification program when it rolls out later this year. The roles of these two groups have been structured so as to help continue making progress towards the roll-out of the updated program. As such, the ICC will continue to work on developing policies and standards for the updated certification program, while the CC will work on strategies to implement the policies when the updated certification program goes live.
I hope that you will join me in welcoming the new Certification Council members, and thank them for the many countless hours of work that they will be dedicating over the length of their terms. Given that this is the inaugural council, much will be demanded of the CC members as they work on enacting and implementing policies of the updated certification program and making many decisions moving forward.
Jack Watson, PhD, CMPC
West Virginia University
Chair, Interim Certification Council
