Re: Re[2]: Certification Issues -Reply

[Blake Ricks <bricks -at- PMI-SFM -dot- PMIGROUP -dot- COM>]

While I am still entirely opposed to any sponsored form of
certification instituted by the STC (who are they anyway?), if
it were instituted, am I:

a) going to have to join the STC?
b) going to have to pay annual dues?
c) going to have to pay ($400?) to take the exam?
d) going to have to pay $$$ for study materials (unrelated to
what I probably do as a technical writer)?
e) going to have to pay $$$ to maintain certification?

Face it, there is an economic side issue to the certification
discussion thread that hasn't been addressed. There are
many of us who have little or nothing to do with the STC and
do not see being forced to interface with it, and having to
PAY $$$ to them, as anything we need or want. If I felt it
would be an asset to my career in TC, maybe, but the
arguments for certification have failed to convince what
appears to be MOST OF US.

So if I pay $$$ to take their test, $$$ to join their club, $$$ to
maintain certification statuts, $$$ to maintain membership,
do they promise to send me a monthly glossy full color slick
looking publication (which could have been produced in black
and white for a fraction of the cost)? I am speaking from
experience having been forced to join unions and other
accrediting institutions that have never provided me with the
services or career development that is worth the cost. Until I
can be convinced that the STC can provide substantial career
aids (a paper saying I passed their certification test does not
count), I will not drop a dime their way.

Blake Ricks
bricks -at- pmigroup -dot- com

>>> Bill DuBay <bill_dubay -at- PHOENIX -dot- COM> 06/17/97
10:13am >>>
Arlen,
  Certification gives you the opportunity to have your skills
publicly ratified by your peers,  the most objective validation
of skills available.
It gives you a professional group that not only can identify
new technologies and challenges, but also equip and certify
you for them.

Bill DuBay
Technical Writer
Phoenix Technologies Ltd. email: bill_dubay -at- phoenix -dot- com
(714)790-2049 FAX: (714)790-2001 http://www.phoenix.com
-------------
Original Text
From: "Walker, Arlen P" <Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- COM>, on
6/17/97 6:03 AM:
      The primary reason for certification is to enable members
of the
      profession to define who they are, what are the skills that
make them
      unique, what contributions they make to industry, etc.

Once again, that is something that can easily be
accomplished without a certification process. A simple list
will suffice. So this is *not* a primary reason for certification,
but yet another byproduct of it. The reason for certification is
exclusion, why not just admit it and get on with the rest of
the discussion?

      Nobody is imposing anything on us from outside.

If you set up a cert process, you most certainly *are*
imposing something on me from outside. It's nothing I want
or need or ask for, so it's certainly not coming from inside.


Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of
Redundancy Department
DNRC 224

Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- Com
----------------------------------------------
In God we trust; all others must provide data.
----------------------------------------------
Opinions expressed are mine and mine alone.
If JCI had an opinion on this, they'd hire someone else to
deliver it.

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