CEM Corner: Professional Contributions, Part 1

By Daryl Lee Spiewak, CEM, TEM, CFM, CEM® Commissioner and ASPEP President Emergency Action Coordinator, Brazos River Authority, Waco, TX

IAEM believes that the "concept of professionalism is ultimately defined as one's contributions to the profession." Contributions must be verifiable and must be beyond the scope of your normal job. The Professional Contributions part of the certification package consists of 14 separate categories, and a candidate must meet the requirements of at least six different categories.

This article offers some tips and ideas to assist you in meeting the requirements of Section V Professional Contributions in the Field of Emergency Management found in the application packet.

Membership. To receive credit for this category, you must have been a member of a disaster/emergency management related organization for a minimum of three years. You may list membership in one organization for three years or multiple organizations for three different years.

The Commission can verify your membership in IAEM. If you claim membership in any other disaster/emergency management related organization, you must provide adequate documentation. This can be copies of your membership cards, rosters or membership lists provided by the organization that include dates, or letters signed by an officer of the organization verifying your years of membership.

Ensure that the organization you are claiming membership in is actually related to disaster/emergency management. The key word here is management, all four functions of comprehensive emergency management. Many fire, EMS, HAZMAT, etc., organizations do not focus on management, but rather on specific aspects of the response function. These organizations can satisfy this requirement if you can demonstrate that they have as one of their goals the improvement of emergency management. Include a copy of the organization's official mission statement and goals for review by the Commissioners.

Professional Conference . This category requires attendance at one professional conference, such as IAEM's annual conference or your state's emergency management annual conference. Other acceptable conferences are those hosted by national, state, regional or local agencies; schools; businesses; or industries with an emergency management role.

A professional conference is different from a workshop regardless of the title used. A professional conference is a meeting for consultation and discussion, while a workshop is training that teaches participants how to do something. Make sure you document a conference and not a training workshop.

To receive credit for this contribution you must provide some type of documentary evidence that you actually attended the conference. We know that many conferences do not provide certificates of attendance so you should include a copy of the registration list, a copy of the badge with your name and the conference name on it, or a copy of the paid receipt for the registration fee. As a last resort, you may a want to obtain a letter from the organization sponsoring the conference verifying your attendance.

Finally, don't forget to describe something interesting and useful that you learned during the conference. Your descriptions provide useful information that IAEM uses to develop our annual conferences.

Service Role. To satisfy this category you must voluntarily serve on a Board of Directors, a board, a committee, a task force, or a special project for a professional, a disaster/emergency management or a jurisdictional organization contributing to or supporting disaster/emergency management.

The service must not be part of your job. The Commissioners check your service role against the job description provided in Section I of your application.

You only need to document one service role. Acceptable documentation is a letter of appointment, a copy of the meeting minutes showing your attendance and participation, a copy of a newspaper article describing your service role, or some other official publication.

If there are any questions about the service possibly being part of your regular duties, include a letter from your supervisor that states the service role is not part of your regular duties. This will help reduce the chance for delays during the review process.

IAEM offers many opportunities for you to satisfy this requirement. We have over 28 committees, 12 liaison and partner groups, 11 regions and various special commissions providing a wide variety of service roles to choose from.

Leadership Role . This category is different from the service role category in that you must serve as an elected officer or in a leadership position. The documentation requirements are the same as for the Service Role and your leadership role must not be part of your regular duties. In addition to leadership positions available in the various service roles described above, IAEM offers the elected positions of President, Secretary, Treasurer, and 11 Regional Presidents.

Special Assignment. Some people confuse this category with the requirements in the Service Role or Leadership role categories. The difference here is that a special assignment has a beginning and ending date. The conclusion of the special assignment must result in a product or decision that addresses a specific disaster/emergency management issue and makes a significant contribution or impact. An example of a special assignment would be a task force for another jurisdiction developing options for main evacuation routes prior to a hurricane making landfall. Another example is a committee looking into ways for promoting emergency preparedness in local businesses. Other examples include a task force organizing emergency management activities for a crowd-intensive event like the Pope's visit, a Presidential visit, or the Olympics; a task force established to prepare for and respond to the Y2K event; or some similar special assignment.

To receive credit, you must provide a complete description of the assignment, your role or contribution, and the end product or contribution to the disaster/emergency management field. The special assignment must not be part of your regular duties. It has to be outside the scope of your regular duties. It has to be special.

So far we have only scratched the surface of professional contributions. Next month we will cover five more professional contribution categories.

July 2001, IAEM Bulletin