I have always wished that the association would promote ABC’s the way the Society of Management Accountants promotes CMA’s. They do a great and very visible job of promoting the value CMA’s bring to business and the community. However, I recognize that a campaign like that would be pretty costly.

As for those who think it requires a significant effort to become accredited, I think this is a misperception. If you are ready to become accredited, there isn’t a lot of work involved. Yes, the exam is gruelling (I’m not sure of the point of having us race to complete such a long test in such a short time) but it’s not really something you can study for. For the most part, you’ll be able to complete the test if you have the required experience.

Putting together your portfolio takes a bit of time, but if you’ve ever entered an award program or written a good communication plan, all it takes is a little tweaking.

At the International Conference, Barbara spoke to the need for us to essentially skip over this question (“will accreditation get me anything”) and just do it, reasoning that the designation will never mean anything until a large enough number of people are accredited. At the moment, I remain focused on my personal ROI: what will I and my business potentially gain in return for the effort expended?

And everything I’ve heard over the past few years makes it sound like quite an effort.

However, I appreciated the written portion of the ABC exam, as I feel the case studies approach is a better means to judge a person’s abilities to respond to real-world situations.

I procrastinated on entering the ABC process for quite a while due to the portfolio. I felt that I had to have two award-worthy pieces, and my positions didn’t produce anything I felt I could use. However, conversations with ABCs clarified that the narrative is not only the place to describe what was done, it also provides a means to explain what I would have done given the opportunity to implement the project using best practices, and also a place to include lessons learned.

As it turned out, I used a pro bono project and a crisis communication situation that (serendipitously for me) occurred within my government agency.

Studying may be needed for a communicator with fewer years of experience. However, as an ABC mentor told me, there should be no need with my 20 years of diverse experience. She was right — I had the typical “blank screen” nervousness at the first question, was a bit awkward for the next question, and then got in the groove.

What helped me the most was working with an accreditation study group. One of the sessions emphasized watching the time allotted for each exm section and not doing more than was asked on each of the items. The exam seeks a snapshot of the taker’s skills, not the entire toolbox.

Having ABC after my name is an honor, and one that is recognized in an agency primarily staffed by engineers. They work hard for their PE (Professional Engineer) designations, and have equal respect other types of certifications and accreditations.

It would be good to hear from others who have gone through other accreditation programs (whether in communication or other fields) to learn from the strengths and weaknesses of other programs too.

As a side note, I found the ABC exam more of a typing test than anything. If you go into that exam not being about to type at least 40 words a minute, good luck! They pack entirely too many questions in the exam, many of which are redundant. If they asked fewer questions, but allowed you to delve deeper, it would be a better assessment of your knowledge, not how quickly you can type.

As someone who wants to get accredited (but keeps getting derailed), here are a couple of thoughts:

1) IABC shouldn’t overload unaccredited volunteers who want to become ABCs, but should give them the space to get through the process before trying to turn them into supervolunteers.

2) On that note, rather than always asking the peole they know to do things, IABC (staff and leaders) should set the example on using the Membership Directory demographics in order to individually approach people about various leadership opportunities. (A lot of people will help if asked directly. It’s time-consuming at first, but has a snowball effect.) This would free up the time of a lot of key ABC candidates.

3) When people express interest in the programme, ABC mentors should proactively contact them. “Hi. I hear that you’re interested in accreditation. I’ve been through the programme. Can I answer any questions? Did you know that you can get mentoring with your portfolio.” Personal contacts will always get more response than general announcements that mentoring can be arranged. Obviously, candidates should be approached by someone whose situation is as similar as possible (culture and language as well as professional situation). This may require adding a few questions to the ABC screening questionnaire.

Like many things at IABC, I think there is a bot of a “build it and they will come” attitude about accreditation. We need to get better at “closing the deal” across the board. In chapters with lots of accredited members, there is a strong base on which to build. But what are the chapters with no or few ABCs supposed to do? Asking an already overloaded board to take on yet another campaign doesn’t seem very effective.

Unlike an APR, the ABC isn’t valued enough outside our profession – or sometimes even within it – because we haven’t done a strong enough job of telling our story.