Certification

I commend and support the efforts made by the AIC to develop a Code
of Ethics and to keep tackling the issue of certification.

It is in the nature of any body of knowledge once a critical mass
has been reached to question what defines it. In the conservation
profession there appears to be a general agreement that a need for
some type of organization and standardization of this body of
knowledge has arisen.

Regarding certification the following questions arose for me:

    What is the umbrella under which different schools of thought
    may co-exist?

    What is the least common denominator that can be found and still
    be viable?

    What is the role of the AIC? If it is spearheading attempts at
    coming to grips with a growing body of knowledge and the
    proliferation of levels of conservation activities I am
    full-heartedly in support of these attempts. Refer to Bylaws of
    the AIC, Section I: Purposes 1; 2
    <URL:http://aic.stanford.edu/pubs/bylaws.html>

However if certification is tied to being a dues paying member of
the AIC I would consider it a limiting, exclusive and in no way
binding effort and in the end counter productive.

My reading of point 3 of the Bylaws would support the notion that
ultimately certification should take place outside of the AIC in the
attempt to move certification towards being generally accepted and
binding.

Already alluded to in point 2f of the Bylaws, the Code of Ethics and
Guidelines for Practice need to find expression in guidelines
accepted by federal, state and local government agencies which would
provide a basis which would be binding for schools which seek
accreditation. To pull all these aspects together and to become an
established profession is a daunting task.

I believe that everything is constantly developing. We create rules
in the attempt to chart a course. We make the rules it is up to us
to break them, what are we afraid of?

Gudrun Aurand
Bookbinder/Conservator (self-professed)
Washington State University
Pullman, WA 99164-5610


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 16:39
                Distributed: Tuesday, December 10, 2002
                       Message Id: cdl-16-39-022
                                  ***