Professional Development Committee Report – Credentialing Board

By: John P. Morris P.E., CEFP, APPA Fellow

12/4/2017

General Information:

Credentialing is in our 12th year since inception and we have achieved an important milestone of over 1,000 recipients.

Current Board & Organization:

John P. Morris, Chair - Northern Arizona University

Tom Becker, Vice Chair - Philadelphia University

Dave Button, Secretary/Treasurer - University of Regina

Ted Weidner – Purdue University

Casey Martin – Jacobs@ Stanford University

Ruthann Manlet – VP Professional Development, University of Minnesota

E. Lander Medlin, APPA Executive Vice President

Christina Hills, APPA Director of Credentialing and Benchmarking

Kelly Ostergrant – APPA Credentialing Coordinator

Credentialing Board Mission and Vision:

Mission: The APPA Credentialing Program is dedicated to recognizing and validating through its professional certification the skills and knowledge required to exercise strong leadership in educational facilities.

Vision: The certificate and professional credential (EFP and CEFP) are valued by members and stakeholders as the industry standard for the educational facilities enterprise.

Key Principles: Value, Credible, Professional Choice, Industry Standard, Skills, Validity, Solvent, Integrated

Credentialing Board Strategic Plan:

  • Maintain Body of Knowledge (BoK) Alignment
  • Program Design will Support Local Delivery
  • Create and Deliver Quality Preparatory Programming
  • Create a Comprehensive Marketing and Communications Plan
  • Refine and Enhance Support Systems
  • Integrate Credentialing and APPA Programming
  • Establish and Maintain Program Integrity
  • Establish Benchmarks, Metrics, and Reporting Mechanisms to Guide Resource Management

The Credentialing Board feels accreditation is critical. After investigation and in alignment with other APPA standards we have designated our accreditation target to be ANSI accredited. ANSI follows ISO 17024 standards which are widely accepted internationally. Billie Zidek, APPA Standards and Codes Administrator, has indicated with some focused efforts we may be ready to apply for the ANSI accredidation during 2018.

The Credentialing Board will be updating its strategic goals for the next decade with focus on the next two to three years at their December 2017 Board meeting.

It is worth noting that credentialing is an importantpart of the Professional Development Continuum and adds competency assurance.

Regional Support:

We have received incredibly strong commitments from the regions as certificates and credentialing become the normal expectations of our profession. The goal of both the APPA Board and the Credentialing Board is to give our membership every opportunity to attain these validations. The following tables summarize the regional commitments and the coupons used to date.

As a part of the regional commitments the APPA regions have also offered the following benefits to their members who seek certification and credentials:

ERAPPA - FREE

SRAPPA - Discounted Pricing

MAPPA - FREE

CAPPA - FREE

RMA - Discounted Pricing

PCAPPA - Discounted Pricing

Strategic Alliances:

The Credentialing Board also recognizes that the EFP and CEFP programs can benefit some of APPA’s strategic partners such as ACUHO-I, NACUBO, AIA, NSPE, SAME (Military Engineers), GSA and even the United Nations/International Schools. The Board is actively working with these organizations to have them accept the APPA credentials as a standard for their members or to be a part of their educational requirements. For example, the APPA Credentialing Programwas approved by the AIA to be a professional provider of course content for their members.The Board is also working with NSPE to become fully recognized by that organization as a professional provider of course content for their members.

We are also having success with the military and UN as shown in the following table.

Coupon / CEFP / EFP / Passed / Not Tested / Total
Military / 3 / 0 / 2 / 1 / 3
United Nations / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 2

Customized Interactive Learning (CIL):

The CIL platform continues to be very successful and very popular.

The CIL platform is a live and private web event with peers and a qualified CEFP facilitator. Upon enrolling in the CEFP or EFP Curriculum, participants are assigned to a CIL Group and registered for four separate live customized learning sessions held monthly over a period of 90 days. We have also started offering8 weeks courses; 2 weeks per chapter/domain and includes 4 live webinars, all of the CIL learning tools and 30 days to test.

The following tables list our CIL facilitators, and previous, ongoing and upcoming CIL groups with over 750 participants. We canalways use more CIL facilitators if you know of any interested individuals.

CIL Facilitators
1 / Andy Maddox / SRAPPA
2 / Viron Lynch / SRAPPA
3 / Dennis Drymala / ERAPPA
4 / Steve Peary / ERAPPA
5 / Jacob Cain / RMA
6 / Jim Jackson / CAPPA
7 / John Ferris / PCAPPA
8 / Steve McKenzie / PCAPPA
9 / Lowell Bromander / MAPPA
10 / Mike Taylor / MAPPA
11 / Ruthann Manlet / MAPPA
Cohort / Dates / CEFP / EFP / Total / Facilitator
Group L & M / 7/17 – 11/17 / 39 / 10 / 39 / Jim,Jake,Viron
APPA Group 2 / 8/10 – 11/3 / 9 / 4 / 13 / Steve P.
Group N / 8/21 – 12/18 / 29 / 8 / 37 / Emmet
APPA Group 3 / 9/18 – 12/13 / 14 / 6 / 20 / Steve M.
Group O / 10/23 - 1/20/18 / 38 / 21 / 59 / Dennis
APPA Group 4 / 11/15 – 1/9/18 / 8 / 2 / 10 / John
Group P / 12/4 – 3/3/18
APPA Group 5 / 1/18/18 – 3/14/18
Group Q / 2/5/18 – 5/5/18

Marketing:

As part of our marketing efforts we have completed the following activities:

  • Updated the website:
  • Developed a new brochure
  • Developed customized regional videos;
  • Magnet mail blasts; and
  • We are continuing our recognition programs:
  • Awards night recognition
  • Website recognition
  • Facilities Manager recognition

As part of the marketing program we need the regional members of the Professional Development Committee to be credentialing ambassadors to promote the credentialing program and the regional discounts.

Program Metrics:

We currently have issued 496 EFP certificates and 592 CEFP credentials for a total of 1,088 recipients.

The Board was concerned about the pass/fail rate of the new exams and at direction of the board staff made modifications. The modifications are proving to have more acceptable results.

CEFPExam Pass/Fail Rate / Pass / Fail
January 1, 2017 - November 30, 2017
1st time testers 209 / 160/77% / 49/23%
Testers including 2nd time testers 209(13 retested and 4 passed 9 failed again) / 164/78% / 45/22%
EFP Exam Pass/Fail Rate / Pass / Fail
April 27, 2017 – November30, 2017
1st time testers 37 / 33/89% / 4/11%
No 2nd time testers37 (1 retested and passed) / 34/92% / 3/8%

Finances:

The original APPA investment was $325k. We now owe over $800k.

Investment in credentialing is a long-term investment not a first quarter return. It was anticipated that over the first few years the Certification Board would have deficits and a negative net asset balance. Based on the Certification Board's business plan and continued support from APPA, the Certification Board expects to achieve profitability and repay APPA in full.

The Credentialing Board recognizes that it must increase revenue and control expenditures in order to continue its mission. The benefits of a successful Credentialing Program are extensive and worthy of continued investment. The Credentialing Board will continue to develop the program to achieve a positive bottom line.

Increasing the number of program participants with help from the regions and upcoming re-certifications will help turn the corner.

Recertification:

The board and the certification staff are ramping up efforts regarding re-certification. We are also noticing that some of the more senior members who received their certifications are starting to retire which is also impacting the recertification metrics. The following table summarizes the current status of the renewals.

Recertification Update as of 11/14/2017
Total members who have Recertified: / 109
Total members who have not: / 96*
Total members who should/or could have Recertified: / 205

*Out of the 96 who have not renewed their certification: 37 are eligible and their CEFP may have lapsed or they are early in their cycle (i.e. they have their 120 APPA Units); 59 are not eligible (i.e. they do not have their 120 APPA Units).

Accolades:

I would like to extend my thanks and appreciation to the APPA staff, the Credentialing Board of Directors, the APPA SME’s, our CIL facilitators, and our consultants for their exceptional efforts to make this program a success.

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