National CPM Consortium Works to Expand CPM in the US and Internationally

By Dr. Howard R. Balanoff
hb02@txstate.edu

During the past five years the National Certified Public Manager Consortium in conformance with its strategic plan has followed a strategy to expand to all 50 states in the US. Currently about half of all of the states offer a CPM Program in the US. In addition to the state programs, the federal government offers a CPM Program through the Graduate School of the US Department of Agriculture and the City of Washington DC and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments offer CPM Programs to public employees within their jurisdictions.

The major strategy used by the National CPM Consortium has been for CPM Consortium Officers and Board Members to network with public administration colleagues at professional conferences such as NAGTAD and the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA). The goal of the CPM Consortium has been to encourage CPM members to identify and work with other public administration colleagues to begin the process of developing CPM Programs in states that do not have CPM Programs in place.

This effort by Consortium members has met with some success; most notably it has led to the addition of California as an Associate Member of the CPM Consortium. Other states that have joined the consortium in the past five years as a result of this initiative include Michigan, Massachusetts, Illinois, Maryland, and the US Virgin Islands.
In addition to the Consortium efforts to expand within the US, there has been an effort to promote the concept of CPM worldwide. I have been invited to participate in several international public administration conferences and deliver presentations about the Certified Public Manager Program. On May 26, 2006, I presented a paper in Moscow Russia entitled, The National and Texas Certified Public Manager®(CPM) Program: Innovative Techniques for the Professional Development and Education of Texas Public Sector Managers. This paper was presented at a Conference hosted at Moscow State University.

Also, on July 7, 2006, I presented a paper in Warsaw, Poland at the International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA) entitled,  Certified Public Manager® (CPM) Programs: A Significant Companion to Academic Degree Programs for the Professional Development and Education of Public Sector Managers around the World.

One of the results of these presentations about the CPM Program in the US has been to promote the idea of CPM to public managers in countries around the world. The concept of CPM has generated significant interest in a number of countries such as Russia, Italy, Poland, Korea, Latvia, Serbia and Lithuania. In the not too distant future, perhaps we will see some of these countries develop CPM Programs that may link up with the National CPM Consortium in the US.

In conclusion, the future of CPM for expansion in both the US and internationally appears bright. I look for additional states to join the CPM Consortium in the near future. I also look forward to the day that some of the countries identified above begin offering CPM Programs to their public sector managers.

© Copyright 2006, American Association of Certified Public Managers®