Mentoring Committee News

Stephen Mastro, CPM, Immediate Past President
smastro@csum.edu

The Mentoring Committee is working the full scope of its charge – prospective societies, newly chartered societies, and assistance to strengthen and energize existing societies.

In regions without chartered CPM societies, our friends in the National CPM Consortium® provide us with contacts among the cadre of recent graduates. We work with these contacts to grow interest in being part of AACPM. We are in the final stage of chartering the Michigan Society of Certified Public Managers® (they may be chartered by the time you read this newsletter). It has taken a core team of 8-10 dedicated Michigan CPMs at least 12 months to develop their bylaws, elect a board, register with the IRS, and begin functioning as a professional society in the state of Michigan. We look forward to welcoming them as full participants at the Oklahoma City Conference.

In January of 2010, we completed the re-chartering of a new society for the Washington D.C. area. This National Capital Region Society of Certified Public Managers® is being mentored through their first year of AACPM membership. New and re-chartered societies are urged to contribute articles and society news/activities to the CPM Connection. We encourage their members to volunteer for national committees and attend the national conference. We want them to feel welcome within AACPM.

The AACPM board has adopted “unaffiliated” membership guidelines. We are now offering AACPM membership to CPM graduates and students in regions without a CPM society. When a region reaches a "critical mass," we can mentor them to form or re-charter a CPM society. Alabama is working to re-charter their society. We plan to have them on board by the end of 2010. The Virginia CPM program and its society are inactive. We support Virginia members maintaining their AACPM membership. We hope Virginia will again graduate CPMs. With AACPM veterans on board, they will be ready to re-charter their society. Nebraska's first two graduating classes were small with less than 20 earning the CPM designation. Several have joined AACPM as unaffiliated members. In a year or two, they may have the numbers feasible to form a Society.

We are monitoring the following Consortium Accredited CPM Programs:

• Alaska has graduated CPMs and we are staying in contact.
• Colorado has just started training CPMs.
• Illinois has been accredited since 2008.
• Iowa has produced CPM graduates for several years. Many of their graduates are ASPA Chapter members. We plan to offer graduates unaffiliated memberships to AACPM.
• Missouri’s first CPM cohort class is set to graduate on December 16, 2010.
• The mentoring committee has had discussions with Nevada graduates about forming a society. They are geographically challenged with two main metropolitan areas separated by several hundred miles. To form a society with regional chapters, they need more members. At present, we hope to grow their interest AACPM by encouraging them to become unaffiliated members.

Other “Active” CPM programs seeking Consortium accreditation include New York, New Mexico, Wyoming, Massachusetts, and the US Virgin Islands. Each of these represents a potential future AACPM society.

If you have connections with any individuals in the societies currently in the chartering, re-chartering, of future chartering status, please visit with these individuals. Share your encouraging stories of AACPM and what it means to belong to a national organization that continues to grow in its notoriety and national status. Current CPMs from every active society are the best ambassadors we have. Put your best foot forward and continue to grow the CPM designation into the vision and value to which it truly deserves.

If you have questions or suggestions, contact a member of the 2010 Mentoring Committee:

Steve Mastro (NC) smastro@csum.edu
Fred Levinson (FL) eflev@bellsouth.net
Debbie Smith (OK) Debbie.smith@ou.edu
Ed Burt (NC) eburt@nc.rr.com
Reva Tisdale (ID) reva.tisdale@tax.idaho.gov
Becky Bryant (AR) becky.bryant@arkansas.gov
Linda Jefferson (NC) linda.jefferson@osp.nc.gov

© Copyright 2010, American Academy of Certified Public Managers®