There’s a very interesting (and, for the blogosphere, very cordial) conversation going on in comments over at Ben Martin’s blog on the CAE designation, its value, whether or not its too "basic", etc. Lots of interesting thoughts from CAE holders and non-holders alike.

I’m not a CAE and don’t plan on becoming one — by saying that, I mean no disrespect to those who have received the credential, I think they are to be commended, but I also don’t think the CAE as it currently stands is a "necessary" requirement and the choice to get it or not is a personal one. Ben has done a good job throughout his blog, on preparing for and passing the CAE exam, in laying out what he sees as the personal benefits.

In talking about association credentialing and advanced learning, I think there’s an interesting question that should be considered: Is association management a profession, or are associations an industry?

Since the dawn of time (so to speak) the field of association management has been treated as the former; but if we take some time and view what we do through the prism of the latter, some very interesting distinctions emerge. What do you think?

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