News From the IPMA Executive Council

David A. Dye, IPMAAC Council Representative

The IPMA Executive Council met on October 14 as part of the 2000 International Training Conference held in San Francisco, California. Here are the major highlights from the meeting that are of interest to IPMAAC members:

Membership Restructuring

In an effort to help improve member understanding and awareness of IPMA as an organization and of the products/services it provides, the Executive Council voted to approve a taskforce report calling for a restructuring of the Association's membership. The new program includes the following membership categories: Individual members will include online access to all password protected areas of the web site in addition to current individual membership benefits. Agency Membership currently, agency dues are determined by the number of employees covered by the agency's human resources program. This has resulted in confusion and an inability for IPMA to adequately "reach" individuals under the agency membership. Under the new structure, dues will be based on the number of HR staff that provide services, with agencies being able to determine the number of individual members to be covered. A similar membership category will be provided to private sector organizations. Finally, a new membership category will be created for public safety departments that belong to the Association to receive discounts on IPMA assessment service products.

Expansion of Executive Council

The council voted to approve an increase in the size of the council from 15 to 17 members to include one representative from an international agency and one at-large member from any level of government. This expansion of the council is the second increase in the last year as the council voted in October 1999 to increase the council from 13 to 15 members to include reserved positions for a state human resources director and a human resources director from a large city or county. These decisions were made in an effort to continue to broaden representation on the council from all levels of government as well as to recognize the importance of an international presence on the Council as IPMA's international activities continue to increase. IPMAAC's representation on the Council will not change.

Modification to IPMA Conference Format

Similar to other professional associations, IPMA has experienced declining conference attendance over the past several years. In an effort to continue to attract delegates to its annual conference, IPMA voted to shorten the length of its conference to 2 1/2 days. As is the case with other professional groups, it has been recognized that attendees are not able to commit as much time to out-of-town conferences and that other alternatives for professional development exist. The change is expected to limit expenses for the conference, but also to allow the conference to be more of a priority to IPMA members. The change will not take effect until 2004 as contracts with hotels have been negotiated for earlier years.

IPMA/NASPE Benchmarking Project

IPMA and the National Association for State Personnel Executives (NASPE) are in the process of completing the second human resource benchmarking survey. In addition to covering total compensation and training issues, IPMAAC members will be interested to know that recruitment and selection practices are also being addressed. Results and best practices are expected by the end of the year and will be shared online, in IPMA publications, and through press releases. IPMAAC member Anita Ford is also chairing IPMA's Recruitment and Selection taskforce that will be coordinated with this effort.

Public HR Certification Council

IPMA's certified professional (IPMA-CP) program continues to be successful. Through September, 387 applications for certification were submitted. IPMAAC has played a significant role in helping IPMA develop and implement a written examination as part of the certification process.

On a final note, IPMAAC had a strong presence at the IPMA training conference. Four pre-conference workshops were sponsored and presented by IPMAAC, including Donna Terrazas (Easy, Speedy, and Effective Selection Systems), Charles Brooks (The Value of HR Services: Cost Benefit Analysis Made Simple), Ted Darany (Conducting Effective Hiring Interviews), and Karen Coffee (The Essentials of Job Analysis). In addition, Mike Willihnganz gave a presentation on the use of low fidelity simulations.