Each month, the Certifications & Career Development Committee will explore a different meeting industry certification, and we will talk to an MPI Potomac member who holds it.

 

                                                             

 

 

The Certified Association Executive (CAE) credential is the marker of a committed association professional who has demonstrated the wide range of knowledge essential to manage an association in today’s challenging environment. As a CAE, you commit yourself to lifelong learning and an ongoing pursuit of knowledge in the profession. Among association leaders, the CAE designation has become known and appreciated as a mark of distinction.

 

- Five years of experience as an employee at the staff level/one year employed as an executive or C-suite-level executive

- Bachelor’s degree (or eight years of paid experience)

- 100 hours of association management-related professional development in last five years

- Sign ASAE Standards of Conduct and have no felony convictions related to association management

- The four-hour examination with 200 multiple-choice questions

 

Renewal cycle: Every three years, requires 40 CAE credit hours including one in ethics

 

For more information, please visit the ASAE website.

 

 

Annette Ott-Barnett, CMP, CMM, CAE

Sustainable Business Events

 

What year did you receive your CAE?

2013 was a big year for me. I earned my CMP, CMM and CAE!

 

Why did you decide to get your CAE?

The decision to get my CAE was primarily to help in my job search. I had 20 years of experience planning events, but when I lost my job, I learned quickly finding a new one was no longer based on expertise but merely a college education. With no possibility of earning a college degree quickly, I focused on what I could do almost immediately — get certified!

 

Planning events was in my blood, so it seemed natural to start there. I was the last group to receive the CMM designation in 2013 before MPI changed the program in 2014. While completing the CMM requirements, I was also studying for the CMP exam, which I happily passed in fall 2013. I had years of nonprofit experience not only in events but membership as well, so it seemed plausible I could also get my CAE. It also helped my son, Matthew Ott, current president and CEO for the Global Cold Chain Alliance, who had just received his CAE designation.

 

 

My son provided me with his reading materials, which gave me an idea of what I could expect over the next couple of months. I also signed up for ASAE's CAE prep course, which provided us with the steps to success, including an opportunity to form study groups. We were a small group, but we met weekly. The encouragement from these cohorts and ASAE's online support was crucial to passing the December 2013 exam.

 

 

It had been well over a year without a job, so I was feeling redundant; I am sure something many event planners are feeling today. Prepping for the CAE gave me the encouragement I needed to get up, get dressed and continue my search for a job. I can't say if the CAE designation helped, or perhaps a combination of the three, but it was only days after I earned the CAE I was offered an events contractor position at the U.S. Travel Association. But, most importantly, studying for the CAE confirmed my love for learning.

 

In January 2014, I went to the local community college and signed up for my very first class. I earned my associate's degree in two years, and just two years later, I graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Individualized Studies: Sustainable Business Events Management, as well as two minors including nonprofit studies (Fellows Program). I went on to get my master's degree in event management in 2020 at the University of Technology Sydney. I am again jobless per my visa, but safe. I am riding out COVID-19 in one of the safest parts of the world — Australia.