OnBoard, Volume 2, Number 3, September 1996

Have Checkbook — Am A Professional

Elizabeth Shown Mills and Kay Germain Ingalls, "Have Checkbook - Am a Professional ," OnBoard 2 (September 1996).
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Home Office Computing is chock full of advice on how to become a self-employed professional. We need impressive stationery and business cards. We may need to buy a license from our city. For efficiency, we'll want certain basic equipment. And, of course, we shouldn't forget to advertise. With a moderate investment, we can have a rewarding career and be our own boss.

Have checkbook — am a professional!

A BCG associate recently related her efforts to convince other genealogical consultants of the value of certification. Too many, she reported, chose to join the Association of Professional Genealogists instead. Even though APG membership had always meant higher dues, it was "hassle-free." There were no tests, no five-year renewal. One can just write a check and have an immediate "credential" to place on one's letterhead: Member, Association of Professional Genealogists.

Have checkbook — am a professional!

Another genealogist, uncertified, decided to "become a professional." He sent out a solicitation headed "To All Librarys, Historical Societys, and Genealogical Societys" [sic]. In a 1-page letter containing 17 misspellings and typos, he assured everyone that he is "Very Through And Am A Stickler For Detail And Accuracy." As "credentials," at the bottom of his solicitation, he photocopied his membership cards in his state society and the National Genealogical Society.

Is professional status — or stature — measured by the size of the check written for office equipment? Is it achieved by writing a check to an open-membership society?

WHAT IS A PROFESSIONAL?

Ours is a field in which devotees are arbitrarily divided into two classes: hobbyist and professional. Yet we all know "hobbyists" whose work is among the best produced anywhere in the world; and most of us know "professionals" whose work is an embarrassment to the field.

What makes one professional? The fact that someone is paid for their labor? No. Unskilled laborers are paid for their work, but they aren't considered professionals.

Most dictionaries offer a broad definition of profession: an occupation requiring considerable training and specialized knowledge. Who, then, determines whether a present or prospective professional has adequate training and specialized knowledge? If self-evaluation works, then our field should not be represented by individuals such as that described at the bottom of column one.

Overwhelmingly, the occupations that are popularly deemed "professions" — i.e., medicine, law, teaching, counseling, architecture, etc. — are fields in which practitioners are expected to take and pass competency exams. When genealogy is so bold as to tout itself as a profession, how can we apply a lesser standard? If certification is essential to consumer protection and professional respect, why, then, does our field need two "professional bodies"?

APG-BCG: PARTNERS, NOT COMPETITORS

Professionalism is advanced by both APG and BCG. Each approaches the issue from a different standpoint. Their efforts do not compete, but complement. Neither is a substitute for the other.

• BCG teaches and measures skill — at research, writing, and education.
• APG teaches sound business practices — finances, organization, and time management.

• BCG defines prevailing standards of competence and recognizes individuals who meet those standards.
• APG provides a forum for interactive discussion of business concerns.

• BCG evaluates portfolios of those who strive to meet high standards and provides a written assessment of the degree to which the individual meets professional expectations.
• APG conducts no tests. Its open membership better serves associated businesses such as software producers, vendors, booksellers, and institutions.

• BCG offers credentials that reassure clients, colleagues, and readers of our publications: "I have proved my competency and ethics. Every five years, my skills and conduct are reappraised, to assure the public that I meet the highest standards."
• APG offers membership that says "I aspire to be professional, I promise to be ethical, and I want to learn sound business practices.

The cost of both is entirely affordable — exceedingly modest in comparison to other professions. Combined, they total $7.08 a month — about the cost of a paperback novel (with tax) or a movie (with just a small popcorn).

Our investment in both organizations comes back to us manifold. Both train and enlighten the genealogical community. Today's increased interest in family roots means a continual influx of people who must be taught that genealogy is more than just a gathering of unsubstantiated names and dates.

THE IMPORTANCE OF STANDARDS

Whether we actually earn our living from genealogy or whether we are skilled hobbyists, it is important that we support the programs which define and guard the standards of excellence we value.

We all owe a debt to our predecessors in this field — those men and women who blazed the trails of professionalism and scholarship. Had they not put standards into place, how reliable would our work be today?

Those predecessors are gone. We cannot thank them. But we can repay them by safeguarding, for future generations, the standards they struggled to establish.

In this regard, BCG ensures what APG cannot. Credentials backed by a rigorous testing program are a powerful declaration of standards. They generate respect and public assurance that a membership card cannot.

In truth, the computer age has created an environment that makes credentials far more crucial than ever. Computer software has brought millions into this hobby. It has provided them with the means to assemble incredible files, virtually overnight, and to broadcast the results to millions without publishing costs. It links the naive to the naive in ways that can bypass most forms of instruction.

Cyberspace genealogy needs a presence that reminds the newcomer of what we all have learned the hard way: reliable genealogy demands skill — a knowledge of resources and methodology in order to make proper links.

When credentials are attached to the web pages, e-mail, and electronic ads of good genealogists, it conveys the message cyberlinked family tree climbers need to see. Genealogy is not a pursuit anybody can do by plucking names off a $39.00 CD-ROM. Genealogy is a field with minimum standards of acceptability and set criteria for proof.

Adding to one's name the phrase "Member, Association of Professional Genealogists" will not accomplish this critical instruction. Cyberspace is a world that intensely values "sharing," as opposed to the solicitation of professional services.

By contrast, adding certification initials does not say "I charge." It says "standards exist. Please learn and follow them, so that your work will help-not hurt-us and the generations to come."

ELIZABETH SHOWN MILLS, CG, CGL, FORMER BCG PRESIDENT, BCG TRUSTEE
FORMER APG TRUSTEE

KAY GERMAIN INGALLS, CGRS, FORMER APG PRESIDENT
BCG TRUSTEE

This article was originally published in OnBoard, BCG's educational newsletter and is protected by copyright. Individuals may download and print copies for their personal study. Educators are granted permission to provide copies to their students as long as BCG, OnBoard, and the appropriate author are credited as the source of the material. Republication elsewhere is not permitted.