educate us, that you are specifically talking
about the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning
and Restoration Certification (IICRC)
because it basically is the only one out there
that has a significant number of registrants
(currently 53,552). This organization was
founded by Ed York over 40 years ago, it
is owned by 16 trade associations and 3
individuals (who were owners when IICRC
was established). You mentioned that the
average person does not know who the
IICRC is. This is true. You also state that
the organization should be spending money
on TV commercials and big magazine
promotions. First, I would like to say that
I am not a spokesperson for IICRC, I am
not a board member, but I have been a
close observer of IICRC for over 40 years. I
have attended the last two board of director
meetings (by the way, ANYONE can attend
a board meeting of IICRC). The primary
purpose of the IICRC is to set standards and
certify individuals who have taken approved
courses and passed an extensive test to
demonstrate that the registrant (that is an
individual who has earned a certification) has
sufficient knowledge and understanding of the
standard to be certified as such. IICRC does
not own or conduct any training nor does it
hold classes. It simply approves the companies
that conduct the classes and administer the
tests, then grades those tests and either grants
certification or denies it based on the number
of correct answers given by the student.
The IICRC is a certifying body, not an
association, and is not responsible for making
the certification a household word. Even
though it would be nice, and IICRC has spent
hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote
the name and the firms who have elected to
become “Certified Firms” it would be naïve
to believe that an organization with an entire
budget of about 3 to 4 million dollars a year
could ever make a dent in the awareness of
the American consumer even if it spent its
entire budget on advertising. (It would not be
possible to spend the entire budget on this.
Could you spend 100% of what you made on
advertising? Even 50%?) Do you have any
idea how much just one ad on national TV or
in a nationally published magazine costs? The
average nonprofit spends from 8 to 10 percent
of its budget on promotion and awareness.
The IICRC is in line with this industry
average. How much money do you think that
other certifying bodies spend on advertising?
When was the last time you saw a commercial
from the American Institute of Certified
Public Accountants (AICPA)? Yet almost
everyone is familiar with the designation
CPA (Certified Public Accountant). Why?
Because every accountant that has gone
through the training and taken that test and
paid the proper fees is very proud of that
certification and they put it on everything
— their business cards, their yellow page ads,
their Websites, their signs on their offices
— all of their advertisements. It was not
the certifying body (the AICPA) that made
that certification a household word, it was
the certified professionals who did that and
with their hard-earned dollars. That is exactly
how the IICRC certification will become a
household word and through no other means.
For some reason (probably because the vast
majority of the shareholders are associations)
most individuals feel that the IICRC is an
association and should be doing what an
association does: Have conventions provide
discounts, legal support, promote education,
and advocacy. It cannot. By virtue of the type
of organization it is, it legally cannot and will
not be able to fulfill these needs. That is why
the IICRC is providing temporary funding
for a new association that can legally do these
things and will do them. This organization
shares some of the words that IICRC uses in
its name but it serves a completely different
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