More Certification

[Dan BRINEGAR <vr2link -at- VR2LINK -dot- COM>]

Bill DuBay said:
>>I felt there had been a blackout on any
>> public discussion of this issue. In 10 years that I know of, only one article
>> of note was published in any of the publications.

..and Tracy Boyington responded:
>STC presented a teleconference on this very subject last fall. If
>Bonni Graham is still here, she was one of the presenters (sorry, I
>don't remember the others).

(Dad? Pete? I know yer reading this, jump in and correct me anytime).

In '91, the first I heard of the Certification Issue(tm) was at a chapter
meeting. It went something like:

   1) Certification would cost a bit, and noone can decide where the
funding will come from.
   2) After a year of wrangling, noone can agree on what skillsets to try
and certify.
   3) There's a recession on right now, and none of our corporate employers
care.
   4) Currently, employment agencies are getting sued by their clients when
projects tank or the writers
         they sent screw up. The certifying authority appears to be at the
very real risk of having to
         defend itself against such lawsuits as well.
   5) High-technology is progressing at such a pace that whatever we
certified today would be irrelevant
        before the ink was dry.
   6) 22 other objections were raised without concensus beyond "damned if
ya do, damned if ya don't."

"Whoo-hoooo," said Yossarian: "That's some Issue, that Certification Issue(tm)!"
"It gets worse," Doc said.
"But, what about all the techwriters who are being laid-off now?" Yossarian
asked; "*They've* got degrees!"
Milo commented "Their skills are obsolete, the Corporation doesn't need
them anymore. Reinvention, Reengineering, Discontinuities, you know."
"But how will they take care of their elderly parents?"
"Their parents should have thought of that when they sent them to school,"
said Milo.
"But they went to school on the GI-Bill, they just got out of the Service,
it was going to be the 50's forever: how were *they* supposed to know?"
Milo said smugly: "This is the way of all things, Yossarian. Just because
the Future changes every 20 years doesn't mean the Corporation is
responsible. What did their parents do?"
Weakly: "They were farmers," Yossarian said; "Or worked on assembly lines."
"Then they'll understand."

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