Written by Chris Adams, TAICEP President, 2024
Greetings, members of TAICEP!
Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to each of you for your indefatigable commitment to the profession of international credential evaluation. With every interaction among colleagues in this field, I am continually reminded of the quality of individuals with whom we all work. From assisting with answering questions on our listserv to active contributions to research, membership outreach, and resources, this is a supportive group of practitioners working together to further our communal expertise as well as provide an exceptional level of service to those with whom we work daily. It is only through this active collaboration that we have grown and matured our organization to the level we currently enjoy.
Looking back on the past decade can be daunting, but I am regularly struck by the juxtaposition of how much we have grown with how much has also largely remained the same. We have expanded our diversity in both overall membership and leadership, representing more countries than ever before. We have experienced our first contested election with a wider spectrum of representation. With this, we have also identified areas in which the organization has grown and needs appropriate structures put in place to further support it as it moves into the future. We continue to maintain and expand existing resources while also providing additional, exciting, ones. Our spring webinar series, growing out of realized capacity revealed by necessity during the global pandemic, was a resounding success and a planned staple for years to come. Our Wiki continues to grow and, as additions are made, will become an invaluable resource to the field. In regard to conference session proposals, the leadership team was blown away by the number and quality of submissions, making the selection process more difficult but also resulting in a higher level of conference offerings to you all.
On the note of our upcoming conference, I look forward to seeing each of every one of you who are able to attend in person. For every TAICEP conference I have attended, I have left with a feeling of satisfaction of the work I do and with those for whom I do it. No other organization offers the level of detail and expertise showcased at each and every TAICEP conference. I regularly receive feedback on the relevance of discussion and information shared during these meetings and they seem to only improve year over year. Of utmost importance to ensure these qualities is the willingness for each of you to participate in these discussions.
New or veteran, public office or private office, country to country, and continent to continent, each of you has a unique perspective to share and in doing so you invariably add to the conversations had amongst ourselves. I implore you to share that perspective and contribute to each conversation regardless of your level of experience. If you are unsure, ask. If you do have experience in an area, share with the rest of us so, as a group, we can all continue to grow and learn.
A special thanks to Olivea and the Committee for Resources and Knowledge Management on putting this newsletter together. From gathering contributors to checking the content and finally formatting so it’s presentable to each of us, it requires a mountain of work to get this out to all of us. Thank you, to every contributor for sharing your expertise, and for the committee in volunteering your time and effort to disseminate it to the organization. I hope all of you enjoy topics on education in the Bahamas, digital accessibility for Ukrainian documents, recent updates from Scotland, and internal updates from our Certificate Program and TAICEP committees. If there is a topic you would like covered in a future newsletter, feel free to let the CRKM committee know (and volunteer to contribute if it is an area of passion or interest for you!)
Again, thank you for everything you do as active members in contributing to the continued success of TAICEP. It is through our combined efforts that the organization has grown to a level we enjoy today and individuals throughout our time have come together to ensure those efforts have positive, daily, impact on our professional lives. I look forward to seeing you in Quebec in the near future and please do not hesitate to stop and say “Hello!” or provide any feedback you would like to share with the leadership team. This is your organization and we continually strive to ensure it meets your standard.
Best regards,
Chris
Christopher Adams
TAICEP President, 2024
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