SAGE, certification, and you

[Pat Wilson <paw@northstar.dartmouth.edu>]

Listen up, folks - this is important!

During our January meeting, the SAGE Board did its annual planning and
goal-setting exercise.  Often, nothing earth-shattering occurs.  This time,
however, we took the Certification bull by the horns and have made a Plan.

We kept coming back to the mission statement phrase "advancement of systems
administration as a profession" and what that implies.  After a rather
vociferous debate we agreed (some more cheerfully than others) that a
"profession" entails certification - careers without such things are
generally referred to as "trades" (think of the difference between 
MDs and morticians, for example).

On the other hand, it's possible to have certification without it being
mandatory (one doesn't have to be a Realtor(TM) to sell property), or without 
accredited education (it's still possible to become a lawyer by "reading" law 
in Vermont).  We certainly aren't yet ready to think about a certification
_mandate_ for members.  However, somewhere along the line, that question
will resurface.  

In the meantime, other agencies are stepping in to fill the
"breach" and setting up certification efforts of their own.  It's our
belief that, if any _meaningful_ skills assessment program for our industry
is going to emerge, SAGE (as the professional association) needs to be
involved - as a coordinating body, if nothing else.  We have waffled about
this for far too long.

What we concluded was that it should be possible to have some sort of low
level (SAGE I, core competency) certification, and then develop programs
for education (at least) and certification (perhaps) in special topic areas
(e.g the Merit Badges, renamed).  Member response to the recent survey
(posted last month to sage-members@usenix.org - if you're not on the list
and care about SAGE, sign up[1]!) indicated that most respondants preferred
a "single certification plus special topics" structure.  Look for activity
on this (especially in the core competency arena) in the next few months.

We anticipate that our decision will be controversial. However, we do all 
agree on the necessity for extra-curricular education and evaluation for 
our members, and by making such programs official we may be able to set 
standards which help us, our employers (both present and future) and the 
industry.

We await your feedback (on sage-members@usenix.org, or directly
to us at sage-board@usenix.org).

Your SAGE Board

[1] by sending mail to majordomo@usenix.org containing the line "subscribe sage-members"