CIP Redux

Please accept our thanks for all of the comments around the future of the CIP. They have been gratifying in what they reveal about the passion that people feel for AIIM. This is a terrific thing and a trust we do not take lightly.

When the Board meets, they try to imagine the entire membership sitting around the table and make decisions accordingly. Sometimes those decisions need reexamination and modification, and the Board has done that.

In the struggle to make ends meet — and keeping any non-profit viable is no easy feat these days — it’s easy to forget that passion is the underlying force that keeps any association alive. Given this, we would like to outline as simply as possible a path to retain and grow the CIP and outline a path forward.

The AIIM training program represents an extremely wide net of information competencies; much wider than we originally anticipated when we launched the first two courses. The range of competencies covered by AIIM’s training program now includes content management, records management, information governance, business process management, taxonomies, metadata, capture, SharePoint governance, content analytics, and all of the underlying technologies that support these broad areas. A “Master” is one who has a deep dive understanding of one particular competency. A CIP is one who has a broad grasp of all of these technologies. Both are important.

The CIP was intended to cover a broad set of information management technologies — broader than our two training courses at the time. The original body of knowledge for the CIP was defined separately from that of our training program, never fully realizing at the time how expansive our own content and information management training would become. The lack of linkage between the two bodies of knowledge created a virtually impossible task in keeping both up to date and current in an era of rapidly changing technologies.

Given the above, we will proceed as follows:

1. We will continue the CIP and begin work on CIP 2.0.
2. For CIP 2.0, we will redefine its body of knowledge as the full body of knowledge represented across all of AIIM's training courses.
3. We will launch CIP 2.0 at AIIM16.

Thanks again for all of the passion for AIIM. If there are any comments or questions or confusion about your particular situation regarding the CIP (I know the past week has been confusing), please direct them specifically to me (johnmancini [at] aiim.org) and I will get them answered.

We look forward to celebrating the accomplishments of all of our Masters and CIPs at AIIM16, and we hope to see you there. Happy Holidays.