Credentialing

Hi everyone! In addition to my work with the American Welding Society, I serve on an ethics committee for the Association for Materials Protection and Performance (think about all the infrastructure out there in the world that at least has a coat of paint slapped on it and likely has a sophisticated coating system in place to protect itself from the elements and ensure a long service life). We are highly reactive today, adjudicating ethics complaints against individual and organizational members. If, for example, a coating inspector falsifies their certification credentials, cheats on an exam, or otherwise acts unethically, we handle those cases. We would like to be more proactive, however, both to ensure that members report violations of our ethical standards and to foster a strong sense of professional ethics in the coating industry. If you have a committee like ours, I wonder what proactive efforts they're making.

I'll share a few ideas that I've been thinking about. I would welcome your thoughts and suggestions on these and other ideas. For each of these ideas, we would need to consider alignment with our committee's purpose and scope, who we would partner with, what resources would be necessary, what obstacles we might face, and how we would measure and evaluate.

Ethics Training. The association does require ethics training periodically for certification. We could get involved with defining what initial and ongoing training is needed or assist with design of a standard course. As a committee, we may even offer our own training. 

Case Studies. While we keep the Board informed of our activities, I'm not aware of any reporting to our membership, which could include anonymized case studies outlining what happened, what the ethical implications are, and what the committee decided. I've seen excellent examples of this from the National Society of Professional Engineers. 

Ethics Hotline. I believe we had an ethics hotline in the past that enabled members to discuss potential ethics violations and receive confidential ethical guidance. 

Ethics Program/Track at Conferences. I frequently give talks and facilitate workshops on ethics. However, I've not done that on behalf of our committee, and I don't know if our committee has ever had that kind of involvement in conference planning. 

I appreciate any and all suggestions you can offer. Thanks so much!