Hi folks,

I'm curious about what you think of the new CEDIA certification requirements. Below is the press release.

Dawn



CEDIA announces second phase of new requirements for association membership

Indianapolis, Ind. – The Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association (CEDIA) announced the second phase of new requirements for association membership that raises the affiliation standards for member companies while building a new foundation that further develops the expanding custom electronics industry.

Set to take effect January 31, 2006, the second phase will require all member companies to employ at least one full-time CEDIA Certified Professional. Companies who qualify will be considered “Full” members of the association. This ensures that CEDIA members represent the highest level of excellence in the custom electronics industry and bring a significant competitive advantage to the marketplace.

“CEDIA membership is growing tremendously, and we want to make sure we present the ‘cream of the crop’ for our members,” said Ray Lepper, president of CEDIA and owner of Home Media Stores in Richmond, Va. “Requiring companies to employ a full-time CEDIA Certified Professional will allow the association to emphasize its brand essence within the custom electronics industry and raise the standards for non-members who are striving to achieve excellence in their work. This can only be obtained if the company is a CEDIA member.”

Employing a CEDIA Certified Professional will provide a clear, objective standard by which companies can evaluate their employees’ skills. It will demonstrate the company’s superior value and credibility to prospective customers, including architects, builders, interior designers, and consumers. In addition, employing a CEDIA Certified Professional will provide a basis for customers to choose their company over others lacking CEDIA certification.

Beyond the essential benefits of being a CEDIA member, the 2004 CEDIA Member Survey shows companies with three (3) to thirty (30) employees with at least one CEDIA Certified Professional have higher gross revenues than those without certified employees. The result is qualified companies with greater chances of achieving financial success through its CEDIA affiliation and employment of a CEDIA Certified Professional.

Current CEDIA members that do not comply by January 31, 2006, will be placed at the Provisional Membership class. They will be removed from the Finder Service on CEDIA’s Web site and will have until March 31, 2006, to relinquish all CEDIA branding from all company material.

CEDIA introduced the first phase of membership requirements in 2004. The new Provisional Membership class is a place for both new companies to get on board with CEDIA and for non-compliant companies who are not full CEDIA members. Companies at the Provisional level share some of the benefits of Full members but are encouraged to be a Full CEDIA member because of the numerous advantages that apply.

To help obtain CEDIA Certification, CEDIA throughout the year provides many opportunities through CEDIA University education, certification reviews and exams.

“I am confident that by 2006, CEDIA membership will stand even more clearly for industry prestige, proven skills, significant competitive advantage and greater sales potential,” said Lepper. “Companies in the custom electronics industry are thriving, and we want to offer our services to them as the ticket to success.”

Read it yesterday and my initial response was FO. I wonder if I can have my '05 dues refunded. The press release should read. "We have found another way to exort money from the small guy"

I am a believer in having a self regualted standard for installers but the Level ! test is a joke. To pay $500 for that plus a days lost wages, travel, etc, its a crime. My nearest facility is 120+ miles away and is a 3 hour drive.

Rant over!

OK, just to be devils' advocate, how do you feel about state by state certficiation/licensing? I think that a group or government certification for what we do is importannt and necessary. When I first noticed this CEDIA thing my answer was "good!"

Sounds a little "Unionish" to me. Not really but you know what I mean.

Affiliations mean a lot to some people. I know some people that say "Oh I won't hire somebody unless they are Union. They're trained, they know what they're doing!"

Apparently CEDIA has decided to take the either you are with us....or you're against us attitude. At least that's the way I see it.

My question is how much money is it going to cost a contractor each year to be on the good list? Not only in training, but on the pay raise for that one extra special "certified tech" that is going to be threatening to leave without the big bucks and he'll take his certification with him?

There's a simple answer to that question; the owner should be certified. Threat removed. Any owner that can't do what is basic to his business is totally beholden to his staff, and the staff's salaries will rise as a result.

If you dont already have an installer on your team that can pass that Cedia Course on a SUnday Morning.... Blinfolded... After a 3 Day Bender.... THen you need new Installers....

All it should be is a Piece of Paper......

You have a very good and most obvious point (again I haven't had enough coffee this morning). Of course the owner will probably take one or two of his favorites along (and he should) but still, at least the threat is lessened with the techs knowing that they aren't the brains behind the establishment (although they will always argue that point behind the boss' back) .

And the sun will rise in the east; no new news there.

The owner should be certified?! No problem with me and possibly many posting here. But I have some of the largest custom shops in my area and while they could and do out sell me in a NY minute they are technically some of the most challanged individuals I have ever met. Successful businessmen? Superior salesmen? You bet. But technically competant? They pay for technical competence when it is necessary ( and not very well it is reported ).

I am more like OEX here. The problem is not passing the test--although AC/DC circuit theory may prove more challanging then many would imagine- but taking the time and losing the work. Big firms can more easily absorb the financial costs of this nonesense. Small firms, especially if the firm is like mine, where I actually perform work, as opposed to wearing button down shirts and pretending that I because I stand in a show room or sit at a desk that I am superior to those who do not. Remove the hyperbole and you still are left with someone who needs to spend time in the field or work does not get done. Not the same when you have the resources to pay for that sort of training. And there is a very real difference between taking these sorts of exams and say, AMX or Crestron programming courses. These can have direct impact on your everyday work but CEDIA certification is nebulous and of dubious value.

One more instince of the orginazation's dominance by large firms who are using systems contracting as a model. Profit margins may be higher on residential jobs but I promise you net profit margins are not. Give me 15-20% of 500k/job any day as a gross profit margin. I could hire far more competant help--eg., engineers with BS EE or BS CS. Just like the commercial contractors.

Alan

Theaterworks, you are glib mother. OEX does make the point. Because the certification is "a joke" it's a lot of money to pass on the basics to any small owner to "educate" an installer that already knows the basics. How about a quick online certification instead? No because that's too cheap and doesn't make a company go out of the way nearly enough to please.

Do any of you really believe this crap?:

“CEDIA membership is growing tremendously, and we want to make sure we present the ‘cream of the crop’ for our members,” said Ray Lepper, president of CEDIA and owner of Home Media Stores in Richmond, Va. “Requiring companies to employ a full-time CEDIA Certified Professional will allow the association to emphasize its brand essence within the custom electronics industry and raise the standards for non-members who are striving to achieve excellence in their work. This can only be obtained if the company is a CEDIA member.”

"BRAND ESSENCE?"

THIS CAN ONLY BE OBTAINED IF THE COMPANY IS A CEDIA MEMBER?!!!

BS! I smell some essence alright!

This "We're the best and since you're not with us you suck" is the collective narcissistic patting of one's self on the back . If you want to drink that koolaid you go right on ahead. I expect that we'll be seeing "FULL MEMBER" ribbons hanging from lanyards soon and "PROVISIONAL MEMBER" for those that simply pay for their membership without jumping through a few extra hoops.
I could make a good joke about somebody being a FULL MEMBER but I'll refrain.

I am not a CI nor a CEDIA member but this what I see as the problem.

1) if being a "CEDIA Certified Professional" means something and that is how you get the "highest level of excellence in the custom electronics industry ". how do I as a customer now what I am getting? if there is a company with 30 or more employees and only one of them is certified how do I know that I am getting the "highest level of excellence".

2) What happens with chain stores? can they just send one or two guys and have their chain be certified with that one person.

honestly if it is to mean anything, it would in the least need to be that every team leader needs to be certified. I cannot understand having a guy in the building (that might not even be working with installs) can mean that they are better.

CEDIA Has become a Cash Cow...... The orginal concept of the organazation was lost long ago. Most of the courses they offer a remedial at best. Its a shame because now that they ahve grown to the point there at, it IS something that a LOT of clients are aware of in the most basic sense. CEDIA Certified = Must be good

WHerein reality, all CEDIA certified means nowadays is that you sent a bunch of money into CEDIA....

The Expo has had great shows and some pretty lackluster ones. The classes I took the first few years were very good, but the past 2 years, I've passed as the last class I took was a room filled with about 100 people looking at a Screen/camera showing the inside of a CRT Projector...... Calabraton and Setup Class.......... I could help but feel taken advantage off after that class..... I really didnt learn anything Ididnt already know... and the enviroment was not condusive to that kind of class.

Well I own my business and I also “run” my business. I do the programming; am ISF certified (another crock of sh*t); crawl in the crawl spaces; sweat in the attics; do themed designed theatre rooms; fish wires through walls; do my accounting, ordering and even clean the toilets. I have been a CEDIA member since 1992. But I will resign my CEDIA membership at the end of this year.

I have been self employed all my life and am a rebellious little hump. Trying to shove this down my throat won’t work. I’ll let the rest of the CEDIA sheep swallow this and I’ll put my money elsewhere. Over the last several years, I’ve grown more disillusioned with CEDIA. It has become a mere shadow of what it once was and has become to big and too much of a runaway train to be of much use to me anymore. Oh sure I’ll still go to the Expo and walk the trade show but CEDIA has outgrown me and I have outgrown it.

I will disagree that all the classes are useless. However, I do agree that most of the technical classes are a waste. To some degree, I attribute that to my having outgrown what the technical curriculum has to offer. It hasn’t kept up with my technical knowledge base (but I have always been very aggressive in training myself). But some (heavy emphasis on “some”) of the marketing & management classes are excellent. One just has to be good at figuring out which ones are a load of crap and which ones have something useful to offer. Eric Johnson’s’ classes have always been great and I have gotten good stuff out of Eric Bodley, Rick Schuett and especially lately, Rob Gerhardt (sorry if I misspelled any of those names).

But the CEDIA management course in the spring has been an annual joke. Although I really don’t know how the recent one turned out. If it was like any of the other, they should bury that dead possum.

There are other options if one feels a need to belong to an organization and CEDIA’s recent move will probably spur some grass roots organization to rise to fill the need of the defectors.

I thought about starting this thread about 2 months ago when this became public. I’ve had over 2 months to think about it and I still feel the same way now as I did when I first heard about it. It’s all just politics within organization that has to find new ways to justify its existence.

I think that some governing body needs to certify our industry. I don't hear anyone disagreeing with me on that point (yet).

It's clear that many have an axe to grind with CEDIA. I don't feel they always represent my best interests, and they've gotten so large that I'm now a very small fish in a very big bowl. That's a reflection of the growth in our industry; did anyone really think (not just wish; think, believe) that when the big $$ started rolling in we would stay a cottage industry? Not gonna happen; money attracts people.

If not CEDIA (lacking disagreement on my leading point, certification), then who? Government? OK, it's done in a lot of states (not mine). I'm not sure who I would rather have govern my certification, govenment or CEDIA. I know for certain who I would have less influence with, and they are in Springfield, not Indianapolis. I know for certain who's influence is for sale, and that my pockets are not deep enough to buy a place at the table.

Just wanting to have a lively conversation here. :-)

Like CEDIA will ever be a "governing body". It's simply marketing...and a lame one at that. When the motivations are simply to justify one's existence, the only body that can make that work (and sometimes poorly) is the "government". Just what we need is more beaurocracy in this world.

This is a great example of letting the market decide what will work. Why do we need a governing body? So our industry doesn't give itself a black eye? Too late for that. But I'm also a big believer that sometimes customers get what they deserve. Looking for the cheapest price often gets the cheapest service. CEDIA certification will not put a stop to that and will not level the playing field. Personally, I'd prefer to level the playing field myself...with my own marketing, my own prowess and savy. I don't need CEDIA to make a half baked effort at that. What I need CEDIA to do is put on a good trade show/expo that culls together all the great minds of our industry and get the hell out of the way. Come on QQQ. it's time for your acid tipped tongue to chime in on this!