Message from the Executive Director: What Will 2017 Bring?

No one can predict the future, but it sure is fun to try. The ending of one year and the beginning of another is always a great time for reflection, assessment and thinking about the future. The ICE Board of Directors and management team are looking forward to the exciting prospects of 2017. Here’s a quick look back and forward:

In the past five years, ICE has concentrated on several programmatic priorities for its members and customers:

Professional Development

We have grown the professional development offerings from approximately three to over a dozen. This focus was based on the expressed needs of members in ICE surveys and focus groups as well as a strategic look at the various staffing levels and volunteer educational needs of a credentialing organization. We now offer a variety of programming from specialists to CEOs. We also strategically looked at the areas of potential growth (certificate programs, international expansion, etc).

Government Affairs 

After taking a brief hiatus, ICE returned to monitoring legislation and regulation at the federal level. With an operational Government Affairs Committee for two years, we have tracked developments with the military credentialing work at the American Legion and the Veterans Affairs Department. The committee tracked several other issues and developments with relevance to the credentialing community. The ICE GA page tells the story and tracks all the details.

Membership Development

Even though ICE is largely structured around an organizational membership, we have opened up the membership profiles to allow an unlimited number of staff individuals and public members. This was an important development as we began to see that our programs and products benefited so many types of individuals within an organization. Keeping your profile up-to-date is an important function of your primary contact person and allows us to stay in touch. The online profile for individuals and organizations is a heavily used feature of the ICE website.

These are only a few highlights of the strategic growth in the past five years. For more highlights on accomplishments for 2016, download the ICE Annual Report.

In 2017, ICE has identified a few specific priorities that will require focus and resources.

Accreditation Services Council 

As was announced at the ICE conference, ICE is developing a strategic body called the Accreditation Services Council. This council will be in a unique position to examine all of the accreditation components (products) of ICE and determine trends, analyze metrics, determine systematic or structural obstacles to the accreditation process and analyze customer service trends and results. Generally, they will serve as a resource to the accreditation services in a way that will allow the individual bodies to concentrate on their workload. ICE is in a unique position to grow its accreditation services so this enhancement is intended to ensure that we have the capacity, systems and staffing in place to service the demand.

Maintenance of Certification Threats

With over a dozen state legislative bodies looking into some form of maintenance of certification legislation in the medical/healthcare arena, ICE is getting involved in ways that should be meaningful to ICE credentialing member organizations. The threat of a spillover effect into non-healthcare related occupations seems to be a possibility. This threat will be monitored closely. Read more on the ICE website.

Website Navigation Redesign 

With all of the additional products that ICE has added over the last several years, we have heard from members and customers alike that the website is difficult to navigate. We plan to do an overhaul of how the website is organized and structured for the purpose of purchasing products and education. This will take approximately six months and will not impact the overall graphic look of the sight. We welcome your input as we plan this overhaul activity. Please send any thoughts or comments to ICE staff at info@credentialingexcellence.org.

The one thing that will not change with ICE is the strong commitment to community. Over the past several years, I hear from so many members about how ICE is their professional family, how they’ve learned so much from their peers over the years, and that coming to the ICE Exchange is like coming home. That commitment to the credentialing profession and your community will not change.

It’s an exciting time in the credentialing community. I look forward to hearing from you on how ICE can best serve your needs well into the future. Drop me a note at droosendaal@credentialingexcellence.org.