Greetings.
This afternoon, October 31, 2016, at 1:00pm CDT the AITP National Association Board of Directors conducted a special meeting to vote on the possible CompTIA/AITP partnership. That meeting has been held. Revised National Association Bylaws were passed and subsequently the resolution on the proposed partnership was presented and passed unanimously. As of 12:01am, November 1, 2016, the partnership with CompTIA will commence with the transfer of control to CompTIA. As NEW AITP moves forward under the new arrangement, your NEW Board of Directors will continue to stay informed and provide input and insight for the continued operation and direction of NEW AITP. As your president, I will continue to do the best I can to keep our membership informed in a timely manner. Below is the contents of the email I released on Thursday evening that describes the partnership. Please do not hesitate to contact me with questions or concerns at president@newaitp.org.
–Jay Esty, 2016 President
—– Text of Thursday, October 27, 2016 Email to NEW AITP Chapter Membership ——
BREAKING NEWS:
The Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP) has been discussing a potential partnership with the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA). Your local board of directors became aware of these discussions between AITP and CompTIA in September 2016. Recommendations regarding the partnership were brought to the national board meetings in September 2016 and October 2016. Based on the information we have received to date, we are currently in favor of the proposed partnership.
If the partnership is approved during a special national board meeting on Monday October 31st, 2016, the transition process would begin on November 1st, 2016 and take full effect on January 1st, 2017. Earlier this afternoon you should have received an invitation from AITP Headquarters to listen to this special board meeting,
CompTIA was already planning to establish a membership-based professional IT association with local chapters, very similar to the existing AITP structure. CompTIA approached AITP and proposed a partnership to form a single entity. By combining forces, we will not be competing with each other or duplicating efforts.
Why is CompTIA interested in supporting a professional association?
The goal of CompTIA offering a professional association is NOT to sell more certifications! CompTIA is a strong champion of the IT workforce and wishes to elevate its voice, relevance and impact as it seeks to close the considerable IT skills gap, encourage individuals to pursue tech careers and support those individuals with industry insight, training, education, tools and other resources to help them stay relevant, marketable and enjoying successful careers.
Why is AITP interested in partnering with CompTIA?
Combining forces with CompTIA provides our AITP chapters with a huge growth opportunity, which could allow AITP to provide more benefits to members. CompTIA would promote membership to their prospects (2.7M/year), alumni (1M), and new certification customers (200K/year). CompTIA and AITP have a vision of working together to grow membership from 3600 to 10K in 2017 and to 20K members in 2018.
How would the partnership affect our local chapter?
NEW AITP will retain control over all local management, local assets, and local events. The partnership would NOT have an impact on our board of directors, bank accounts, scholarship funds, monthly chapter meetings, our annual Technology Hub Conference, or any other local events.
How would the partnership affect our local members?
Member dues will NOT increase in 2017. Members will NOT be expected to hold CompTIA certifications, nor will they receive discounts for holding CompTIA certifications. We anticipate that CompTIA will provide additional benefits to our members, such as free continuing education benefits for CompTIA certification holders. They will also be providing additional financial support to chapters to increase marketing.
How would the merger affect our local students?
CompTIA is very committed to the next generation of IT and is very interested in continuing and supporting our student chapters. CompTIA does not plan to change the 2017 National Collegiate Conference (NCC) event, which many of our local students attend. We anticipate that the partnership with CompTIA will only benefit our local student chapters and future regional/national conferences.
What is next?
If the AITP national board of directors approves the proposed partnership with CompTIA next week, we anticipate changes over the next year will be very minimal. CompTIA is committed to “business as usual” for the association throughout most of 2017. The national “Board of Directors” would continue to oversee AITP chapters and events. The day-to-day operations AITP outsources to a management company would transition to CompTIA staff. CompTIA may launch a new member website and a new membership renewal process in 2017. They do not plan to make any other changes until 2018.
I anticipate AITP will email an announcement to all members very soon. If not, I will do my best to keep you informed of any progress related to this proposed partnership. Please reply to me with any questions or concerns you might have.
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