Planning for certification
Get the proper materials and start, THEN send in your preliminary application to start the one-year clock and receive the BCG-supplied document.
However I would like to correct one impression about purchasing the Application Guide alone vs. the Application Packet. At http://www.bcgcertification.org/catalog/index.html you will see what each looks like. If you purchase the guide alone you will need to send in an additional $45 when you are ready to submit your preliminary application. The Preliminary Application alone (not the purchase of the guide) triggers the one-year clock, plus your subscription to the newsletter _OnBoard_, and the office sending you a document as part of requirement 3. The packet includes the $45 preliminary application fee along with a past issue of _OnBoard_ (value $5), the $13 Application Guide Book, and the $15 1-year subscription to _OnBoard_. Add those up and you can see the value.
Either way you go, the _BCG Application Guide_ gives the step by step instructions (cross-referenced to the _Standards Manual_) on what you are to place in your lightweight notebook with dividers.
You can begin by getting a notebook and 7 dividers for the 7 steps and then just work on one section at
a time. A checklist is a great idea to keep track of things.
You can see real portfolio examples at http://www.bcgcertification.org/certification/sampleapp/sampleapp.html.
Perhaps make a date with yourself on a regular basis to work on the portfolio telling family that this is "your time."
If you want other tips, the BCG Certification Seminar given at the 2007 NGS conference in Richmond
session T-211 (two hours) is available on CD-Rom at http://jamb-inc.erikbuschardt.com (as are the other sessions from that wonderful conference.)
Speaking of learning opportunities, this is another inexpensive option to attending conferences. Buy the syllabus from sponsoring organization and the recordings from their contracted taping company. You will then have about half of the conference experience in your hands (the other half is being interactive with the speaker and rubbing elbows with fellow genealogists in the classes, halls, and lunches, not to mention the always free-to-enter exhibit hall.)
Elissa Scalise Powell, CG [Elissa@PowellGenealogy.com], "Re: [TRANSITIONAL-GENEALOGISTS-FORUM] Planning for certification," TRANSITIONAL-GENEALOGISTS-FORUM, discussion list, 23 Dec 2007 (http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/other/Miscellaneous/TRANSITIONAL-GENEALOGISTS-FORUM.html : 24 Dec 2007).
Application Evaluation - Some Tips about How It is Done
There exists an urban legend that applicants fail because they "didn't dot
every i and cross every t just the way BCG says to do it." Sometimes, BCG's
counsel to "read the instructions and follow them" is interpreted in that
nitpicking way, but the evaluation of a portfolio is not about nitpicking
instructions. If someone totally fails because they didn't follow
instructions, there are serious problems involved.
Take, for example, Requirement 3, Document Work. BCG supplies a document for
which the applicant is asked to do 5 things:
A. Transcribe the document.
B. Abstract the document.
C. Design a research focus (an angle to be pursued on the basis of the
information in the document).
D. Analyze the data in the document related to focus.
E. Design a research plan to carry out the focus.
The instructions for 3-E say "one page or less." If you write 2 pages, that
is "not following instructions"; but that would certainly not be cause for
failure. On the other hand, if you do only 3-B and 3-E, and don't do 3-A, C,
and D, then you haven't fulfilled requirements and you haven't provided the
kind of work samples the evaluators need to assess all your skills.
As a second example, consider Requirement 6, Case Study: Conflicting or
Indirect Evidence. The instructions say:
"Your presentation should use *one* of the following techniques:
(a) assemble and correlate indirect evidence; or
(b) resolve a conflict between two or more items of direct evidence or
(c) resolve a conflict between direct evidence and indirect evidence"
And then it adds:
"You should supply for your case study a title or label that indicates your
choices of a, b, or c."
If an applicant "doesn't follow instructions" and doesn't give the case
study a descriptive title or label that tells the judges what the applicant
has set out to do, will the applicant fail? No, not for that reason. If the
case study is good, the judges might say, "The case study needed a title or
label that indicates the type of problem you intended to solve; for the
first several pages, we were not sure what direction you were going in"; but
a good piece of research and problem-resolution would never get a failing
grade because it didn't word a title a certain way.
On the other hand, let's say the applicant sends in, for this requirement, a
one-sheet list of documents -- all of which provide direct evidence that
"Joe Brown is the son of John" -- and the applicant has carefully patterned
that list after the _Standard Manual_'s Appendix D--Example 1, which
demonstrates how to prepare a cover list for a stack of documents submitted
in a client report (i.e., an entirely different creature than what
Requirement 6 calls for). In that case, the applicant has not just "not
followed instructions" but has failed to demonstrate the evidence analysis
and problem-solving skills necessary for certification. (What the applicant
*has* demonstrated, in this hypothetical, is [a] s/he doesn't understand the
difference between direct and indirect evidence; and [b] doesn't understand
the difference between a case study and a cover list for a bundle of
documents.)
Debbie is right that applicants should read and follow the instructions. But
in the end, it's the applicant's skill and judgment that determines success
or failure.
My suggestion is this:
1. Read each instruction.
2. Ask yourself *why* BCG asks for you to do abc or xyz -- or why BCG asks
for it to be done a certain way. Pretend that it's a multiple choice
question, with two options:
(a) BCG is persnickety and is looking for a way to say "gotcha."
(b) This specific approach is a clear way to demonstrate a particular skill
set.
3. Then, after you have decided on 2-B, ask yourself:
(a) What skills would this be designed to showcase?
(b) What qualities does this instruction hope to foster? and
(c) How can I present my skills here in the best possible manner?
*Thinking through* the instructions, plowing deep into the "why" of those
instructions, will help you to create a solid portfolio of work, superbly
executed. "Following instructions" is not all about "dotting every 'i' and
crossing every 't' just so-so."
Elizabeth Shown Mills [eshown@comcast.net], "Subject: Re: [APG] Questiom about kinship-Determination Project for Certification," APG-L, discussion list, 27 Apr 2008 (http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/other/Genealogical_Societies/APG.html: 27 Apr 2008).
Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 09:49:19 -0400
From: "Elissa Scalise Powell, CG" <Elissa@PowellGenealogy.com>
Subject: Re: [TGF] Peer review, picking brains, and preparing
portfolios for certification
To: <transitional-genealogists-forum@rootsweb.com>
Archives:
http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/other/Miscellaneous/TRANSITIONAL-GENEALOGISTS-FORUM.html
That's not quite it either, Dee Dee. When the original words were posted it said that *some* people liken it to a final exam. It has been a long-standing "rule" that board-certified people should not review and give explicit recommendations on portfolio submissions. This has the possibility of being misconstrued as being "pre-judged" and if the judges' evaluations come back and saying something different, the applicant is both confused and upset about it.
When preparing a portfolio you want to let your best work shine. It is natural to have doubts about that work and to seek assurance from others. The others can review any *other* work product than what is placed in the portfolio without any reservations. If you take their constructive comments and apply it to all your work samples then that will improve the body of your knowledge and quality of work. When that has been accomplished it should not be too hard to apply the principles you have learned to your portfolio submission. This can also be accomplished by following the principles in the _BCG Genealogical Standards Manual._ It was not created to just take up shelf space but to speak to the standard practices that every good genealogist should embrace.
Sarah, I tried to find session T-211 on Jamb, and it seems to skip from T-207 to T-212. What am I missing?
Thanks!
Cathi