Trying a CAPP on for size

As noted in the comments from my last post (thanks Stan!) I will be attending the IPI Conference in Las Vegas next week.  Different from other years, however, I've joined the CAPP program.

So instead of attending 4 days of seminars, expo and carousing I'll be doing 5 days of seminars, expo and carousing.

Okay, that's not entirely true... the CAPP sessions are separate from the show's normal seminar program, starting Saturday and running through Wednesday from 8am to 5pm every day.  There are some breaks for the exposition and a few other events.

So as you can see it's actually pretty serious stuff.  I may actually have to limit some of the carousing.

In case you're wondering CAPP stands for Certified Administrator of Public Parking.  If you're not aware of CAPP, it's a semi-intense certification program for parking managers to ensure that they know all there is to know about parking management.  The University of Virginia accredits the course, and you actually get to use the letters C.A.P.P. after your name if you pass.  Since there's not much in our industry about parking certifications I definitely think this is a Good Thing.

Anyway, while I'm not really looking to make a career out of parking management (hah - too late for me!) I will say that I love these types of programs because it helps me understand customers much better.  This insight has huge value when building and architecting systems, and helps me overcome my occasional hubris in thinking that I know more about parking than our customers do.

It took me some research to figure out how CAPP works.  In my opinion the information posted on the IPI web site wasn't perfectly clear and I had to piece it together from various documents.  Here's a much more abbreviated rendition:

• You require 100 points to be eligible to write the final exam and pass the program.
• You get points for attending classes, conferences, giving presentations, and writing articles.  For example, an IPI conference gets you 20 points while attending an IPI sponsored 2-day seminar gets you 7.5 points.
• You start with some number of points assigned to you by a review board.  You have to write them and describe your parking experience, education, past attendances, and other parking-related activities.  This group of Supreme Parking Beings then determines how many points you start with.  (Obviously the more points you start with the less you need to complete the program - they gave me 46 points to start, which was awesome because if they gave me too few I wouldn't have even bothered to complete the program).
• Once you've passed the course you still need to gain a few points periodically to keep your certification active.

There are some fees along the way but these are minor - the bulk of the expense for me (and likely most people) is the travel cost associated with attending events to get points.  Incidentally, the certification administrator at IPI is Lauri Chudoba whom I haven't met yet in person but has been extremely helpful (and pleasant!) in e-mail correspondence.

If all goes according to plan I should be able to write the final exam after the 2007 IPI Conference in Tampa.  As my CAPP experience progresses I'll keep you posted.

So, that's it.  Next week should be really busy starting Saturday.  I'm looking forward to meeting my CAPP comrades, networking, learning a few new things, and generally enjoying the show. See you there (I'll be the guy in the I'm blogging this tee-shirt).

Comments

[Jim]

Do you get to wear a pointy cap (Capp?) when you graduate?