The Survey had 664 responses, a 25% return rate. Groundspring, our email service, reported that 673 people clicked on the link to the survey and that 547 people clicked on the link to the certification information the AIC website.
1. How long have you been an AIC member?
| A. 0-2 years | 12.8% |
| B. 3-5 years | 13.1% |
| C. 6-10 years | 16.1% |
| D. 11-15 years | 14.8% |
| E. 16-20 years | 17.6% |
| F. Over 20 years | 25.6% |
2. What is your membership type within AIC?
| A. Associate | 38.6% |
| B. Professional Associate | 39.6% |
| C. Fellow | 11% |
| D. Student/Interim Year | 10.5% |
| E. Institutional Representative | 3% |
3. What is your primary occupation?
| A. Practicing Conservator | 77.6% |
| B. Conservation Scientist | 2% |
| C. Conservation Administrator | 5.3% |
| D. Allied Professional | 3.9% |
| E. Conservation Student | 6.3% |
| F. Other | 5% |
4. Do you work in...?
| A. A museum, library,archive, or other institution | 42% |
| B. Private practice | 37.5% |
| C. A regional conservation center | 6.5% |
| D. Some combination of private practice and institution/museum setting | 5.7% |
| E. Student | 5% |
| F. Other | 3.3% |
5. Did you attend the Issues Session concerning certification on April 19 at the 2007 AIC Annual Meeting?
6. After attending the Issue Session and/or reading the information on the website about the proposed AIC certification model are you in favor of AIC developing a certification program for conservators consisting of a multiple choice exam?
| A. Yes | 45.3% |
| B. No | 20.8% |
| C. Undecided | 34% |
7. If maintaining a certification program were to cost AIC an additional $25,000K a year in unrecovered expenses what should AIC do ?
| A. Go ahead with the program. Certification is needed for the profession and AIC should be the driving force behind a certification program for conservators. | 42.1% |
| B. Look for other less costly options even if it means choosing a certification program based on a model other than a multiple choice exam. | 23.7% |
| C. Do not start a certification program unless we are reasonably assured it will not lose money. | 34% |
8. If you answered A or B to question # 7, would you support a dues increase (of around $10 on top of regular inflation-based dues increases) and/or reallocation of funds from scaling back of other programs and services to fund certification?
| A. I would favor a dues increase and/or scaling back of other programs to fund certification | 55.7% |
| B. I would not favor a dues increase, but would favor reallocation of funds fromscaling back of other programs. | 16.1% |
| C. I prefer that AIC not start a certification program if it needs to be funded by a dues increase or through a reallocation of funds. | 28.2% |
9. If the fee for taking the certification exam were $300 for AIC members and the exam were offered at the AIC Annual Meeting, would you take an AIC-sponsored certification exam within 3 years of its launch?
| A. Yes | 30.1% |
| B. No, the cost of the exam and the travel costs are too high. | 29.8% |
| C. No, I would not be interested in taking exam regardless of cost. | 17.2% |
| D. Undecided | 22.8% |
10. If AIC needed to look at other types of exam models (as opposed to the current proposed model of a paper-based, multiple-choice exam given at the Annual Meeting), to reduce the potential cost of the certification program, what other exam models do you believe could be valid tests of a conservator’s ability? Please check all that apply.
| A. A reviewed based essay question exam with the candidates required to supply treatment reports along with the exam. Reviewers would be from the candidate’s specialty, but would not know who the candidate was (a blind review process). Checks and balances would be put in to factor out issues like quality and style of the writing in the grading process. | 47.9% |
| B. An online exam of the kind used by universities, with all security and other safeguards that are available at the time of implementation. | 52.3% |
| C. Only a proctored, paper based, multiple choice exam has enough safeguards to be a fair assessment of a conservator’s skills. | 12.3% |
| D. Other (fill in) | 14.5% |
11. If the vote on the model proposed by the Certification Development Committee (a multiple choice, proctored, paper-based exam) were to be held today would you approve this model?
| A. Yes | 34.7% |
| B. No | 28.2% |
| C. Undecided at this time | 37% |
© The American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works