If I remember right, the CEM dates from around 1994 or 1995. I was one of the early people in Washington state who obtained a CEM back in that era. I maintained it for 10 years, renewing it once. Then I stopped! There were two reasons for my not maintaining the certification. One was that it was difficult to obtain the training hours necessary to remain certified. Back then I worked for King County and we had significant travel restrictions so going to national conferences was generally out of the question. But the real issue was my observation of who was getting a CEM and their knowledge and abilities as emergency managers. I had found the application process as being pretty formulaic and really not that difficult to do. In my assessment, it appeared — and still appears today — that while having CEM after your name may help you in getting an interview for a job, it does little to really define the quality of your abilities as an emergency manager. I'm sure the above will raise some eyebrows somewhere!
Then there is the EMAP for organizations. There I think the opposite is true. Your really have to have your act together as an emergency management office and as a jurisdiction to obtain accreditation. A team of assessors descend on your office and there are no easy outs. Additionally, the hard part is that it is not just your office of emergency management being accredited, but your entire jurisdiction — which means all your departments and their functions. To do the above is not simple or easy. Any jurisdiction that gets accredited has proven themselves worthy of the accomplishment.
One final note, the city of Seattle recently received their EMAP accreditation. Seattle is the first Northwest city to achieve national emergency management accreditation.
