Sigrid Gauger: Okay…
Sarah Meyers: So, I'm gonna start us off with some board member introductions. My name is Sarah Myers, and I am the testing chair for the Prevention Specialist Certification Board of Washington, and so if you have taken the test, passed the test, not passed the test, registered for the test, asked for help studying for the test.
Sarah Meyers: You're gonna be going through me, and I'm one of our six board members, I believe, so I'm gonna pass it to Sigrid next to introduce herself.
Sigrid Gauger: Hi, I'm Sigrid Gager, and I'm the one that put these slides together, so I hope they're clear for you.
Sigrid Gauger: And I'm the co-president of the board at this time.
Sarah Meyers: And Beverly?
Beverly Sarles: Hi, so I'm Beverly, and in addition to sitting on the board, I also sit on the committee for Ethics.
Sarah Meyers: And Sheila, and then Liz.
Sheila Crapper: Okay, I'm Sheila Cropper, and I'm a member of the board, and also the secretary of the board now.
Sarah Meyers: Liz, are you there?
Liz Wilhelm: here?
Liz Wilhelm: Hi, everyone!
Liz Wilhelm: I'm Liz Wilhelm, and I'm a long-time director on the board. I currently am co-president with Seagrid, and I get to chair the Education Committee and the Ethics Committee. Glad you're all here, thank you.
Sarah Meyers: There, I just want to address that there has been some issues with, the password of the Zoom link not working. Obviously, all of you were able to get in just fine, but, if anyone's contacting you, saying, how do I get into this webinar, what we found worked is that if you just go to our homepage website and re-register.
Sarah Meyers: I've got my email up, just in case folks,
Sarah Meyers: contact me about the password. We've had about 4 people randomly say that the password didn't work, so…
Sarah Meyers: All right, so, welcome. Okay, no password needed, that's so interesting. Zoom is just one of those things sometimes. So, this is our second webinar that the Prevention Specialist Certification Board is hosting, and we decided earlier this year at our annual meeting
Sarah Meyers: That we just want to have more face-to-face or digital face-to-face,
Sarah Meyers: contact with our applicants, because I think it will make the process smoother, it will keep renewals and recertification on the top of everyone's mind, because it's something that can kind of get away from you if you're not thinking about it that often. And then we also have some new things that we want to…
Sarah Meyers: Show you, and some things that we want to bring to your all's attention.
Sarah Meyers: So, the first thing that we have that's new
Sarah Meyers: is that we're gonna be piloting something called… that we're gonna be calling our renewal year, or your third year upload period. So, for those of you who don't know, about one year ago, we changed the certification from a 2-year certification to a 3-year certification.
Sarah Meyers: And one of the things that we run into quite often as a board is,
Sarah Meyers: how long it takes for folks to get their documents in, and for how long it takes for us to review them. And so, we started saying, hey, we need everybody's documents 90 days ahead of time, but then sometimes an application would take more than 90 days.
Sarah Meyers: Then…
Sarah Meyers: So then we would have an expired credential, right? And so now, one of the things that we're piloting this year is those… for those of you who are already certified, we changed the certification from 2 years to 3 years, we want you to think of your third year as your upload year.
Sarah Meyers: So that you can track your hours as you go, and upload the documents as you go, so there isn't, like, a rush to the finish line, like, 90 days ahead of time. So we just want to…
Sarah Meyers: We just want to be in less of a rush of getting things approved. So, for example, my birthday is in 10 days, and that would be the start of my third year. So, my credential expires on my birthday.
Sarah Meyers: in 2027, so my last year of certification will start pretty soon, so then I would give myself most of this year.
Sarah Meyers: the 12 months before my birthday to gather the documents, spend some time on the website, understand what hours I need to get.
Sarah Meyers: And, start uploading those, and request my upload folder on our website.
Sarah Meyers: Does anyone have any questions right now?
Beverly Sarles: There is one, cigarette tea…
Beverly Sarles: Can we turn off the chime when participants enter?
Beverly Sarles: Is that a possibility?
Sigrid Gauger: All I'm doing is clicking them to admit, so is that causing something at the other end?
Beverly Sarles: I'm wondering if you put yourself on mute for a minute and see if that helps.
Sigrid Gauger: Okay.
Sigrid Gauger: I don't know if I can pin it on mute, but…
Sarah Meyers: Okay, so no questions so far, which is good.
Sarah Meyers: Sigrid, is this… is this your slide? Or is this just an example?
Sigrid Gauger: Oh, no, that's yours.
Sarah Meyers: Talked about.
Sigrid Gauger: It's trying to get it to advance.
Sigrid Gauger: Seems to be slow.
Minette Smith: So, who would we contact if we want to,
Minette Smith: start a folder. So we would just be starting a folder, right, and starting to upload stuff, but we wouldn't necessarily be finished with our.
Sarah Meyers: Yeah, so, to go back a little bit further for those of you… for some of you, this might be your first time hearing about prevention certification.
Sarah Meyers: So, to back it up just a little bit, we operate on a Google Drive upload process, and to start the process, you will go to our website, which is pscbw.com.
Sarah Meyers: And you, gosh, what is the term, Sigrid?
Sarah Meyers: request folder, or intent?
Sigrid Gauger: Yeah, and can't do it to accuracy.
Sigrid Gauger: And each… each intent form, when you go on the website, each certification level has its own intent form.
Sarah Meyers: Yeah, so that will be process one, and we do have a policy, though, that if your folder is inactive for a year, that we have a process of archiving
Sarah Meyers: folders, and so, Sigrid, if somebody is wanting to apply for initial certification, what would you suggest? How early should they
Sarah Meyers: Request their intent.
Sigrid Gauger: Well, if people are just now inquiring about how to become a CPP and what do they need to do, my suggestion is you go to the website.
Sigrid Gauger: And we have a Frequently Asked Questions page that answers a lot of questions.
Sigrid Gauger: And then also on the applications form page.
Sigrid Gauger: there is, if you look in the initial CPP certification box that's at the top, you'll see,
Sigrid Gauger: CPP… initial CPP requirements, manual, basically. So, that will walk you through the entire process of how to prepare, what you need to, you know, get, how much experience you need, and all this, such. So, it's pretty informative already on our website.
Sarah Meyers: Yeah, our… our website is incredibly information dense, so,
Sarah Meyers: if you need something, it's… if you have a question for something, it's probably in our Frequently Asked Questions, section of our website.
Sarah Meyers: So, any other questions at this time?
Beverly Sarles: No.
Sarah Meyers: Great!
Sigrid Gauger: Just trying to get the slide to advance.
Beverly Sarles: Why don't you stop sharing and then reshare and see if that helps.
Sigrid Gauger: Okay.
Sarah Meyers: So, for those of you, while Secret's getting, the slide to advance, for those of you who were on our last webinar, which was in November, one of the things that folks asked for was a tracker for their CEH
Sarah Meyers: documents, kind of like an Excel file, and so that was one of the suggestions from folks that day. So, we went ahead and did that.
Sarah Meyers: Angela, do you have a quick question? I'm happy to call on you.
Angela Kruger: Maybe I'll wait till the end. It is specifically about dates on my certificate and stuff. I'll just wait till the end.
Sarah Meyers: Yeah, you can also… you can also type it in the chat, and Beverly's monitoring… monitoring our chat for questions. Thank you.
Angela Kruger: Thank you.
Sigrid Gauger: Okay, this is the form that we came up with. It looks the same, basically, on the form that we're currently have on our website, as far as the information goes.
Sigrid Gauger: But this is what the new one looks like in the draft, so we're looking for people to test it out and see what you think about it, and whether there are any final edits that need to be made for it.
Sigrid Gauger: So, I have examples of different CEH's events.
Sigrid Gauger: And then the dates get filled in. If it's a range of dates, I just suggest the month, and then the dash between the number of the dates that you're taking it.
Sigrid Gauger: I can't see it on the other side, because I got the… there.
Sigrid Gauger: So, you can see that I have the…
Sigrid Gauger: categories listed at the top, with the number of CEHs required just under that.
Sigrid Gauger: Now, the blue row that you see is at the top, and then it's also going to be at the bottom, as far as this example goes. But what happens is, is that as you scroll, you know, and you add more events, and more events, and more events, and you number them as you put them in.
Sigrid Gauger: The page will actually start increasing, and if you have enough, it'll go into the second page, and you'll still see the heading row up there.
Sigrid Gauger: This will be on each page. It's a running total, so you don't have to totally scroll… scroll all the way down to the document to find the total. So, this is running, and it matches the actual column totals.
Sigrid Gauger: So, we're hoping to get, you know, a lot of feedback, and see if this is something that's workable.
Sigrid Gauger: And if I… and these are examples, so I'm…
Sigrid Gauger: I'm thinking about… I'm going to be putting a link to the actual document, for you to download, and I'll still have the examples on there, just to give you an idea of what we're looking for, and how to document it. So you're welcome to…
Sigrid Gauger: Delete those once you want to start entering your own.
Sarah Meyers: Great. Secret, do you have it available to drop in the chat now? And if you do, I have some time to answer some questions.
Sigrid Gauger: Okay, well, I wanted… this is the last slide.
Sarah Meyers: Yeah, go ahead.
Sigrid Gauger: Our current documents or folders that are within our CPP renewal,
Sigrid Gauger: is… are the ones on the left. So each page of the current form has its own folder for putting in the,
Sigrid Gauger: attendance verification documents. And then now, with the revised form, we're eliminating two folders, so a little bit less, you know, to have to navigate.
Sarah Meyers: Yeah, for those of you who are, looking into initial certification, the… the form that we had folks filling out their hours on, I think it only had 12 lines, or 9 lines.
Sarah Meyers: Was it something like that, Sea Grid?
Sigrid Gauger: On the initial?
Sarah Meyers: Yeah, on the old form.
Sigrid Gauger: Yeah, it, it has several pages, or 3 pages, so it has something like 32 events, you know, that you can fill in.
Sarah Meyers: Yeah, but it was over the… so each… each page of it only had spots for 9 or 12, things, and so we would get folks who had to fill out
Sarah Meyers: 3 of them, so that we were looking at 3 pages of… of forms that are all correlated to a certificate, and so we're hoping with this form
Sarah Meyers: There will just be one page instead of up to 9 pages.
Sigrid Gauger: Hey!
Beverly Sarles: Okay, so there's a question, are dates necessary for the application, or just for the personal records?
Sarah Meyers: They are necessary for your application, and every certificate that you get will typically have a date on it, and so it's, the dates are important, because for certification periods, depending on if you're going to your
Sarah Meyers: Depending on if you're going to your initial certification, you can go back
Sarah Meyers: X number of years, and then if you're renewing, obviously you can't go back further than your first renewal period. So we're really looking at, like, the year, specifically.
Sigrid Gauger: Yeah, well, we're pilot testing the CPP renewal
Sigrid Gauger: form, and if everything goes well with that, and we finalize it, then I will also expand it to include initial CPPs and CPP recertifications.
Sigrid Gauger: Okay, Liz.
Liz Wilhelm: Hi, everyone! So, one of the other items that we're piloting is, is being able to provide a little bit more information about
Liz Wilhelm: some of the continuing education hours, that are… are available. So, I mean, one of the… one of the great benefits for, working on your certification and working on your renewal is that
Liz Wilhelm: There are a wide variety of, places, opportunities to be able to get your educational hours, which we call the continuing education hours, CEHs.
Liz Wilhelm: One of the challenges for us on the board end of things is that there are so many different and varying places and opportunities for those educational hours. And we're not always all familiar with all of them.
Liz Wilhelm: And, and so, so that's why we request, when you are applying or renewing, that not only you demonstrate that you actually attended this particular educational event through a certificate, but that you also provide
Liz Wilhelm: some understanding about what it is that the content included in that educational offering. So, a description, a detailed agenda, a syllabi.
Liz Wilhelm: Program description, some learning…
Liz Wilhelm: objectives to that particular event. There are some that are standard that, you know, that we're pretty familiar with, such as the Prevention Summit, such as the SAPS training, and, several of CADCA's events.
Liz Wilhelm: So… so those we've become more familiar with, but of course, each year that one of those particular educational events are happening, there may be a little change in the number of hours that, that particular educational opportunity is offering.
Liz Wilhelm: There may be a redirect in the focus on some of them. So, so it still sort of puts us in this place of making sure that
Liz Wilhelm: what it is that you learned is in alignment with what our, our certification and renewal requirements are. So we're building, a little different list of some of those educational hours that we have seen consistently, that we have dug through.
Liz Wilhelm: And, looked at the alignment to our educational hour requirements.
Liz Wilhelm: And, you know, our hope is to make that more available and helpful for you.
Liz Wilhelm: But knowing that at any time, it could shift. So, the more content of information that you can share with us in your applications and your renewal about.
Liz Wilhelm: the educational hours that you have acquired and that you're submitting, the more helpful it is for us to be able to go through that process and make sure that
Liz Wilhelm: That, again, that the alignment is there. So,
Liz Wilhelm: So, yeah, so we're piloting that a little bit more. It's, it's definitely not going to be a, you know, end-all, be-all and have everything on it. And know that it, yeah, it could fluctuate as, you know, as various trainings appear, as they change, as they shift.
Liz Wilhelm: You know, for example, the SAPS went through an update in 2023, and it just went through another update,
Liz Wilhelm: to be aligned with some of the executive orders at the federal level that are required, in language, and some of the content. So, created another little shift and another opportunity for us to look at, what is being provided in that curriculum, and again, how does it align, and what are the hours for that, so…
Liz Wilhelm: So thanks for letting me share on that. Sigrid, was there anything else that you wanted to add about, the acceptable CHs?
Sigrid Gauger: I think you've covered it well.
Liz Wilhelm: Great.
Beverly Sarles: Can we get caught up on a couple of questions?
Liz Wilhelm: Yes.
Beverly Sarles: Okay, so… Someone wants to know, is there a practical test that we could provide?
Beverly Sarles: Apparently, someone had mentioned there's a practice test, I'm sorry, that they can pay for, a practice test.
Sarah Meyers: Yes, there is a practice test, that is, I believe, $50, and I believe,
Sarah Meyers: you have access to that. I don't know if you have to be…
Sarah Meyers: I want to say you have to be pre-registered to have access to that paid pre-practice test, but there are also… there's also the Rhode Island Study Guide, and there's also a study guide, like a physical book that's available on Amazon that has a practice test in the back of it.
Beverly Sarles: Okay, two more questions, and then we'll get to Emily.
Beverly Sarles: Can any course be retaken?
Sigrid Gauger: May I interrupt, please? Yes. May I interrupt, please? We're not in the question and answer session right now. We're trying to get through the content that we have, and then we'll turn it over for questions.
Sigrid Gauger: Okay.
Beverly Sarles: But, but, you know, sometimes the questions are relevant to what we're talking about, but I understand your point. Thank you, Secret.
Sigrid Gauger: Okay.
Sigrid Gauger: Okay, Sarah, you wanna take this?
Sarah Meyers: Okay, so the top 5 trends during application reviews, what we're seeing. So, one of the, the main, I would say hiccups with getting your renewal or your initial certification is not having enough hours.
Sarah Meyers: Having a generally, disorganized application.
Sarah Meyers: We have some more… we have some more points to go over, but we really, really,
Sarah Meyers: Suggest you submit more hours than you think you need, because when you get your applica… when you, submit your application, whether it's for renewing, recertifying, or initial.
Sarah Meyers: Sorry, I have to close the chat, or else I'm gonna look at all the questions.
Sarah Meyers: So, whether you submit your application, please submit more hours than you think you're going to need, and we really, really are asking for a well-organized,
Sarah Meyers: Upload in your folder, because…
Sarah Meyers: sometimes we get things that are submitted upside down, sometimes we can't read the handwriting, sometimes we can't find where… so, like, say you put, oh, I attended this conference, and we can't find the certificate, or we can't find the program, so just double checking that you have
Sarah Meyers: Err on the side of over-documenting rather than under-documenting. Sigrid, I know that you review every single one of the initial applications that comes in.
Sigrid Gauger: I review all of them that come in.
Sarah Meyers: Yes, every single one of them. Yeah, so we prefer the PDF format over a JPEG because,
Sarah Meyers: They, the PDFs are just more crisp and more clear, and sometimes a JPEG document can be too large to even open, or it can be upside down, or things like that. So, if you can get it in PDF format, we do prefer PDF format.
Sigrid Gauger: Yeah, the resolution of the JPEG is very, spotty.
Sarah Meyers: Yeah, they can be spotty, that would be the perfect word to describe it.
Sarah Meyers: Alright, so, yep, save in PDF format.
Sarah Meyers: Sigrid, can you explain this one? This is a landscape upside down.
Sarah Meyers: Turning issue.
Sigrid Gauger: Landscape is sideways.
Sarah Meyers: Yeah.
Sigrid Gauger: Filtered us up and down.
Sigrid Gauger: And I kind of showed it, you know, in the diagrams and such. Yes. So, any… Document that is…
Sigrid Gauger: Originally, in a portrait mode, Then you want to scan that and save it in the corporate mode.
Sigrid Gauger: The same holds true with landscape. For example, our CEHs form, you know, that are landscape mode.
Sigrid Gauger: So, when you upload that to your folder, make sure that
Sigrid Gauger: You save it in an actual landscape mode.
Sigrid Gauger: Otherwise, we're gonna be sitting there.
Sarah Meyers: Yeah, I definitely have done this when reviewing some applications.
Sarah Meyers: Yes, so this is, this is a big one, and it should be pretty straightforward, but when you get your document for all your sort of… all your hours that you're going to be submitting, you want to do, like, number one, it will have a line on this… on our CEH's form, number one, and you list the conference.
Sarah Meyers: And then when you upload it, it helps if you have one in the name of the document. So, like.
Sarah Meyers: line 1 on your application where you're filling in your hours, say it's, CADCA Conference 2023, and then when you upload the certificate, you would want to name it 1.
Sarah Meyers: CADCA Conference 2023.
Sigrid Gauger: Okay, we've decreased and gone back to once-a-month office hours, and they're held on the third Wednesday of each month from 2 to 3 p.m, and you can register for those on our website.
Sigrid Gauger: They're on the homepage.
Sigrid Gauger: That's yours, Sarah.
Sarah Meyers: We also are,
Sarah Meyers: We… so we used to have office hours four times a month, but they were not awfully well attended, so we are now going to be decreasing the number of office hours, which Seeger just talked about, but we are able to do a one-on-one session for help.
Sarah Meyers: By appointment only, and that really is depending on board members' capacity. In the last few months, I've had a lot of folks preparing for the test reach out to me, and I… I do have the capacity, and I really love to help people prepare for the test.
Sarah Meyers: Because, I think everybody, if you've been in prevention for a couple of years, you're gonna do great, and I can give you all the study tips, and if you're having an issue with your application.
Sarah Meyers: Sigrid can usually help with a one-on-one, like a Zoom session, and so if you're having an issue.
Sarah Meyers: Please reach out to us, and if we personally can't take it on, then we can also pass it to another board member.
Sigrid Gauger: I think, and then for time, we're gonna go ahead and advance to the question and answer period.
Liz Wilhelm: I was just going to add a little bit there, Sigrid, if that's okay?
Sigrid Gauger: Yep.
Liz Wilhelm: Okay, fabulous.
Liz Wilhelm: So quickly, there… we've got a few ways that, that you can get involved with the board and board work, and of course, the, you know, the number one way is, to become a director. And, we have a process for that, and, you know, a minimum requirement is that you've been certified.
Liz Wilhelm: for at least 6 months.
Liz Wilhelm: So, I, you know, I get to help out with nominations, so if, if you're interested in serving on the board, please, you know, feel free to contact me. I'll list my email and, and we'll work on, that process.
Liz Wilhelm: Another way to get involved in the board, instead of being a director, which involves, you know, the commitment of at least a monthly meeting and reviewing applications and being involved in a couple of committees.
Liz Wilhelm: Another opportunity is to be a peer reviewer. This process of becoming certified is peer-reviewed, so…
Liz Wilhelm: Those of us that are directors on the board do the reviewing, and we are developing this process of opening it up so that the other folks that are certified can also help with reviewing applications, for either first time being CPP certified, or for renewing your CPP. So if that's something that you might be interested in doing and being a peer reviewer.
Liz Wilhelm: Please, let us know. It would be great to have you, involved.
Liz Wilhelm: Another way is, emeritus, and, that is particularly for those that are retiring from the prevention field, but would, you know, still like to be engaged in some way, and… and could be part of the board, could be a reviewer, could be, you know, one of our.
Liz Wilhelm: consultants in terms of prevention expertise. There are so many folks that…
Liz Wilhelm: have been involved in prevention for a while, have been certified, and and when that great opportunity comes up to be retired, but still want to be involved, we have the emeritus.
Liz Wilhelm: And I think the last one is something that, that we were grappling with. So, I'm looking at, Sarah and Sigrid and, Beverly from our last meeting. We were talking about a challenge that came up, that has been coming up for us, is,
Liz Wilhelm: Part of that is communication with those that are…
Liz Wilhelm: becoming certified and renewing, particularly over the summer months, and for folks that are professionals that don't work during the summer months. Lucky you all!
Liz Wilhelm: but particularly our folks in ESDs and in the schools. We have a 30-day deadline, for folks to be able to submit any additional documentation that's needed in their application, if we have found that something's missing or we have a question.
Liz Wilhelm: And we've found that when we reach out, that sometimes those email, addresses are not being checked during, July and August, and quickly 30 days go by, and now, somebody who's in the process of renewing or, or applying for the first time.
Liz Wilhelm: Their application has gone into an inactive mode, and they have to start again. So, so we're looking for some input about how best to
Liz Wilhelm: Keep the communication going, during the summer months for those that, you know, are not available professionally during the summer months. So.
Liz Wilhelm: So again, if you have some ideas, you know, please contact me, and let's figure out what might be a good process so that, yeah, so we want people to become certified and stay in touch, and, and this is just one of those communication challenges. So, there are a few ways to get involved with the board, and again, I'll put my email address in the chat so that you can reach out.
Liz Wilhelm: Thanks for letting me share that, Sigrid. Let's go into the questions.
Sigrid Gauger: Absolutely. Let's see, I can pull the chat box…
Beverly Sarles: I can go with some that I've captured, and if I miss any, help me out, Board. Can any courses be retaken for the renewal of the CEH?
Liz Wilhelm: That is a great question. And I think what we… where we have recently landed on, retaking is…
Liz Wilhelm: Particularly the prevention ethics, and we do require, hours in your renewal for prevention ethics, and we know that there's not a whole lot of unique opportunities for that.
Liz Wilhelm: And since it is a 3, you know, three years that your certification is good for, that being able to take the same prevention ethics training, is… is certainly sufficient for doing that. Now.
Liz Wilhelm: other trainings and being offered again, that… that, I believe, would be a question, and that we'd probably have to
Liz Wilhelm: explore a little bit on that. But again, as I had said earlier in the webinar, things like the SAPS trainings, they seem to be going through, you know, revisions now every couple years. Yeah. So, and I mean, a lot of the content is the same, but it's not always all the same. So, what are you thinking, Sarah?
Sarah Meyers: I would say, when in doubt, submit the hours, but know that that might be an example of something that
Sarah Meyers: would not count.
Sarah Meyers: I'm trying to think of something… something that might come up is that maybe in your initial certification, you got trained to deliver the program, Guiding Good Choices, and then 5 years later, you got refreshed in that training. Liz, would we count that, since such… so long, so much time has passed?
Liz Wilhelm: Typically, I would say so, because so many of our evidence-based programs, especially, have go through a refresh themselves.
Sarah Meyers: Yes.
Liz Wilhelm: And an update. So, and even, yeah, I, you know, I went through, the most recent SAPS training of trainers, and, and went through.
Liz Wilhelm: The update that just came out of that, and… and sure enough, it's… it's new content, in… for me, in experiencing that training. So, I think, yeah, I think there is space for…
Liz Wilhelm: Submitting another set of hours of the same training 3 years later, especially if you can demonstrate that there's been an update to that, that it's, you know, that it's new learning for you.
Sarah Meyers: Good question.
Beverly Sarles: Okay, for the initial certification, how long are those hours valid for? For example, this person has some hours from June and July 2024, would those be valid?
Sigrid Gauger: You can have, about 50% of your hours, within a 10-year
Sigrid Gauger: frame. So, if you had some training, for example, that was done in 2017, that would still be allowed to put on your initial certification for continuing education hours. That's listed at the top of the initial CPP,
Sigrid Gauger: record of,
Sigrid Gauger: the record form that's on the website right now. It explains what percentages of what you need, and the last 50% has to be so many in the different categories and such, too.
Beverly Sarles: Okay, and I think we had mentioned before, but the question is, can this information, presentation, links, names of books, etc, be sent to everyone via email after this call, or will we recommend they, access the recording? What do you think?
Sigrid Gauger: Once we… we are recording the webinar, and we're also monitoring the chat box, and when we're done, we're going to save all of that, and within a couple weeks, we'll post it on our website, not only the video, but the chat box content as well.
Sigrid Gauger: And if we don't get to your question, we're going to go in and answer the question so that when it gets posted to the website, it'll have all the answers to all the questions.
Beverly Sarles: And I believe…
Kristie Korslund: I don't… I'm out of line, I'm not on the board. Can we speak, or just put it in the chat box?
Beverly Sarles: You can speak, too!
Kristie Korslund: Okay, can I ask a question, then?
Sarah Meyers: Dirt.
Beverly Sarles: Sure!
Kristie Korslund: Okay, so the currently certified prevention professional is in good standing has a list on your website.
Kristie Korslund: I don't see my name on it, but I have a certification, and so I know that that's maybe not the where it is, but, does that mean something? Should I take something from that? I don't know. But I have a certification, and I have a certain number.
Sigrid Gauger: Okay, would you write that in the chat box so we can address that? It gives me a reminder.
Kristie Korslund: Okay.
Sigrid Gauger: Updating that list, so…
Kristie Korslund: Okay, okay, thank you.
Kristie Korslund: It just needs to be updated? Is that pretty much…
Sigrid Gauger: It's updated pretty regularly when I get the information that you passed the exam as an initial cert, for example.
Sigrid Gauger: And whether you're… you know, we approve you at the board with eligibility reports, so as soon as we get somebody approved, that's a renewal or research, then they go on to the list as current. For initials, they have to wait… they get on the list after they've passed the exam successfully.
Beverly Sarles: Okay, and I believe SeaGrid has already posted in the chat the pilot, that we're going to be using now for people to upload their documents and CEHs.
Beverly Sarles: So hopefully everybody has found that link. If not, you'll get it.
Beverly Sarles: As a follow-up, and it will be posted on our website.
Beverly Sarles: Okay, so, related to communication challenges and timelines, could you please share the expected timeline to hear back from the board on application submissions? Should we reach out for follow-up with the board after a certain amount of time?
Beverly Sarles: Who should we email?
Sigrid Gauger: I,
Sigrid Gauger: our survey… our renewal period can take anywhere from 30 to 90 days. That's why we have people submit their, especially their CEH's documentation at that 90-day mark, because that's the most time-consuming.
Sigrid Gauger: If, there are any issues that I come up with the initial review, I'll be in contact with the applicant right away.
Sigrid Gauger: And, going over what I found and, whether I need more documentation or clarification.
Sigrid Gauger: So… A year on that 30 to 60 day… or 90-day time period, and
Sigrid Gauger: I'll… I'll usually contact people, When they have…
Sigrid Gauger: if they have issues. So… That's…
Sigrid Gauger: And that's even… yes, and during the review process, sorry, I'm gonna get my train of thought here. During the review process, you know, if there are issues with what hasn't been submitted, you will hear right away after that initial review that I do.
Sarah Meyers: Yeah, so I would say, maybe as a rule of thumb, if you haven't heard anything at all in 60 days.
Sarah Meyers: Do you think that'd be a good time to reach out to somebody?
Sigrid Gauger: Yes.
Sarah Meyers: I know that's… I know that's a really long time to go without hearing a word.
Sarah Meyers: But when, our… the number of applications that we have at any… at any one point in time can be as little as 3 or as many as 20. And so when you submit your application,
Sarah Meyers: instead of thinking of it as, oh, I'm emailing it to… I'm submitting it to Sigrid, and so it's in, it may… it basically just means you're getting put into the queue, and so there might be, like, 14 other people in front of you who've already submitted their application.
Sigrid Gauger: Right now, it's 18.
Sarah Meyers: Yeah, so there's 18 people who need to be reviewed right now, and we do this on a volunteer basis. Some of us are part of… we can do it as part of our job, but, like, Sigrid is basically a volunteer.
Sarah Meyers: So, it is… we understand that it is frustrating to go that long without hearing anything, but just when you submit, think of it as, I'm in the queue.
Beverly Sarles: Okay.
Beverly Sarles: So, for a person, for their first submission for certification, do they get an email of any notification that's been successfully submitted?
Beverly Sarles: So, are they notified?
Beverly Sarles: That they're in the queue.
Sigrid Gauger: Yeah, I… when I get a notification, I usually write to the person saying, I received your notification, thank you. It'll now go into the review, you know, process, and I'm gonna explain that if I find anything in that initial review, I'll be in contact with you. So they do get
Sigrid Gauger: confirmation that I've received their notification.
Beverly Sarles: Okay, do all the renewal CEH hours have to have been after certification issued, or would they be accepted if within 3 years of renewal?
Liz Wilhelm: Okay.
Liz Wilhelm: Yeah. Okay, go ahead.
Liz Wilhelm: Could you repeat that, Beverly?
Beverly Sarles: Do all the renewal CEH hours have to have been after certification issued, or would they be accepted if within 3 years of renewal?
Liz Wilhelm: So, that's a great question, and let's see if I can clarify that. So, the CEHs for renewal must be within that 3-year period, so they can't be…
Liz Wilhelm: From older. So, so once your… once your certification, so say your certification is, started on 1-15-2026 this year.
Liz Wilhelm: starting from that date, you start collecting the CEHs again. So, so when you submit the renewal 3…
Liz Wilhelm: Well, you'd submit it finally 3 years later, the CEHs would only be from that 3-year period.
Liz Wilhelm: Is that clear or clear as mud?
Jennifer Olson: Hi, this is Jennifer, can you hear me?
Liz Wilhelm: Yes.
Jennifer Olson: So… For example, my birthday's in December, and I submitted my renewal in September, I think.
Jennifer Olson: So between September and December, while it's being reviewed, you know, that's when Prevention Summit is, and some other things. So basically, what you're saying is, between the time you put it in and the time it's officially done, which is my birthdate, essentially, you guys got it done on time,
Jennifer Olson: those are… don't count for my next renewal in 3 years. Like, I can't put those on.
Jennifer Olson: you're saying I have to start from the the December date.
Jennifer Olson: Forward 3 years.
Sigrid Gauger: Yeah, from your birthdate forward 3 years.
Sigrid Gauger: Cheers.
Sarah Meyers: Interesting… that's an interesting question.
Liz Wilhelm: Yes, sweet.
Jennifer Olson: I mean, I've always left them out, because I was like, I… I'm not sure, but it kinda… it kinda hurt when you guys moved to your birth… my birthday, because I'm like, well, dang, there goes provider meeting, prevention summit…
Jennifer Olson: That's a nice chunk, especially when it was down to 2 years, but, I mean, in 3 years, I figure we'll get a good amount of hours.
Sigrid Gauger: But anyway… I find that people are short in their CEHs, I allow them to go ahead and submit additional CEHs that they have accumulated from the time they submitted their completed application until, it's approved.
Sigrid Gauger: So, you know, you do have some leeway where you're not losing CEHs from just that when you submit your completed application.
Sigrid Gauger: And I'll advise you of that, if that happens.
Jennifer Olson: But in general, you don't want to see those, you just want to see them from the date forward, right?
Sarah Meyers: Typically, I would say yes, because we look at so many applications.
Sarah Meyers: We have to have a cut-off date somewhere, and if you have to remember your birthday, and then 90 days before, it's just too many dates to remember, and so it's one of those things where, unfortunately.
Sarah Meyers: There is a cutoff, and that's the cutoff day, but you can think of those hours as backup hours.
Sarah Meyers: So, like, if one of the board members contact you and say, hey, do you have… do you happen to have anything else in drug prevention or general? And you could say, yeah, I went to the prevention summit a month after I submitted this, we'll say, great.
Sarah Meyers: send those in. Does that… do you concur, Liz and Sigrid?
Liz Wilhelm: Yes. Yeah.
Liz Wilhelm: And this is a topic that we've discussed a lot.
Liz Wilhelm: Is that… that gap between the 90 days and your expiration, and what that looks like. And, and I… I'm hoping that what you're hearing
Liz Wilhelm: Especially during this webinar, is that the biggest load of work for us on the board is going through your continuing education hours, whether it's an application first time, or it's a renewal.
Liz Wilhelm: And so it's… that… those are the things that we want to see as soon as you have them available. Oh, I think somebody… somebody's not.
Derek Johnson: on mute.
Derek Johnson: Farm.
Liz Wilhelm: And so… So if you can get everything in 90 days before, awesome, excellent.
Liz Wilhelm: But if, you know, in that situation where it's like, oh, you know, in a few days, there's gonna be this big, you know, educational opportunity, and it's gonna supply me with a bunch of hours and a bunch of learning, reach out to us, and, you know, and communicate that with us, so that we can figure out what's best to do.
Liz Wilhelm: I mean, indeed, the Prevention Summit is a huge provider of, you know, great hours, and and boy, we didn't have it this past fall, right, Jennifer? So…
Liz Wilhelm: So if it happens this spring, yay, you're in on that one!
Liz Wilhelm: And somebody else is gonna struggle with it being within their 90-day, renewal period. But, reach out and let us know. And, you know, because we have had other applicants say, hey, indeed, in a couple weeks, I'm registered for such and such event.
Liz Wilhelm: But, you know, but the 90 days is… is prior to, to that. So, so con… yeah, communicate those, those particular unique situations.
Beverly Sarles: And… That's the bulk of your…
Sigrid Gauger: you can get the bulk of your CEHs,
Sigrid Gauger: or your CEH's documentation, if you have a conference or something that falls within…
Sigrid Gauger: Within 60 to 90 days, for example, just contact me and we'll get that added to your application personal folder.
Beverly Sarles: Okay, Angela.
Angela Kruger: Hey guys, I just wanted to be sure that I have this timeline right, so that, because I'm one of those people that's not available from June to September, so, to communicate. So, I had received my certification, in the end of May this last year. My birthday is in July, so that's my first year. And then, so, as I understand, your current recommendation would be that I…
Angela Kruger: Would be asking for permission to renew this…
Angela Kruger: April, so I have my file, so that I have the time to enter everything, and that I have all of my paperwork submitted by the following
Angela Kruger: spring, or April, because I… because if I need to add something, I want to make sure I have time before I'm out of contract hours.
Angela Kruger: Does that timeline sound right, Sigrid?
Sigrid Gauger: I'll go ahead and answer your question, and… Okay.
Sigrid Gauger: The timeline is…
Sigrid Gauger: I would say, going back to that first question we asked you, you know, about what do we… how do we communicate with applicants that have the summers off, basically?
Sigrid Gauger: And, you know, during the review process, we have the 30 days
Sigrid Gauger: If I find something, and I notify you that I need this and this, and you have 30 days then to submit that to me.
Sigrid Gauger: Okay.
Sigrid Gauger: if that happens, when I start a…
Sigrid Gauger: a review, say, at the end of May.
Sigrid Gauger: And I have issues that I need to contact somebody that is on summer vacation, to give them what they need to resubmit or submit, and
Sigrid Gauger: I need that within 30 days, so my recommendation…
Sigrid Gauger: As far as communication during the summer, is that anybody working, employed in a situation where you have summers off.
Sigrid Gauger: I would really recommend that you have a personal
Sigrid Gauger: Email account, then, rather than your work account, work email.
Sigrid Gauger: But…
Beverly Sarles: is…
Beverly Sarles: Is the demo CPE spreadsheet only for renewals? This person will be applying for the first time, so does the spreadsheet still work for people applying for the first time?
Sigrid Gauger: The one that's on the website right now, the link, is the current one for the initial CPP applications.
Sigrid Gauger: like I said earlier, when we're done with the CPP renewal,
Sigrid Gauger: application, or CEH's documentation record, and then we have that finalized for the CPP renewal. Then I'll be converting that format to all the initial CPPs, as well as the CPP research.
Beverly Sarles: Yes.
Sigrid Gauger: It's in the making.
Beverly Sarles: Okay, and someone did point out that Nicole Augustine's study guide on Amazon, apparently she has a second edition.
Beverly Sarles: So, just to let people know.
Sarah Meyers: I was not aware that there was a second edition of the study guide available, so thanks for whoever caught that.
Sigrid Gauger: Have to renew our link on the website for that.
Beverly Sarles: I think I'm caught up on the questions in the chat. If we missed any during this live presentation, they'll be captured later, and we'll be getting back to everybody, so everyone has the same information. And we're at 2.55. Are there any last-minute questions, comments, or anything from the board?
Sarah Meyers: I'm gonna go ahead and answer this question to everyone, in case you haven't been following the chat. Kristin Kolkowski asked, can someone explain how birthdays affect application dates?
Sarah Meyers: And then Sarah Hancock also asked if you should have a strategy for submitting near or around your birthday, and I would just say, no. I would just say don't try to finagle it, and just,
Sarah Meyers: Whenever you pass the test.
Sarah Meyers: And whenever your birthday is, they're not going to be correlated, no matter how hard you try, because you could try to, oh, my birthday just happened, or my birthday's about to happen, so I'll submit my application, and then I'll test exactly on this day, and then I'll get exactly 3 years.
Sarah Meyers: So, your first certification period is going to be less than 3 years, just to get you, like, think of, like, a clock lining up with your birthday, and the reason we… the reason your credential expires on your birthday, because keeping track of people's test date…
Sarah Meyers: was not correlated to anything, and so it was so impossible to keep track of your test date, and I believe the reason it was changed is because folks couldn't remember their own test date.
Sarah Meyers: And so, everybody knows their birthday, so we had to pick… we had to pick something to… to correlate it to, so…
Sarah Meyers: Yes, some people get two and a half years, some people get 2 years and three months, some people get 2 years and 12… 2 years and 10 months, so your first certification period is going to be wonky, but…
Sarah Meyers: You still get at least 2 full years, which is a good… good bang for your buck.
Sigrid Gauger: I'll add to that, you know, that we do have the current CPPs list on our website. It has everybody's expiration dates on there, so if you question about when you're going to expire, that's one resource to look at. But I would highly recommend that you put your expiration date in your calendar.
Sigrid Gauger: So that…
Sigrid Gauger: you're not having to look at the list, you know, because that's something you plan for, and you should get notifications, you know, that this is what I need to do.
Sigrid Gauger: But I do get a lot of people asking me, when's my expiration date?
Sarah Meyers: Yeah.
Sarah Meyers: This was really, really great, you guys. Does anyone else have any other questions?
Liz Wilhelm: There was a question about, at what point should we submit the intention to apply form, and…
Liz Wilhelm: I suggested that as soon as you're ready to start uploading documentation, it's a Google folder, it's subdivided into several subfolders, for all the different documents, because there's, you know, right, continuing education hours, there's the.
Liz Wilhelm: Certificate of that. There's the documentation of what that was.
Liz Wilhelm: There's a criminal history background check. That needs to be current, so that needs to be, 6 months or no longer than 12 months old.
Liz Wilhelm: And as long as you keep adding things into your folder, it's gonna stay active. So, we start looking at folders that haven't had any uploads at 3 months.
Liz Wilhelm: At 6 months, we, you know, we deactivate them. So, yeah, so, you know, as soon as you've got things to start uploading, make that request for that, intent to apply, and…
Liz Wilhelm: I know Seagrid, it's, what, maybe 7… might be 7 or 10 days at the most, for you to get that folder set up and give access a QR code to the individual who's requesting.
Sigrid Gauger: Yeah, I would say most of them I get done within a week.
Liz Wilhelm: Yeah, there we go. So, great question.
Sarah Meyers: Before we leave, I'm going to make a second plug for folks to join the board. Our only requirement for joining the board is that, you have been a CPP for 6 months. And also, I also would want to shout out nominating somebody for the board.
Sarah Meyers: Right now, we have… Boer…
Sarah Meyers: Sigrid is going to be stepping down later this spring, and Sheila and Beverly are new as of last spring, and so we would be happy to get up to our normal operating number of board members, which is probably closer to around 9, isn't it, Liz?
Liz Wilhelm: Yes, yes, and we have… we have one person on medical leave currently.
Sarah Meyers: Yeah, so we're gonna be going down to 4, and we'd really like to be closer to 9, and so if you want to come work with me and Liz and Sheila and Beverly, and for a small amount of time, Sea Grid, we would love to have more folks on board.
Liz Wilhelm: Yes.
Sigrid Gauger: Absolutely.
Liz Wilhelm: Well, I want to say thank you, everyone! I know we're at the top of the hour, this was really awesome, and we've recorded it, so, in a short amount of time, it should be up on the website so that you can refer back to it, or anybody else who, you know, who didn't have a chance to be able to join us today, please, yeah, send them to the website for the recordings.
Beverly Sarles: Ryan Baldman is interested, so that's great.
Liz Wilhelm: Fabulous!
Sigrid Gauger: Also, if the questions that you have entered into the chat box, I will be comparing them to the questions that are in the Frequently Asked Questions page, and make sure that I add any that I don't already have there.
Sigrid Gauger: Okay.
Beverly Sarles: Before we leave, can you put your email address again in the chat so that Ryan can have it?
Sarah Meyers: I think
Sarah Meyers: I think I just emailed Ryan a new certificate, so maybe I'll just send an email if I can find your email address and connect you with all the board members.
Beverly Sarles: Thank you, Sarah.
Sigrid Gauger: Well, everybody's starting to drop off!
Sigrid Gauger: Great. Any final comments or questions?
Sigrid Gauger: If they want to stay on a little bit, you know.
Sigrid Gauger: Or definitely put your questions in the chat box so we can get to those as we… Review everything.
Beverly Sarles: And Sigrid, Sarah, Sheila, Liz, can you all stay on, too, for a little bit longer to just do a brief debrief?
Liz Wilhelm: Sure.
Sigrid Gauger: Cheer.
Liz Wilhelm: Can we officially end the recording?
Sarah Meyers: Yes.
Sigrid Gauger: Where'd it go?
Brittany Kersten: Can I ask a question?
Sarah Meyers: Sure!