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Official

To qualify for the Association Official certificate, you must:

1. Serve in an office of President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, National Department Head, National Legal Counsel, or National Director and have completed satisfactory service in one of the following:

  • At least one year in the office at the National level.
  • At least two years in the office(s) at the Region level, of which one year shall be that of Region President.
  • At least three years in the office(s) at the Region level (Region Officer or Region Board of Directors) if other than that of Region President.
  • All Division Superintendents are eligible for the Official Certificate on the same basis as any other Region Board member. Region Directors who serve as voting members of the Region Board of Directors either by election, appointment or automatic by-law provision eligible for the Certificate on the same basis as any other Region Board member.

In some regions the Region President and the National Trustee were the same person (The National Trustee position was eliminated in January of 2005 when new NMRA Regulations were formally adopted by the BOD). In this case, that person would get credit for serving in both offices, which would mean that they would only require one year of service.

Sometimes there is a question about whether a particular office qualifies for "Association Official" or "Association Volunteer". In general, the test is: if holding an office makes you a voting member of the Region (or National) Board of Directors, then it counts toward "Official"; otherwise, it counts toward "Volunteer".  The exception is that all Division Superintendents/Presidents are eligible for the Association Offiical certificate whether they are voting members of a Region Board or not.

However, you may receive "Volunteer" credit for holding an office that would otherwise qualify for "Official" as long as you are not claiming credit for "Official" at the same time. For example, if someone were to serve as a Division Superintendent/President for 5 years, they could use the first three years of their term to qualify for the "Association Official" certificate, and the remaining two years to qualify for 24 months worth of "Association Volunteer" points.

2. Submit a completed Statement of Qualifications (SOQ) listing the offices held with dates (which must be a matter of record) and containing the signature of a qualified witness to the record (usually the Region President or Secretary).

Further Information

Contact the AP Committee General Manager at achiev [at] nmra.org, or your Region or Division Achievement Program Manager for more information.

Also refer to the article "Association Volunteer / Association Official" by Rick Shoup, MMR.

Forms available for this category: