Dear PATH Intl. membership,

It is with great pleasure that your 2018 PATH Intl. Credentialing Council shares its first communication to the membership regarding council tasks and accomplishments. 

Since being elected to the council in September, we have accomplished several critical steps in establishing a functional council.
Our first task
Our first task was to recruit and select a qualified individual for the position of public member. The National Commission of Certifying Agencies (NCCA) defines a public member as “A representative of the consumers of services provided by a certificant population serving as a voting member on the governing body of a certification program, with all rights and privileges, including holding office and serving on committees. The public member should bring a perspective to the decision and policy making of the organization that is different from that of the certificants and should help to balance the organization’s role in protecting the public while advancing the interests of the profession.” With this definition in mind, we began recruitment and ultimately identified two candidates. On October 19th, by majority vote, Dr. Steven Arnold was selected as the public member.

Dr. Arnold is currently the attending physician at Middlefield Family Practice, a staff physician with Trumbull Memorial Hospital and co-medical director of Burton Health Care Center. Dr. Arnold first gained horsemanship experience through 4-H in his youth which led to participation in pleasure driving. Through his medical practice he has treated many patients with disabilities and, in doing so, has experience serving families of individuals with disabilities. He is also a United States Army and Navy veteran. Dr. Arnold has experience with test development, job task analyses as well as performance analysis of test questions and procedures which will be beneficial to council tasks related to test development. We are excited about Dr. Arnold’s vast expertise and believe he will contribute a helpful perspective to council discussions. Please join us in welcoming Dr. Arnold into the PATH Intl. organization.
Our second task
Our second order of business to date was to conduct an intensive review of the requirements for the PATH Intl. Registered Therapeutic Riding Instructor Certification. During our in-person meeting in San Antonio, Professional Testing, Inc., guided us through redeveloping a framework for the certification and a code of ethics in alignment with the results of the job task analysis and the parameters set by NCCA standards. More information about the objectives for this meeting can be found on the Trek to Accrediting the PATH Intl. Registered Therapeutic Riding Instructor Certification webpage. The majority of our discussion revolved around the prerequisite experience that would characterize qualified candidates as described by the job task analysis. Honoring the work done by past volunteer certification committees and building upon the job task analysis, several options for prerequisites were discussed at a high level. Details of the prerequisites remain to be further developed as we work toward establishing demonstrable qualifications that are accessible and universally recognized. We will dig deeper into this development during our first quarter meeting on February 8 and communicate details of our work on the prerequisites as they are finalized.
Our third task
Also at the San Antonio meeting, we completed our third task of determining rolling terms for council members. Click here for the terms for the 2018 PATH Intl. Credentialing Council members.
Our fourth task
On January 4 th , we completed our fourth task: election of the officer positions of chair and vice-chair. Please join us in congratulating William Lavin and Patricia McCowan for being elected to the positions of chair and vice-chair, respectively. 

Bill and Pat will work with the PATH Intl. staff liaison, Bret Maceyak, to coordinate council members’ ongoing efforts.
We are pleased to bring you this report of our activities over the last five months. We are honored to have been elected by the PATH Intl. membership, and we do not take our posts lightly. We look forward to leading the organization through the pursuit of professionalizing PATH Intl. credentials through third-party accreditation of the PATH Intl. Registered Therapeutic Riding Certification. Watch for our next communication in two weeks regarding the tasks for our first quarter meeting.

Respectfully,
The 2018 PATH Intl. Credentialing Council