Thursday, March 29, 2012

I PASSED

I am now a Certified Meeting Professional!

I am fortunate to work for a company and have a boss that supports my involvement with the professional organization MPI, Meeting Professionals International. I have been a member of this organization for 4 years and have served on the Tennessee board for 2. In July I will start my 3rd year of service on the board. I will be changing positions from Director of Professional Development to Director of Monthly Meetings.

Within MPI, I became familiar with CMP, Certified Meeting Professional. I decided about 3 years ago that I would sit for this exam at some point in the future. It's been a goal of mine each year and FINALLY last year in August I submitted my application, was accepted, submitted my exam registration and started studying. The exam was in Atlanta in January of this year. It was a yucky exam, just like those of the college days using scan trons. I hated the thought of studying for this test. There were 3 huge books to study and an entire list of definitions to memorize and I am NOT a great test taker. I had anxiety about this for weeks, more so after taking the exam and waiting for the stinkin' results.

This test is similar to the CPA or Bar exam. So it's very well respected within my industry. After taking the exam I knew I would be waiting 6-8 weeks for the results. Well the six weeks came and went and for two weeks I made the anxious trip to the mailbox.  FINALLY, on February 27th the letter came. I had ran inside to start dinner and Mark came in from the mailbox waving the letter. I was a nervous wreck. I calmly laid it on the counter and continued prepping dinner. Mark wanted to open it and I would NOT let him. I thought, I took the test and I will be the first person to see my results. So I finally got up the courage to open it and PASS was written across the top. WOOHOO!!! I started screaming and crying. I jumped on Mark almost knocking him to the floor. But man what a relief that was. I felt confident I had passed but I still somewhat doubted myself. I don't know how many times I prayed about this and how many times I reviewed those test questions over in my head. Whew, now it's over and I just have to keep up with the continuing education.

Katie Rogers, CMP (Doesn't that looks nice?





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