Board Brief 2015-40
Professional Standards and Ethics Committee Final Report
To:
NCMA Board of Directors
From:
PY15 Professional Standards and Ethics Committee
Subject:
Final Report of the Professional Standards and Ethics Committee
Date:
July 1, 2015
Executive Summary
The purpose of this Board Brief is to provide a status of the goals, major activities and
accomplishments of the Professional Standards and Ethics Committee (PSE) for period July –
July 2015.
PSE PY15 Committee Goals, Actions and Status
The Committee met face-to-face during the 2014 World Congress, GCMC in November 2014
and at SMTF in March 2014. Conference calls were conducted monthly for the remaining
months.
Committee Members
Debra Scheider, Chair
 Allie Stanzione
 Rodney Matsushima
 Sean Garcia
 Jonene Johanson
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Charlie Chadwick
Danielle Mattei
Mike Fischetti
Angela Styles (dropped)
Accomplishments / Goals Status
Priorities:
1. Conduct review/benchmark Association’s Code of Ethics
a. Accomplishment: The new Code of Ethics is effective 1 July 2015 and is being
formally announced at World Congress 2015. The PSE Committee announced a
review of the current Code of Ethics in an Ethics Corner article for NCMA
magazine. Charlie Chadwick conducted an extensive comparison of the NCMA
Code of Ethics against other organizations. In November 2014, the NCMA BOD
concurred with the Committee recommendation to rewrite the Code of Ethics.
The revised Code of Ethics and a new Standards of Conduct Policy were
reviewed for comment by the BOD and BOA prior to submission for final
approval to the BOD in March 2015. As a result of the comments, the Standards
of Conduct policy was removed from the agenda to accommodate additional edits
by PSE to ensure consistency between these policies and changes to the By Laws
adopted in June 2015.
2. Collaborate with Strategic Planning and Education Committees to develop vision for
NCMA in 2020. Education + certification + accreditation + ? Programs. Review current
Certification programs.
Scheider, Debra
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Board Brief 2015-40
Professional Standards and Ethics Committee Final Report
a. Accomplishment: PSE reviewed Certification Programs for NCMA and similar
organizations. PSE recommends no changes to the certification model at this
time. Current certifications are recognized and well regarded. PSE notes the only
“trend” is micro certification for specialization. Recommendation is to keep
abreast of trend but not adopt at this time.
3. Placement of the Contract Management Function in organizations
a. Accomplishment: Sean Garcia and Allie Stanzione published an outstanding
article for Contract Management magazine that incorporated about 5 years of data
collected by NCMA, currently awaiting a Pulitzer Prize.
4. ERC Survey
a. Accomplishment: Led by Charlie Chadwick, NCMA partnered with the Ethics
Research Center (ERC) on an ethics related survey of NCMA membership.
Charlie led a Working Group composed of senior leaders within NCMA as well
as CMLDP alumni. The survey leveraged ERC’s National Business Ethics
Survey (NBES) and modified some questions to reflect the acquisition profession
and process as well as adding one additional question. These changes stemmed
from a series of interviews conducted by the Working Group of both selected
senior leaders within NCMA and additional CMLDP alumni. The survey is now
complete. The Executive Committee has been briefed and the full BOD will be
briefed at World Congress 2015. PSE recommends a planned roll out of the
results as noted below. Charlie has coordinated the plan among the NCMA
marketing staff, President and Committee, subject to final BOD approval.
b. PSE recommends releasing the report (NCMA and ERC will post the report on
their web sites) on September 22, simultaneously with a public webinar briefing
on that date. PSE (Charlie Chadwick) will also do a presentation at GCMS 2015
and prepare an article for Contract Management summarizing the survey results.
c. Charlie will also do a briefing at the subcontract management conference as
requested by the NCMA President. The committee will work with NCMA
marketing staff to initiate a dialogue via social media after the report is released.
Respectfully submitted,
Debra Scheider, CPCM, Fellow
Chair, NCMA Professional Standards & Ethics
Scheider, Debra
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