CM Providers Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions About Becoming a CM Provider
What is Certification Maintenance (CM)?
Certification Maintenance (CM) is a professional development program for all professional planners who are members of the American Planning Association and the American Institute of Certified Planners. AICP members must participate in a minimum of 32 hours of professional development every two years. The CM program also helps certified planners keep up with trends, new technologies and best practices by linking them to education and training opportunities. Learn more about the goals of the CM program here.
What is a Certification Maintenance (CM) Provider?
Certification Maintenance Providers are organizations approved by AICP to provide education and training activities for CM credit. Learn how to Get started.
Who is eligible to be a CM Provider?
Any organization (with an EIN) that offers educational activities or products for professional planners can apply to become a CM Provider.
What are the benefits of becoming a CM Provider?
There are many benefits to becoming a CM Provider, including:
- Visibility for your organization's logo, education, and training on APA's website, which is viewed by more than 16,000 AICP members
- Use of the AICP CM logo in your marketing and promo materials
- A dashboard to manage your organization's CM Provider account, application, payment plan, activities and your organization's administrator(s)
- Download your event evaluation data to view feedback from members
- Partnership opportunities with other CM Providers. Learn more about partnership guidelines in the toolkit.
Access Resources for CM Providers
What types of marketing, branding and promotion are available?
There are many resources available to CM Providers to help get the word out about your education and training activities:
- CM Search, where members can search for specific event/types of activities
- CM Provider Search, where members can search for providers
- CM Graphic Toolkit, which contains graphics, colors and fonts to help you brand your activities
What are CM Provider Commitments?
To ensure the quality of CM education for our certified planners, all organizations agree to uphold certain commitments. See the list of commitments in the CM Provider Toolkit.
How do I become a CM Provider?
In just a few steps your organization can complete the process to be approved.
This includes completing the CM provider application and setting up your organization's account. Learn more at How to Become a CM Provider.
How long does it take to become a CM Provider?
Once you have submitted your provider application, the review is 2-3 business days.
What are the registration payment plan types?
There are various plan options and pricing, depending on your organization's type and size. Selecting the right registration payment plan is an important consideration in becoming a CM Provider. See CM Provider Payment Plans for more information.
Frequently Asked Questions for Current CM Providers
What is My Organization Dashboard?
The My Organization Dashboard helps you access and manage your CM account and education and training activities. It includes information like your approved application(s), payment plan, event history, and event ratings and comments.
How do I add another administrator to our account?
You can add and remove administrators from your dashboard. At the top of the dashboard, using the search, enter the new administrator's email address in the search box and select the appropriate search result.
How do I renew my organization's registration?
You can purchase a registration from your dashboard here and from the "CM Registrations" section. Note, if you do not see an option to purchase the annual registration, you may need to renew your CM provider application first. Check the registration year for your application from the CM Provider Overview section.
How do I view all of our CM activities?
From the dashboard CM Provider Activities section, click View All Activities and this will take you to the view of all activities for your organization. You can sort your activities by begin date, event title, event ID, event status, CM credit total.
Do I need to provide a certificate to AICP members that participate in my event for receipt to claim CM credit?
No, CM providers are not required to offer a certificate, this is optional. The CM program does not require a certificate of completion for AICP members to claim credit for participation. All AICP members have a personal online log to claim CM credit. You can help AICP members by providing the CM logging instructions to AICP members.
What is CM Quality Assurance?
There are policies and guidelines that CM Providers must review and follow to provide the highest-quality education and training activities for AICP members. APA monitors compliance during the Provider Periodic Review. Learn more about the policies and review process on page 16 of the CM Provider Toolkit.
How can I reset my password?
From www.planning.org and upper right corner, click "Log In" next "Login Help" and "Reset Your Password."
Which browsers work best to access the CM Provider Dashboard?
The lastest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari and Internet Explorer. Note, in this order.
Who should I contact for help?
Please contact us using our customer service form, or ask for Certification Maintenance customer service at 312-431-9100.