Credentials or Experience?

The Nuuchahnulth Tribal Council revamped their political structure recently. Gone is the old three co-chair system and in is a leaner president and vice president system of representation. It's not all that its cracked up to be but it's a start.

When the terms of reference were crafted for the president and vice president there was debate about instituting a specific requirement for the candidates for both positions to have college or university degrees. Sounds reasonable, especially considering the day and age we live in. The people they will be dealing with in federal, provincial, and municipal government have that and more, not to mention a line ministry full of them.

Well, there was actually debate about this. Some felt the requirement was limiting and that candiates with years of political experience would be discounted. In the words of one chief "are we supposed to entrust our tribal council in the hands of some 22 year old kid?"

One guy in particular whose application was denied on these grounds was hopping mad. "What about all my political experience over the years?" he asked? "Do they expect me to go back to school or something at my age?" Nobody stopped him from running during "all those years of political experience" and if he was asked to step aside then that was a choice he made for himself. He could have run a long time ago but chose not to.

I have a confession to make. I ran for NTC vice president and my application was denied but I'm not bitter about it. I was three credits, or one course short of my degree, but I didn't have a degree then per se. The rules and rule makers said candidates had to have a degree.

I'm closer to a degree than the elected president for instance. If we hit the ground running I'd have my degree in three months while he would get credit for maybe 2 years of study. The same rules didn't apply to me but I'm not complaining. I wasn't so wrapped up in it that I put together a Junta and went on a Jihaad afterward. That's the way the ball bounced. I wasn't vice president before so it never bothered me to not be vice president after. Back to my life which I have no complaints about and on to other things.

The degree requirement was instituted and good on NTC and the committee who did it. It's about time. The bar has to be raised with respect to the way business is done in indian country. The days of on the job training and doing a job with no credentials or training is long over. We don't live in that kind of a world anymore and frankly we never should have. It held us back, stilted our development and hurt us in the long term.

NTC expects and demands their program managers, department managers, and employees who carry out particular duties have certain credentials ie. social work, accounting and biology. When NTC hires a lawyer they expect him or her to have a law degree naturally, auditors to have financial degrees, and nurses to have nursing degrees.

When anyone who's in NTC sees a doctor or dentist I assume they want someone who has doctors or dentists accreditation. They wouldn't want to see one who, just before performing a procedure, stated that "I don't have credentials but I do have years of experience at it." Yikes!

There shouldn't be a debate over this. It's time; in fact it was time a long time ago. Why would NTC encourage post secondary education if they don't want them to become leaders? That's like saying "Yeah, go to medical school but we don't want any of that operating on people stuff after."
People who have hung on and hung around the scene for years based solely on experience need to get used to the fact that a new age is upon us. The time and place for them has passed. They need to make way for the generation they encouraged to go to school and get a better education. At the NTC vice presidential election I noticed a handful of people around the table who had degrees and that was more than I'd seen in the past, a sign of things to come I hope.

Maybe education isn't all that its cracked up to be. Maybe it is. But it all has to start somewhere. I support NTC's decision to expect their political representatives to have college/university credentials and I hope they stick with it. It sets a good example to those we deal with that we set a high standard for ourselves. It also sets a good example to our own people.

You won't do any better if you don't expect more of yourself.