MACO Education

Guidelines for MACO Certification | The MACO Board adopted this updated guideline August 20, 2008.

MACO Affiliation with Century College
In the past, Century College would track educational credits for all MACO members and any staff members that turned in conference registration forms. Many MACO members and their staff were good to follow procedures and turn in the registration forms. Century College was tracking several hundred MACO members and their staff at a substantial cost to MACO. MACO members appear to fall into two categories of participants. Some aren’t concerned about having their credits tracked. Some are required by their county to obtain continuing education credits through an accredited college. The MACO Board’s goal is to meet the needs of all MACO members.

To make the process more efficient and cost-effective, it was determined Century College should only track credits of those MACO members or staff who decide to have their credits tracked. If the MACO member or staff does decide to have their credits tracked, they need to register annually and pay a tracking fee. The registration form includes an invoice, which can be turned into the county for payment, or maybe the individual chooses to pay out of pocket. The registration form also includes a release of information. The release will allow Century College to share with MACO the transcripts of those registered. MACO needs to review the number of hours each registered MACO member has obtained to determine what MACO members have accomplished the required hours to receive a certificate. The certificates will be presented at the MACO Winter Conference.

The MACO Education registration/invoice/release of information form will be housed on the MACO website in a PDF format. MACO members can print, complete the form, and route though their county payment process or write their own check. Registration and payment will be sent to the MACO Treasurer with a deadline in mid December each year for the following year. The MACO Treasurer will track payments and send a MACO check with the registrations to Century College by the 5th day of January. Registration into the program will be offered once each year.

MACO will provide Century College with an agenda, résumés or biographies of speakers and goals of each session. Century College needs the information 8?10 weeks before each conference to verify the speakers have credibility, determine clock hours of each session and enter the information into their tracking system.

Century College will create a conference attendance form for each conference, MACO Winter Conference, MACATFO Summer Conference and MCRA Summer Conference. MACO members will obtain this form at each conference and turn in a completed form to the designated MACO representative at the end of the conference. The MACO representative will track which registered MACO members turned in completed forms and route them to Century College.

After each conference, a list of sessions tracked by Century College will be posted on the MACO website for reference. Conference agendas include all sessions and might be a preferred list to use as a personal record of sessions attended. Some MACO members or staff might be interested in obtaining their past records from Century College. This could be for personal reasons or maybe because they are eligible for a MACO Certificate. Read below for more information.

Process to Become Certified
Some MACO members might already have accumulated the required number of CEUs according to the MACO Education Program or are close but have not yet received a certificate. There are also some MACO members or their staff who would like a copy of their records for personal reasons. MACO members or staff who want to obtain a list of courses attended that were tracked by Century College need to contact Joan Peterson at Century College joan.peterson@century.edu. The individual MACO member is the only person that can request as this is data private information. Forty-five hours or more of education through MACO Certification program is required to be eligible to receive a MACO Certificate. The MACO Education Committee can only use those courses tracked by Century College to determine eligibility for a MACO Certificate.

To apply for a MACO education program certificate submit your Century College transcript to a MACO Education Committee chair. Certificates will be presented each year at the MACO winter conference.

Mission
The mission of the MACO Education Committee is to facilitate the MACO Education program with Century College and MACO members to ensure MACO members have the opportunity to receive the training they need to accomplish their responsibilities in their positions as county officials. This training is usually very job specific but also includes leadership and related topics to county government. The MACO Education Committee plans to meet twice per year. In the early Spring to plan for the MACATFO and MCRA summer conferences and in the Fall to plan for the MACO winter conference. The MACO Education Committee will work with MACO Administration to provide a new MACO member orientation session at the beginning of each winter conference.