Educational Preparation for BCG Certification

I recently completed an application for certification through the Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG). I had been thinking about writing a few blog posts on my educational preparation (now that I have a little more free time), and this week BCG began including educational preparation as part of the evaluation process.

The announcement by the Board for Certification of Genealogists on January 19, 2016 includes:

"BCG today released a 2016 edition of the BCG Application Guide. The new guide implements two changes for initial applicants approved by the board last May. Two clarifications address common problems in new portfolios.

The most significant change will see applicants evaluated on their genealogically related educational activities. Initial applicants have long been asked to describe the activities that helped them prepare for certification but only now will this information be evaluated. The new practice is meant to stress the importance of development activities as these have been statistically shown to increase an applicant’s chances of attaining certification."

The BCG Application Guide is available at http://www.bcgcertification.org/brochures/BCGAppGuide2016.pdf

I will write a series of blog posts that include formal educational activities, such as conferences and classes, as well as informal educational activities such as books, webinars and study groups. I will address educational opportunities for the following topics:

• Understanding the Genealogical Proof Standard
• Conducting reasonably exhaustive research
• Documenting research
• Studying Evidence Analylsis, part 1
• Studying Evidence Analysis, part 2
• Preparing a written conclusion
• Skills necessary to prepare a portfolio, including:
• Transcripts, abstracts, and research plans 
• Kinship determination and writing a biographical sketch
• Writing a proof argument or a case study
• Preparing research reports

I will create hotlinks from this page to each of the new blog posts, so there will be a reference to the complete set of posts. Each piece will include educational options that I have found to be useful, and others options that I am aware of, but may not have participated in personally. I hope to stay on a schedule of posting twice a week, so I should be finished with my topics in six weeks. I will invite others to comment on the posts and add educational opportunities for each topic that I may have missed. I think it will be a fun journey.

If you have the book Genealogy Standards you will want to reference Standards # 82. 

Angela