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Official

To qualify for the Association Official certificate, you must:

1. Serve in an office of President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Trustee, or Director, and have completed satisfactory service in one of the following:

  • At least one year in office at the National level.
  • At least two years in the office(s) at the Region level, of which one year shall be that of Region President or National Trustee (The National Trustee position was eliminated in January of 2005 with the new Regulations.).
  • At least three years in the office(s) as a voting member of a Region Board if other than as Region President or National Trustee.
  • Division Superintendents/Presidents shall be eligible for the Association Official certificate on the same basis as any other Region Board member, i.e. three (3) years of service required.

In some regions the Region President and the National Trustee were the same person (The National  Trustee position was eliminated in January of 2005 when new NMRA Regulations were formally adopted by the BOD). In this case, that person would get credit for serving in both offices, which would mean that they would only require one year of service.

Sometimes there is a question about whether a particular office qualifies for "Association Official " or "Association Volunteer". In general, the test is: if holding an office makes you a voting member of the Region (or National) Board of Directors, then it counts toward "Official"; otherwise, it counts toward "Volunteer".  The exception is that all Division Superintendents/Presidents are eligible for the Association Offiical certificate whether they are voting members of a Region Board or not.

However, you may receive "Volunteer" credit for holding an office that would otherwise qualify for "Official" as long as you are not claiming credit for "Official" at the same time. For example, if someone were to serve as a Division Superintendent/President for 5 years, they could use the first three years of their term to qualify for the "Association Official" certificate, and the remaining two years to qualify for 24 months worth of "Association Volunteer" points.

2. Must submit a Statement of Qualification (SOQ, see below) listing the offices held with dates (which must be a matter of public record), and containing the signature of a qualified witness to the record (usually the Region President or Secretary).

Further Information

Contact National Achievement Program General Manager, Frank Koch achiev [at] nmra.org, or your Region or Division Achievement Program Manager for more information.

Also refer to the article "Association Volunteer / Association Official" by Rick Shoup, MMR.

Forms available for this category: