Volunteer Opportunities
The UPPCC hopes that you will continue your commitment to excellence after becoming certified. Below are a the volunteer opportunities available to you as a UPPCC certified individual, each of which will earn you contact hours towards recertification. Contact hours earned for professional contributions to UPPCC may be applied for credit towards your next recertification.
Current certificants in good standing (non-lapsed) that are interested in a volunteer role with UPPCC should submit the Volunteer Interest Survey. Interested and eligible individuals will be contacted when opportunities become available. The details and commitments of each opportunity vary as do the number of contact hours that are awarded for participation.
If you are interested in giving back to the certification(s) you worked so hard to achieve, consider volunteering your time with UPPCC for one of the following activities:
Currently Active Opportunities:
UPPCC Study Group Task Force
This a brand new opportunity that UPPCC is offering. UPPCC is interested in assembling a small group of professionals to explore the various ways in which the UPPCC can provide support for applicants and candidates pursuing UPPCC certifications. We are seeking volunteers to participate in this task force that have a strength or interest in facilitating study groups, have recently studied for the CPPO or CPPB and have resources they are willing to share with others, have ideas about what tools, resources, etc. that UPPCC could provide to candidates preparing to test. UPPCC is interested in ways in which to support candidates on their journey are looking for feedback from those of you that have been there. Help us to identify tools and resources and assist with making them available to future candidates. UPPCC is actively recruiting volunteers for this new task force. This is a newly created task force with a level of commitment to be developed by the incoming members. The goal of the task force is to have support tools and resources in place to support candidates for the fall 2021 examination window.
Item Writing/Item Review Committee
Think back to when you took your certification examination. Did you wonder where those exam questions came from? Who wrote them? How were they written? Examination questions for both the Certified Public Procurement Officer (CPPO) and Certified Professional Public Buyer (CPPB) are written by your peers. Public procurement professionals like yourself write and review all examination questions. UPPCC is actively recruiting volunteers for this committee. All committee work will be conducted virtually due to the current environment. This is a 5 month commitment from late November 2020 – April 2021. The committee’s focus will be developing new questions that align with the new 2021 Body of Knowledge & Competency (BoK-C) that will be effective for all UPPCC certification exams as of the fall 2021 examination window.
Standard Setting Panelist
A new passing standard is set each time the exams are updated as a result of new Job Analysis project. Yes, there is a scientific process involved with choosing an appropriate score for passing the certification examinations. This passing standard is set by a panel of subject matter experts guided by testing experts and remains the standard of performance required on the certification exams until the next exam update process. UPPCC is actively recruiting volunteers for two standard setting panels; one for the CPPO exam and another for the CPPB exam. The panel will participate in meetings and conduct work virtually during November 2021. This is approximately a 1 week commitment.
Job Analysis Task Force
Conducting a routine review and analysis of the profession that is served by the CPPO and CPPB is essential to ensuring that the certification programs and the content of the exam required for certification continue to evolve along with professional practice. UPPCC policy requires a new job analysis to be conducted every 5 years. The Job Analysis Task Force is a group of 15 subject matter experts that guide the project. The 15-member group represents the diversity that exists in the larger public procurement profession. UPPCC recruits certified professionals from across the US and Canada, with a range of experiences, education and career levels and from all the major public agency types (e.g., cities, counties, states, provinces, K-12 schools, higher education, etc.). The focus of the Job Analysis Task Force is to recommend updates for the examination programs based on how professional practice has changed since the last job analysis was conducted. The recommendations of the Task Force are vetted by the larger profession via survey. This is typically a 6 month commitment that consists of one, 3-day in-person meeting, 2-3, 3-hour virtual meetings and 3-5 hours of independent review work. UPPCC completed its most recent Job Analysis in 2020 and will begin recruiting for the 2025 project in late 2024.
Job Analysis Survey Participant
A key step in the Job Analysis process is to vet the recommendations of the Job Analysis Task Force with the larger profession through survey. All public procurement practitioners (UPPCC certified or not!) are encouraged to participate in the survey. Those interested in participating do not need to complete the expression of interest survey to participate and the commitment is minimal. The Job Analysis survey is anonymous and is completed entirely online. The commitment is only the estimated 45 minutes of time it takes to complete the survey. UPPCC completed its most recent Job Analysis in 2020 and expects to issue the survey for the 2025 project by summer 2025.
Job Analysis Test Specifications Task Force
The Job Analysis Test Specifications Task Force is a group of 15 subject matter experts that use data from the Job Analysis survey to finalize new test specifications for the certification examinations [a.k.a., Body of Knowledge & Competency (BoK-C), examination blueprint, content outline, etc.]. The Job Analysis Test Specification Task Force may also make changes to the overall number of test questions for each examination and how much of each content domain area should be covered on the examinations. This is typically a 1 month commitment that consists of one, 4-hour virtual meeting and 3-5 hours of independent review work. UPPCC completed its most recent Job Analysis in 2020 and will begin recruiting for this task force for the 2025 project in spring 2025.