The IGA understands that there are times when work is scarce, when sickness and injury prevails, when travelling takes a front seat or life takes you down a different path. During these times, paying your professional dues could be at the bottom of your list.
No need to worry, we have your back, and have a built in policy to help you through this.
Paying your professional dues and keeping your certification in good standing is important and we encourage all certified guides to pay the yearly fees, but if you can't or don't feel the need today, here is what you need to know:
- You can defer your professional due payments 2 years in a row without penalty.
- if you defer for three years or more, you chance loosing your certification and having to re-take any courses and tests you have done in the past.
If you have deferred your professional due payments and are ready to reinstate your certification, here is what you need to do:
Non-payment for less than 3 years
1. Pay this years professional dues.
2. Enter 10 hours of continuing professional development hours that you have completed in the last year, to your member profile through the members section of the website.
Dues unpaid for more than 3 years and less than 5 years:
Send in a request to reinstate your certification to executivedirector@interpretiveguides.org, along with the following documents and information:
1. Send in a resume for the time you were not in good standing, with the following:
- All guiding/educational/interpretive related training and certifications you have completed since leaving the IGA.
- A description of the work you completed during this time (you will need to show that you have worked as a guide, educator and interpreter to be re-instated).
- Any volunteer work you completed in interpretation/education/guiding.
Note: all volunteer and paid interpretation/education/guiding work or training can be from any location in the world.
2. Re-take the test specific to your certification and pass with a grade of 70% or higher. All tests are subject to exam fees.
3. Hiking guides must re-take day one of the GM course (Cost = 50% of current courses fees).
4. Pay this years professional dues.
5. Submit 20 hours of professional development that you have completed in the past year.
6. Submit a copy of your valid first aid certification based on requirements within your IGA qualification.
Dues unpaid for more than 5 years:
After 5 or more years, certifications are null and void and you will have to retake and pass any course you want to be certified in.