Are You as Ethical As You Think You Are?

■ “ETHICS” IS A WORD WE SOMETIMES BECOME IMMUNE TO

ethical Are You As As You Think You Are?

If you’re like most people, you follow CACM's Code of Professional Ethics and need to self-police. The next time you turn a blind eye to a violation of the Code of Professional Ethics to Standards of Practice, which you agreed which fellow manager members hold to abide by when you became a member themselves accountable, pause for a of CACM. That’s what we’re taught to do. Any repeat moment to think about what decision you should make. To turn a blind discussion of ethics can be numbing. So, the next time eye means to allow the problem to you take a CACM Ethics course, consider broadening perpetuate. Holding a peer accountable the discussion to how each individual manager can take responsibility for keeping our industry ethically sound. to the standard by which he agreed to abide breeds integrity in our industry and thereby positions all community managers to be more credible and “I Don’t Want to Rock the Boat” influential in the eyes of the public.

There is an alarming underlying aspect within our industry and society at large by which professionals turn a blind eye to holding others accountable. Consider headline Be a Champion for Your Community stories about Joe “Pa” Paterno, Penn and Your Industry State’s beloved head football coach. He turned a blind eye to defensive coordinator In order to have a Decide to take responsibility for keeping our industry ethically sound. Jerry Sandusky’s pedophilic locker room activities. The consequence? Pa was healthy industry and If you are aware of a CACM manager member who has violated the Code abruptly fired from his 15-year coaching raise the reputation of Ethics while practicing community position and spent his final years answering for his cover-up. Lance Armstrong, sevenof community management, CACM has a system in place to review those actions and time Tour de France winner, doped in competition because “everyone else was,” managers in the hold that individual accountable, if applicable. then lied about it. The consequence? He eyes of the public, Here’s what you need to know: was stripped of everything he worked for: medals, winnings, reputation and we need to self• A complaint can be filed against a manager member cancer foundation. These are high-profile examples to be sure, but before they were police. of CACM by either a fellow CACM manager member or in the news they were everyday people by a majority of the manager’s with the opportunity to speak out when board of directors. they saw wrongdoing. They even had • All complaints received, whether processed or not, are logged with CACM. the advantage of being in respected and • All complaints will be reviewed and, if the complaint is valid, you will be sent influential positions, which makes it that the appropriate forms to formally register the complaint. much more perplexing as to why they • All documentation for the complaint must be made in writing to CACM and didn’t hold wrongdoers accountable. sent by certified or traceable mail. • The complaint must state the citation of the Code of Ethics that was violated. To NOT Take Action is a Decision • The complaint will be reviewed by CACM’s President & CEO, followed by the

We are a small industry. If you’re in it Professional Standards Committee (PSC). If appropriate, a PSC hearing date long enough you get to know everybody. will be scheduled. We all want to get along and we don’t want to burn bridges. That’s understandable. But in order to have a healthy industry and raise the reputation of community managers in the eyes of the public, we Contact certification@cacm.org for more info or to request a complaint form.