Nancy, you have an excellent point there. When I was in the KHA program, I was particularly wanting more hands-on experience before taking on the responsibility of crisis ponds on behalf of the club. While I felt confident with the course materials and my own ponds, and had helped several friends overcome parasites and ulcers and pH crashes, I hadn’t seen everything and hadn’t seen it all enough to represent the club. I could imagine making some assessment error that reflected upon the club and became an infamous mis-step and damaged relationships. Crap happens, and then comes the gossip. I asked the other local KHA and a local professional if I could be a silent assistant on pond calls, but I don’t think there was any willingness to share the glory there. If it had gone the other way, or if there were dealers willing to bring in KHAs for volunteer work, what an opportunity that would be. As I see it, that is the only weak spot in the KHA program--a lack of hands-on experience in the form of mentoring or apprenticeship-type situations.
I too am not convinced of the value of this certification program. I hope it turns out to be very effective, but I suspect all this energy should continue to be directed toward educating the hobbyist--having a KHA booth at the shows, publicizing the excellent ponding guidebooks that the AKCA produces but doesn‘t sell enough of, urging quarantine and bringing blood testing down to the hobbyist level. Also just my opinion, but KHV cases should not be swept under the rug, but be examined and accurately documented, and then the mistakes and sad pictures made plain as day, because fear is a great educator.
If a hobbyist knows to look for a “certified” dealer, then they already have been around long enough to know which dealers are “reputable.” The reputation system is probably a simpler and more foolproof system than any certification could ever be.