Licensee
Wall Certificates
In response to a member request, we asked CLEAR's mailing list subscribers whether they prepare and issue wall certificates to licensees.
In our admittedly non-scientific sample of respondents (there were slightly over 300 representing, representing 140 agencies and organizations), the number of agencies still issuing wall certificates far outnumber those who either never have issued them or have stopped doing so. Despite the persistence of the tradition, many of the issuing agencies have made dramatic changes in how they produce the certificates. A significant number of agencies have moved away from a large, hand lettered and individually signed certificate to a document that is letter sized and electronically produced, often directly from the licensing software. This smaller certificate even includes the appropriate e-signatures in some instances, so no one has to sign the certificates. A few agencies make certificates optional and charge the licensee an additional fee to cover the cost.
For some licensees, the certificate is the license and must be displayed in the workplace; for others, there is concern that the certificate may be mistaken for a license. At least one certificate is issued with a notation that the information it contains must be verified by visiting the agency’s Web site.
This question prompted a fair number of written comments followed by exclamation points (something we don't get from you very often). These statements ran the gamut from "We never did [issue them] and I hope we don't start!" to "As our NH motto says: 'Live Free or Die!'........classy licensing certificates are here to stay."