We appreciate the suggestion regarding certificates, wall plaques, etc. and agree they would help spread awareness of WAME.

Of course, there is no special training or testing requirement of WAME members, but the chief obstacle to such a process is that WAME is a virtual organization maintained entirely by voluntary officers and members. Its virtual nature keeps its costs very low, which is fortunate since it currently has no regular source of income.

Any form of letter, plaque, or even postage expenses would immediately pose a major financial and logistical burden on WAME (we do not have staff to create such certifcates, mail them out, etc.).

Thus to implement such a process we must await a better day when WAME is larger and has more resources—something we hope to achieve in the future.

Michael Callaham
President, WAME
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Why not offer a certificate through a simple attachment in an e-mail to be printed by WAME members. I can provide the layout of the certificate if you give me the terms.

Domingo Braile
Editor, RBCCV/BJCVS
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Please forgive me if I am misunderstanding this dialogue, but I do not understand why a certificate would be necessary for WAME members. Certification usually implies a qualification or justification of membership (eg, passing a board certification exam, etc).

It has been my experience that membership to a journal club, listserve, book club, or social group, usually does not justify a "certificate" that establishes one as a member.

If certification is something that is being sought after, maybe we should consider members to become Board of Editors in the Life Sciences (BELS) certified (http://www.bels.org/ )? (BELS provides a certification exam, which I would suppose would come with a printed certificate.)

If we review the purpose of WAME, I feel that the actions should be self-evident.

Perhaps if WAME members feel it is necessary to have confirmation of membership for a resume, we can print off a membership list from the Web site. Would that suffice?

Claire Johnson
Editor, JMPT
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All professional organizations have certificates, and not just printouts from the Web.

I agree with Dr Callaham regarding the costs, and although I believe that we should have certificates, I also agree about the need to pay for the printing and shipping. We must first agree on that principle; then we can arrange for the design and printing of the certificates. I can help with many of these tasks, but first we have to agree on what should be done.

Ehab Abdelrahim
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I believe that the objective of a certificate is not only to recognize the members, but also to help the association develop a plan of action, (with the possibility of action on a great scale). This will require funds, and if the resources do not come from members, I think it will be very difficult to find other sources. Quite simply, WAME  members must vote on where funding should come from.

Hnid Karim
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Afterwards, when the association expands its plan of action, it will be easy to find resources, thus allowing the decrease of financial contributions from members. However, in the beginning, the members must support it. If not, WAME will remain virtual!

Hnid Karim
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And, if somebody asks what kind of actions, I will answer him quite simply—for example the possibility of WAME persuading Reed Elsevier to stop playing on both plans (arms and science). Of course, under the table not in an editorial!

Hnid Karim
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I have followed this discussion, like so many other WAME discussions, with a sense of ennui, as it seems very peripheral to the organisation´s aims and a distraction from its purpose. At the risk of prolonging it further, I note that I have more bits of paper in my life than I need without acquiring another one of little apparent value—please, may I cast my vote against this idea (which from my perspective is not entirely free from the possible taint of narcissism)?

David Ames
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WAME has helped me learn many things and allowed me to move in a direction where I give the best of myself. Maybe some discussions stray from their topics, but the best thing that WAME has done is allowed us to join together at the same table. Let us encourage WAME to grow! But we have to know that it is because we think differently, that science evolves! Do not forget that after multiple failures, we find the good remedy, which keeps us from making other mistakes (a cause of self-destruction).

Hnid
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On Faculty of 1000 Medicine, we gave all our recruited Faculty (some 2400 medical leaders) a certificate on recruitment. I thought it was a silly idea, especially as many of the folk we were approaching were big names in their fields and had all sorts of accolades. When on the road, some Faculty Members have agreed with that sentiment, whereas others have cherished the certificate, and even framed it for their wall. These people didn't do anything to 'deserve' the certificate directly, but some still liked having it. Sure, for us it's a marketing tool to make our members submit more articles to us, but it does have some 'kudos' value. Hence, I can understand why people want a certificate, even if they haven't actually done anything to 'deserve' it. I also suspect that editors of 'small' journals may be able to use it to their advantage against owners that wish to interfere with the journal's operations. In essence, I'm agreeing that it could be a good idea. An annual email going to all existing members with a certificate as an attachment (with the year of the certificate showing when it's valid for) may be of value. Not sure we want to do it now, but it does have value. If anything, it gives us an excuse to engage with the membership directly once a year.

Pritpal S. Tamber
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Personally, I detest the idea of having a certificate to put on the wall. Even if I have such a certificate, I would probably put it along with a bundle that I have collected over the years. Most of these of no value at all.

However, I can understand the sentiments of Prit and some of the others on the listserve who want such a certificate—I have seen some of these put up in the rooms of some very eminent people as I am sure most of us have.

Peush Sahni