The Community Development Society (International and Arkansas)
The international Community Development Society grew out of a conference of university continuing education organizations held at the University of Missouri-Columbia in January 1969 to discuss the role of universities in community development. Following the meeting seventeen of the men participating in the conference met informally to consider the creation of an association for community development professionals and others with similar interests and concerns. Within twelve hours the organizational groundwork had been laid and the first annual meeting of the new Community Development Society was planned for October. Bylaws were adopted at that October 1969 meeting and its membership, which was almost exclusively university and Cooperative Extension personnel, had grown to 442 by the end of the year. The first state chapter was formed in Nebraska in 1973.
Records to document the Arkansas chapter’s earliest activities no longer seem to exist but it is known that the ACDS was formally recognized by CDS in 1977 at its ninth annual meeting, hosted by the Arkansas folks that same year in Hot Springs. It is believed that the chapter grew inactive due in part to reduced support from the utilities and a change in focus within the Extension Service. For all practical purposes it ceased to exist in the late seventies or early eighties and was dormant until 1986 when a push to reactivate occurred. It was primarily the issues of certification and the establishment of the CDI that drove the push.
CDS had been mulling over the issues of certification and accreditation since 1980 when the Professional Improvement Committee and the Education Committee were charged to work jointly on the issues of individual certification and program accreditation. As history is witness, CDS rarely ever drove faster than 30 mph on any given issue and certification was no exception. In 1983 during his parting remarks, outgoing president Charles Burns included the development of “an acceptable long-term plan for certification of community developers” as a means of reversing the decline in CDS membership. Cussing and discussing crept along until March 17, 1989—six years later—when the board finally accepted a recommendation from the Ad Hoc Committee on Certification for a certification plan to be voted on by the membership at the annual meeting in July 1989 in St. Louis. The plan dictated that certification would be open to persons who had been CDS members for three years, subscribed to the Principles of Good Practice, and took part in professional education conducted by CDS. This is the meeting where the Arkansas delegation turned out in such force as to assure that the vote was affirmative and that CDI had a role to play in certification.
In July 1985 the CDS Ad Hoc Committee on Accreditation recommendations were accepted which “committed CDS to a program of recognition of professional education similar to programs of recognition and accreditation operated by most professional practice groups” to be implemented by January 1, 1986. The guidelines established at this time were the ones under which CDI would apply for endorsement in 1987.
