Important Member Update: AMF Changes

[SamanthaO_isc2]

Everything we do at (ISC)² is focused on helping you achieve your professional goals, better secure your organization’s critical assets and achieve our vision of inspiring a safe and secure cyber world. With that in mind, we have invested heavily in strengthening the value we provide to our members. From new member benefits and our online community to our global (ISC)² Security Congress and the launch of immersive professional development opportunities, your (ISC)² team has been working hard to deliver on our value promise to you. To continue investing in enriching, valuable resources that enable you to grow as a professional, the (ISC)² Board of Directors has approved updates to our membership policies and an increase in our annual maintenance fees (AMFs).

What does this mean for you?

• Simplified AMF Schedule – We are aligning with industry and financial best practices, as well as eliminating confusion among some members by no longer billing in arrears (for the previous year’s membership). AMFs will be due at the start of your membership cycle each year. To remain in Good Standing, all members are required to ensure their accounts align with the new payment policy by June 30, 2019. Sign in to www.isc2.org to view your account balance. If you still owe AMFs for the previous year, you will be required to pay those, as well as pay your AMF for the upcoming year.
  
  
• New AMF of U.S. $125 – Effective July 1, 2019, your new AMF will be U.S. $125. Starting January 7, 2019, members have until June 30, 2019 to pay any outstanding AMFs and the option to pay ahead for the remainder of their three-year membership cycle at the current rate for your certification(s). For example, members with a CISSP who pay an outstanding AMF for last year also can pay their 2019 AMF at the rate of U.S. $85, if they pay by June 30, 2019. Members who are due for renewal (members in the final year of their three-year membership cycles) between January 1, 2019 and June 30, 2019 must pay any outstanding AMFs and their 2019 annual maintenance fee at the current rate before June 30.
  
  
• Savings for Multiple Certifications – Starting July 1, 2019, members with multiple certifications will save as they will only pay a single AMF of U.S. $125 regardless of how many (ISC)² certifications they earn. If you hold multiple certifications, your single AMF of U.S. $125 will be due on your earliest certification anniversary.
  
  
• Updated Member Policies – To clarify policies and procedures for members, we have revised the (ISC)² Certification and Member Maintenance Policy and (ISC)² Membership Reinstatement Policy. All policies are available online here.

Act Now and Save

You have until June 30, 2019 to pay your AMF at the current rate for this year, as well as any outstanding fees. If you choose, you also can pay the remainder of your current membership cycle at the current rate. If you pay your 2019 AMF after June 30, 2019, you will be charged at the new rate of U.S. $125. Sign in to www.isc2.org, visit the Member Dashboard and click on the Pay button to save now.

If you have any questions, read our AMF Overview (requires login), ask our team a question on the Member Support board or send an email to your regional Member Services team. 

Thank you for your (ISC)² membership.

[WideOpenPort]

I'm still confused... I have the SSCP and CISSP... SSCP due Nov 2019 and CISSP due April 2019.   

Do I pay $85 for CISSP this year and not pay for SSCP until next year when both will be $125?  

I was going to let my SSCP "go away" since it made little sense for me to include it on anything since I have the CISSP.  Guess I will keep it now.  

I also have the PMP and that is $130 per year for the membership each year.  There are a lot of pluses to keep the membership... free training, free ebooks (PMBOK, Agile, EVM, and other useful books), etc.  Every three years the maintenance fee for PMP is $60 if you have a membership or $150 if you don't.  There is value...

My point is that ISC2 has to show value.  Not sure I see the value when I visit "member perks".  Books at 50%, but then they are still more expensive or the same amount you can purchase on Amazon.  That is baffling.  "MyCourses" list three courses.  My job pays for conferences.  I think they should look at expanding the offerings and moving forward.  Show value.  

[amandavanceISC2]

@WideOpenPort Please email me directly with your primary email on file, your member ID number and what your questions are. From there I will look into your account and confirm what would be due and when.

Best Regards,

Amanda Vance

avance@isc2.org

[Frank_Mayer]

The new AMF is a good idea as long as the funds collected also continue to support training resources to gain meaningful CPEs, such as the new on-line courses that are now provided us at no additional cost.  Increased fees to keep our certifications based in true expertise instead of needing to purchase all certification preparation material from (ISC)2 also has merit.  The one issue I have is that those of us whose current cycle ends right on June 30th, 2019 are not able to pay right now the $125 even if we have our 120 CPEs now; so does that mean we have to pay right on the 1st of July?  Why can't (ISC)2 have an automatic payment option for AMFs where the AMF is automatically billed the credit card on file for a member just at the right time so that members do not have to worry about getting mixed up on the dates.  (ISC)2 used to send multiple reminders of CPEs and AMF needed in advance with very specific instructions and deadlines and I found that very helpful.   

The single fee is also better for the profession since it encourages members to go for more than just one certification.  I would like for (ISC)2 to promote our Systems Security Certified Practitioner (SSCP) as the certification of choice for new professionals in our craft over the CompTIA Security+ or at least we should provide meaningful options for those entering the cybersecuirty workforce over the very limited set of options that the DoD Manual 8570 does.  I am proud that (ISC)2 does not force people to only use (ISC)2 training materials to get ready for our certifications or to stay certified; this is the right and ethical way to operate.  Having a higher AMF is worth it so as to keep our certifications as truly vendor neutral as possible in all aspects to include training materials.  

We should also strive to have our certification examinations become capability based assessments that are based on case study materials and scenarios with essays that are graded by members who have been in the profession over a decade in good standing using a system that masks the person they are scoring. This will take us to the next level and make our process consistent with capabilities based education. By doing this (ISC)2 could take the lead in closing the cyber workforce gap by focusing on our certifications being about mastering all the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to function in the profession.  Our experience and endorsement requirement really adds value to our credential and making the assessment a practical would make our credential even more relevant.  In addition to passing a certification examination, having experience, and an endorsement, our members should have to publish an peer reviewed article once a cycle to not only show they are really experts but to also help provide more diverse material for our (ISC)2 and other professional cybersecurity publications.

[Logan]

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@SamanthaO_isc2 wrote:

Act Now and Save

You have until June 30, 2019 to pay your AMF at the current rate for this year, as well as any outstanding fees. If you choose, you also can pay the remainder of your current membership cycle at the current rate. If you pay your 2019 AMF after June 30, 2019, you will be charged at the new rate of U.S. $125. Sign in to www.isc2.org, visit the Member Dashboard and click on the Pay button to save now.

I would like to pay ahead before the July 1st deadline, but there is no "Pay" button on the Member Dashboard. 

Just this message & a "Learn More" link:

          "Your Maintenance Fee after the transition will be $125 due on Jul 01, 2019"

I tried the "Maintenance Fees" link, but it produces a broken pop-up, stating that:

          "Your AMF payments are current. To review your payment schedule, please view My Account."

I could not find any link labeled, "My Account."

This occurs in Firefox, Chrome, & IE.

Do you have a direct link to Pay Ahead?

[emb021]

This is in response to Logan's posting about paying ahead.

I took a look at my own account.  As I have paid up on my fees, I no longer have an option to pay ahead.  This may be the same for you.  If you are paid up with your certs, may no longer be an option.

To be more clear.  I have 2 certs, one I paid in February, the other in November.  Due to the new payment scheme, I had to paid for my cert in November of 2019 AND my other cert for Feb 2020.  I could have paid further out, but didn't feel it was worth it with the new scheme.

Having paid my Nov 2019 and Feb 2020 fees, paying forward is not available to me.  Instead I'll in line with the new payment method.

[Logan]

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5 hours ago

@emb021 wrote:

Having paid my Nov 2019 and Feb 2020 fees, paying forward is not available to me.  Instead I'll in line with the new payment method.

Ah, that'd be the fine print!

[amandavanceISC2]

@Logan To confirm, if your three-year cycle expires on June 30, 2019 and you have already made all payments, you will not be able to pay the first year until July 1, 2019. Once the transition is final (after July 1, 2019), going forward, you will have the option to pay 45 days in advance of the due date. Unfortunately, that will come after the transition is finalized though. Even though your payment is due July 1, 2019, you will still have 90 days to make the payment.

Best Regards,

Amanda Vance

[denbesten]

Just a quick heads-up.  

If you don't get your check in the mail within the next couple of days, you stand at risk of a substantial late fee ($600) or getting in a dispute regarding who was at fault for the delay.

(ISC)²'s expectation (right or wrong) is that our payments be registered in their system by Sunday, Jun 30th. I was surprised with how long it took in my case:

    May 23  -- Bank mails check (I use online bill pay to reduce risk).

    May 28  -- Check arrives at (ISC)² --  estimated at 1 to 3 business days.

    Jun  07  -- Member Dashboard reflects payment received.

(ISC)²'s, position appears to be that it is the customer's responsibility to accommodate for (ISC)² not working weekends,  (ISC)² having a 7 to 11 business-day backlog, and for postal delays. I had earlier asked (ISC)² to instead use the postmark when calculating late fees.  Although I am told this request was escalated to the appropriate people, there has been no change in their public position. 

[Frank_Mayer]

Thank you for the explanation.

[Frank_Mayer]

AMF Payment is down until July 4th.  I was paid up through the end of June 30th.  I understand from what I received from (ISC)2 Member Services that I will have a 90 day grace period to pay the AMF for my new three year cycle that just started today.  In the past I could pay three years in advance and this is what I routinely did, now we can only pay 45 days in advance.  What is the logic for making this change?  Why can't we have a credit card on file with (ISC)2 to have our AMFs automatically paid to ensure no gaps?  I always have more CPEs completed than the minimum and I alwasys paid well in advanced to endure no lapse in certification.  It seems like the changes are making it harder to stay certified.

[johniat]

Is anyone else having difficulty getting someone at ISC2 to call / email you back? I've been trying to get my AMFs paid and sort out my membership for weeks now but all my communication seems to go into a black hole. No replies, no confirmations, nothing. Any / all suggestions are welcome. 

[rslade]

> johniat (Viewer II) posted a new comment in (ISC)² Updates on 07-15-2019 02:56

> Is anyone else having difficulty getting someone at ISC2 to call / email you
> back? I've been trying to get my AMFs paid and sort out my membership for weeks
> now but all my communication seems to go into a black hole. No replies, no
> confirmations, nothing. Any / all suggestions are welcome. 

Member support seems to be overwhelmed right now, possibly due to a recent
upgrade that seems to have created various problems.

>From various reports, they seem to eventually get back to you, but it may take a
while.

In the meantime, you can try to do an end run by contacting any or all of
soconnor@isc2.org, keagle@isc2.org, jshriver@isc2.org, community@isc2.org, or
avance@isc2.org in hopes that they can put you in touch with the right person.


====================== (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer)
rslade@vcn.bc.ca slade@victoria.tc.ca rslade@computercrime.org
Two things stand like stone
Kindness in another's trouble
Courage in your own
- Adam L. Gordon
victoria.tc.ca/techrev/rms.htm http://twitter.com/rslade
http://blogs.securiteam.com/index.php/archives/author/p1/
https://is.gd/RotlWB

[denbesten]

If you mail a check to pay your AMF, please note that the Corporate Headquarters has a new address:

(ISC)²
1650 King Street, Suite 200
Alexandria, VA 22314
United States