Judy McCoy heads global professional organization

Mark Malijan | MARK MALIJAN THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

• ABOUT IAAP
  
  The International Association of Administrative Professionals is a not-for-profit group.
  Members: About 40,000.
  Founded: 1942 as National Secretaries Association; the current name was adopted in 1998.
  What it does: Acts as a resource for administrative professionals, offering a variety of training, including professional certification programs.
  Who are administrative professionals? The list would include administrative coordinators, executive assistants, office managers, administrative assistants and executive secretaries. There were 4.2 million people employed in the U.S. in secretarial and administrative assistant jobs in 2006, according to the Department of Labor.
  Headquarters: Kansas City, Mo. Web site: www.iaap-hq.org.
  
  ADMINISTRATIVE PROFESSIONALS DAY
  
  Celebrated on Wednesday, Administrative Professionals Day was known as Professional Secretaries Day until eight years ago.
  When asked about how to best recognize an administrative assistant, IAAP President Judy McCoy said empowerment, whether it’s by paying for a new certification course or a seminar.
  “The role of an administrative assistant has grown; it’s important to support them as they take on new tasks,” McCoy said.
  
  

McCoy took some time to answer some questions for The Bellingham Herald:

How would you describe administrative professionals and this organization?

The organization started out as something for secretaries, and members used to be tested on things like typing and calculator skills. Eventually the organization got rid of the term secretary in favor of administrative professional because it better represented the role people have in a company. We now have certification programs to help teach new skills in this field.

An administrative professional is a job that has grown quite a bit in recent years. They have stepped up to fill the roles of middle managers when those jobs began to disappear in the early 1990s. Today administrative professionals play an integral part of a company because they tend to handle many different roles. It has greatly changed with the introduction of computer technology.

Is it a difficult job? It sounds like the job skills are different from company to company.

The administrative professional position is sometimes viewed as a catch-all for a variety of jobs, but I wouldn’t view it as a situation where the employee is being dumped on. I see it as an opportunity to learn a variety of skills, and that has a longterm benefit to a person’s career.

How did you get involved in this organization?

I was hired as a secretary at Bellingham National Bank and in 1992 was invited to a lunch meeting. I was impressed at the networking that was taking place; we all had similar challenges and could talk to each other about it. Eventually I was asked to become president of the chapter. … I kept working my way through the organization all the way up to president of IAAP.

Why do you think this organization is helpful?

I meet people who are stagnant in their job and who (upon joining the IAAP) discover there are many opportunities out there. You see people grow and become leaders, and then they do better at the workplace.

It is also a great place to interact with your peers about the industry.

What is the biggest challenge for an administrative professional?

Not getting the training they need. At the workplace they take on new systems or new roles but are not given the tools to learn the skills.

In our organization, 75 percent of the members pay their own dues. If companies would realize that for about $80 a year, they are empowering employees to get training they can bring back to the workplace, it would be a huge benefit to them.

What do you tell students who ask about a career as an administrative professional?

I guess it’s a mom thing, but I tell them it’s the kind of job where you get what you put in. If you just want to be a receptionist and answer phones, you can do that. But you can also learn and take on tasks that put in more of an executive position. An administrative professional can make between $35,000 to $55,000 a year, depending on what skills that person has.