Micki Kamszik first reported for duty at RCI’s (now IIBEC’s) headquarters on Chapel Hill Road in Raleigh in July 1996. Twenty-three years, five executive directors, 23 executive boards, three office locations*, and a couple of thousand members later, Micki is pushing back her office chair and retiring to her home in the mountains of Asheville, NC, near her three children and three grandchildren. Her last day as an IIBEC employee will be June 30.
During her tenure at IIBEC, she has easily worn more hats and logged more hours on behalf of the association than any individual in its history. Initially hired as the institute’s first operations manager, Micki came on board under the leadership of John Newark, when there were only six full-time employees. She did the accounting, took minutes at the board meetings, and managed the overall office operations. Very shortly thereafter, she assumed management of the membership and registration programs, as well as organization of the 1997 and 1998 conventions.
Eventually, over the years, employees were hired—one-by-one–to concentrate on the myriad duties Micki once managed almost single-handedly. In 2003, in addition to being the director of both the Membership and Registration Departments, Kamszik was promoted as IIBEC’s first Associate Director, which again encompassed management of the operations of the office, including HR responsibilities, oversight of office relocation to the current headquarters at 1500 Sunday Drive, conversion to a new member database, etc.
In 2014, when a director of membership services was hired, she was able to concentrate on just two main functions: Director of Registrations and Associate Director. She processed applications for thousands of new members and answered members’ questions. In shepherding the Registrations Department, she worked with many subject matter experts over the years to develop the Registered Waterproofing Consultant, Registered Exterior Wall Consultant, and Registered Exterior Wall Observer programs, as well as updating the Registered Roof Observer and Registered Roof Consultant programs, ensuring the reliability and legal defensibility of all of IIBEC’s exams. She also adapted the exams from their paper-and-pencil format to an exclusively computer-based testing format and has managed the application/exam process for thousands of individuals seeking IIBEC’s highly respected credentials. She was a member of the Institute for Credentialing Excellence (ICE) and the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE).
In 2017, upon relocation to Asheville to be close to her family, Micki dropped her Associate Director responsibilities. In 2018, she was awarded by the Jury of Fellows with IIBEC’s William C. Correll Award for “demonstrating a high degree of professionalism, leadership, ethics, unselfish dedication, and significant contributions to the growth and recognition of IIBEC.”
Retirement will be anything but “tired” for Micki Kamszik. An enthusiastic hiker, biker, and tennis enthusiast, she also loves traveling, cooking, and gardening, as well as spending time with her children and grandchildren.
Micki stated:
I am grateful for the opportunities RCI (now IIBEC) has provided to me over the years and the many challenges that have kept my job interesting. I have so enjoyed working with and serving the wonderful members (the highlight of my job), working with the excellent staff, and the friendships that have evolved with both. I am extremely impressed with the consistently strong dedication and commitment of the many member volunteers I have had the pleasure to work with over the years, the time selflessly given to the organization, and the strong bonds that have formed among them as a result of working together on a project—all of which has contributed to the success of the organization.
It has been exciting to see the growth, evolution, and success the organization has achieved in a relatively short period of time, and it will be interesting to see where the Institute goes from here.
I will truly miss being part of the IIBEC team, as it has been a huge portion of my life/family for 23 years. While difficult to imagine not devoting most of my day to this association in the future, and retirement in general, I am looking forward to the next phase of my life.
*Including working remotely from home for the last two years
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