What is the NCIDQ Appellation Agreement?

After exam scores came out, I received an email from one of our members who passed the NCIDQ Exam; yay!

Her question is:

“Could you help explain what the NCIDQ appellation agreement is?”

When you use the letters NCIDQ after your name, you use it as an “appellation.”

For example, Your Name, NCIDQ

vs. listing your certificate number

Your Name
NCIDQ Certificate #12345

Once you sign the NCIDQ appellation agreement, you can use the letters “NCIDQ” after your name once you meet specific requirements.

Here’s a summary of the NCIDQ appellation requirements:

First, you’ll pay an annual certificate renewal fee — of $75.00 as of June 2023. Late renewals after the expiration are subject to an additional $75 fee for a total fee of $150 for reinstatement.

Next, you must agree to CIDQ’s terms and conditions, a legal agreement that spells out the following requirements:

1. Follow CIDQ’s Code of Ethics, which says that you abide by licensing regulations in your state
2. Maintain professional behavior, including but not limited to:
   • you don’t bribe
   • you don’t mislead
   • you don’t engage in fraud
   • you don’t have conflicts of interest
   • you don’t participate in any other illegal conduct
   • and you maintain the health, safety, and welfare of the public
3. Be personally responsible for your projects and contractual obligations and respect other designer’s contractual obligations, including confidentiality
4. Don’t damage another designer’s reputation or business
   • you don’t plagiarize
   • you don’t endorse another designer that you know is not qualified
   • you don’t engage in any other conflicts of interest
5. Meet the continuing education requirements of your state or provincial regulating body.
   
   OR
6. Suppose you are not registered with a state or provincial board or live and work in an unregulated jurisdiction. In that case, you must take the equivalent of 5 hours* of Health Safety and Welfare Continuing Education Units or CEUs every year and attest to this at renewal. CIDQ may conduct random audits to verify that you’ve met these requirements.
   
   *This represents CIDQ’s new policy going into effect on April 1, 2024 — an increase in CEUs from 6 hours every two years to 5 hours every year.

So, in other words, you’re going to behave like the professional you already are, take continuing education, and pay a nominal annual fee.

Just log in to your MyNCIDQ account and take care of this right away!

After all that hard work you put in studying for and passing the exam, this part is easy 🙂

I passed both the FX and PX on the first try!!

Tiffany Hoffman

You can pass the NCIDQ Exam.
Join designers like you, and move ahead in your career!