The year was 1951. Harry S. Truman was President of the United States.
A 3 bedroom home cost $9,000.00. A new Ford listed for $1,480.00; postage
was $.03; and a loaf of bread cost $.16. Joe DiMaggio retired from baseball;
I Love Lucy premiered; and peace talks began in Korea.
In Chicago, a group of machine accountants got together and
decided that the future was only beginning for the TAB machines
they were operating. They were members of a local group called the Machine
Accountants Association (MAA). The technology was new; something few people
understood and managing this new technology was a skill that even fewer
people possessed. The machine accountants recognized the need to form a
professional support group, a national association, to address the growing
issues of this new technology. Thus on December 26, 1951, after a
constitutional convention was held in Chicago, the State of Illinois granted
a charter and the National Machine Accountants Association (NMAA) was founded.
Groups from Houston, Columbus, Wabash Valley, the Twin Cities, Penn-Del,
and 22 others were the first to join NMAA. Robert L. Jenal, systems manager for
Toni Company, was elected the first International President at the 1952 First
Annual Convention in Minneapolis.
In 1960, the association sponsored
a meeting of educators and businessmen with the purpose of establishing the
Certificate in Data Processing (CDP) professional examination program. The
first CDP exam was held in 1962 in New York. 1962 was also the year that the
association leaders recognized the changing nature of information processing
techniques brought about by the introduction of the computer. Thus, the members
decided in 1962 to adopt a more progressive name, the Data Processing Management
Association (DPMA), to reflect the changing industry.
Always striving to promote the continued education of the members, the
leadership of DPMA created the Registered Business Programmer (RBP)
examination in 1970. Both the CDP and the RBP exams were given annually
under the rules established b y the Certification Council, at test centers
in colleges and universities across North America. Eventually, DPMA decided
to help establish the Institute for the
Certification of Computer Professionals (ICCP) to stimulate more widespread
interest and industry acceptance of the examinations. ICCP began administering
the CDP program in early 1974.
The association has always acknowledged the contributions of prominent
professionals within the Information Technology field. Beginning in 1969
with the creation of the annual Computer Sciences Man-of-the-Year Award
for outstanding contributions to the information processing industry, DPMA has
established a long-standing tradition of honoring IT professionals from every
aspect of the industry. This prestigious award was renamed the Distinguished
Information Sciences Award in 1980 and is awarded every year at the Annual
Meeting of the Members.
As the industry has evolved, so has the
association. Starting as the NMAA, evolving into the DPMA, and then into
our current evolution in 1996 of the ASSOCIATION of INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
PROFESSIONALS (AITP), the association has kept pace with the changing needs
and interests of our members. AITP members span every level of the IT
industry from mainframe systems, to micro systems, to PC based LAN and WAN
systems, to virtual systems and the internet. AITP has special niches
created that cater to the
special interests
of our members. Our members are found in every facet of society as well.
They're in colleges and universities; banking; industry; retail; the armed
forces; local, state and federal governments; hospitals; etc.
To learn more about the history of AITP, DPMA and NMAA search the archives of the
Charles Babbage Institute
Center for the History of Information Processing. You may also contact the
ASSOCIATION of INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROFESSIONALS headquarters for more
information at +1.800.224.9371.
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