Believing that neither Sharon, principal of the Alliance for Virtual Businesses, nor Dale, President of the Standards Committee, have all the answers, they decided to poll the collective VA Communities with a question, "If there were standards / requirements an individual had to meet before they could start a Virtual Assistant business, what do you think they should be and why?"

The results of this question were staggering, to say the least. We had well over two hundred and fifty Virtual Assistants from around the globe respond. Some responses were angry, others were incomprehensible; bu, most provided very enlightened feedback. So, Sharon and Dale compiled the responses into a document that spanned over forty pages of a small typed font and began the process of combining and organizing the list to a more manageable size.

The results of the compilation were whittled down to four pages of a very descriptive “core competencies” list. Then the participants who volunteered to be on a committee to help structure and support this list of competencies from the 2006 OIVAC workshop on “Where Do We Go From Here” got together and began a long and tedious process of evaluating and fine tuning. To help expedite this daunting task, Cheryl Callighan of eOffice-Virtual Assistants LLC, was asked to serve as Vice-President of this committee.

This committee has been diligently working at being certain to carefully scrutinize and review these competencies so that what we end up with is indicative of the views of all the VAs represented by this document. When we got to the point of having a solid list that we all agreed on, we sent this information to seventeen Virtual Assistant Training Organizations to ask them to review the document and provide feedback. This is the message:

During the last three years, there have been numerous discussions on various VA list serves and forums regarding “What is a VA”, and “What qualifications potential VAs should possess before entering the industry and should “Universal VA Industry Standards” be developed.

 

There has never been an industry-wide consensus or response to these questions, and frankly, varying opinions prevail across the global spectrum. In 2006, a group representing VA trainers, organization leadership, and experienced and new VAs began collecting information and suggestions from the global virtual assistant community and we are pleased to announce that we have completed the compilation of a potential Industry Standards List.

The goal in compiling the information gathered was to pare down the suggestions and recommendations, and to formulate basic standards that were not judgmental or ambiguous. We were looking toward this Standards List as the base or foundation for continued growth and the longevity of virtual assistant industry.

It is our desire to promote the Standards List (later changed to “Core Competencies for Emerging VAs (First Edition)”) throughout the virtual assistant community by enlisting the various virtual assistant training organizations’ support of these Standards.  

Please take a moment and review the attached list. We would appreciate your comments and recommendations. We will take those suggestions and recommendations under advisement and create a finalized Standards List to present to the virtual assistant industry."