# What is CMP and/or CAE?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-cmp-and-or-cae/87668
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 16, 2001, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-cmp-and-or-cae/87668 "2001-10-16T05:42:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2001, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-cmp-and-or-cae/87668/1 "2001-10-16T05:42:39Z")
A guy I am dealing with at work, he is a client signs his emails as John Doe, CMP. There is another guy in the same company that signs it John Smith, CAE
Any ideas what a CMP or CAE is?
They both are marketing directors for hotels.
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### Author:  [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2001, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-cmp-and-or-cae/87668/2 "2001-10-16T05:50:34Z")
CMP = [Certified Meeting Professional](http://www.mpiweb.org/education/cmp/)
CAE = [Certified Association Executive](http://www.asaenet.org/CAE/)
Both titles appear to figure prominantly among the convention-organizing crowd.
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### Author:  [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2001, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-cmp-and-or-cae/87668/3 "2001-10-16T06:05:54Z")
That is it? I figured it would be like a PhD kind of thing?
Let’s twist this thread. Is it proper to put a title like this after your name?
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### Author:  [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2001, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-cmp-and-or-cae/87668/4 "2001-10-16T06:21:31Z")
Presumably, if you’ve gone through the required courses. From the CMP link I posted, I note that the #1 listed benefit to completing the CMP program is the
> [@](#):
>
> [a]uthority to use the CMP designation on letterhead, business cards and all forms of address.
From reading through some of the websites out there, it looks like those titles exist primarily to impress others in the convention industry. But then, I suppose one could argue along similar lines for titles such as “PhD”.
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### Author:  [@Guy\_Propski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guy_Propski)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2001, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-cmp-and-or-cae/87668/5 "2001-10-16T12:17:10Z")
Certainly. Every certifying association I’m familiar with gives you explicit permission to put the letters after your name. I have a CFM (Certificed Facility Manager), and I use it professionally.
It’s not as a big a deal here as it is in Europe. I have some German friends who will use the letters indicating they have a college degree in Engineering (Dipl. Eng). Think of it as truth in advertising–you see what you get.
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### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2001, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-cmp-and-or-cae/87668/6 "2001-10-16T12:34:53Z")
The first one is Control Program for Microcomputers, an old operating system contemporaneous with the original MS-DOS, and the second, as Opal would tell you, is Center for the Easily Amused.
Dyxlesic? Why do you ask?
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### Author:  [@JonF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JonF)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2001, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-cmp-and-or-cae/87668/7 "2001-10-16T16:39:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by AHunter3 \*
> The first one is Control Program for Microcomputers…
Nope, that would be CPM or, more properly, CP/M. CMP is Chemical-Mechanical Planarization \.