> I don't mean to sound pessimistic but I have never been given an answer
> other than its something to pat yourself on the back about and point to  
> in
> a power point slide...

Unless you're in academia (which has its own set of certifications to  
which the above observation also applies), the answer is exactly what  
Prof. Bromenshenk wrote about the new edition of the Hive and the Honey  
Bee book: things change. I don't think that there's anyone alive who would  
claim that they know everything about bees. Getting a certificate is just  
a convenient way of expanding/updating one's education is all and we live  
in a society that awards and values such efforts. It's a shortcut synopsis  
of one's resume: instead of looking at what one has done and forming a  
judgment, one know at least something about the person with the  
certificate.

One thing about the EAS certificate is that it evaluates one's ability to  
be a honeybee evangelist: that is, be able to intelligently talk about  
bees to non-professionals. I think that this is an extremely valuable  
skill given what's going on right now and sorely needed. This Sunday's New  
York Times had a full-time ad from the National Resource something with a  
dead bee and a screetch against Beyer accusing them of killing all the  
bees. If NYT is on the 'bees are dying' bandwagon, we're in deep trouble...

Przemek
--

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