The By-laws (Article I) provide for a membership category for those honorably retired from work in the category for which they have been certified, the Emeritus Member.

Governing Council (October 25, 2020) provided clarification concerning the requirements and authorizations pertaining to this category, as follows:

“CPSP recognizes the significance of the covenantal bonds between its certified members, their chapters, and CPSP as a whole. Consequently, it is understood that these covenantal bonds have the potential of remaining mutually beneficial not only through a clinician’s career, but also through their retirement. As such, CPSP has instituted an emeritus classification of certification, which currently certified clinicians in good standing might opt to adopt as they enter retirement.

“For the purposes of this classification, it is important to establish a definition of the designations of the terms “emeritus” and “retirement.” CPSP defines emeritus in alignment with its common usage as “a person retired from professional life but permitted to retain as an honorary title the rank of the last office held. We define retirement as the “withdrawal from one’s position or occupation or from active working life” (2) with a specific concern for the future stipendiary nature of their work. In this, retirement from an institution does not necessarily imply retirement from a profession.

“For certified members seeking to adopt the emeritus classification of certification, retirement from the certified profession is understood to be the withdrawal from stipendiary work for which the credentials sought to be maintained within the emeritus classification is required. It is understood that emeritus members will no longer employ their emeritus certification status for the purposes of stipendiary employment.

“In alignment with the financial realities of the retirement from the certified profession, CPSP clinicians emeriti will receive a 50% reduction in their annual CPSP membership renewal fees.  Clinicians emeriti are still obliged to maintain their membership in its primary form of expression as active participation within chapter life, wherein they may still serve as full members, including on chapter certification consultations counted toward the critical mass that such processes require, at the level reflected in their emeritus certification.

“Clinicians emeriti are too considered to be CPSP members in full, who may continue to serve as they are called within the various volunteer capacities required to meet the functional needs of  the national organization (committees etc.).

“Clinicians certified with the emeritus classification are not obliged beyond routine participation  in chapter life to meet any particular requirements for annual re-certification as conventionally certified members may be. 

“It is understood that if an emeritus classified clinician returns to regular stipendiary employment  (which includes both part-time and full-time employment beyond a consultative or “one-off”  nature) within their certified scope of practice, they automatically forfeit their emeritus status and will be both treated and billed as a regularly certified, active clinician.”