The purpose of the article is to present an ongoing study that seeks to know in what manner the affiliate members of the Portuguese Association for Corporate Communication (APCE) trust in the organization to defend their interests and to stimulate a rigorous path for the profession. Because we had a poor associative tradition in Portugal and many associations always struggled with lack of human resources and financing support, people normally did not take the associative work too serious. Mostly the associations would survive with the help of a few strong headed volunteers that believed in their mission. But during the last decades both civic and professional associations have made an effort to assure a more formal structure with full-time and specialized employees which allow them to have a more active role in the society and with its associates. This is the case of APCE. So we would like to find out what associate members now think of APCE and its commitment in establishing Corporate Communication and Public Relations as a critical success factor for companies. Despite being an autonomous non-profit driven entity, independent and active for almost 30 years, APCE has overcome a lot of obstacles and has undergone many restructurings that resulted from the rethinking of its mission. But one of its most difficult challenges over the years has been the capacity of gaining trust from practitioners and academics in the aptitude of APCE to represent them in their professional and research area. APCE board of directors is now interested in promoting a certification process for public relations, communication managers and strategist in Portugal. For several years we have struggled with a lack of recognition of both the value and competences of these practitioners. The ambition for an accreditation or certification of some kind is a long time expectation of many professionals and academics. So our main question is: Do associate members trust APCE to lead a process of certification or accreditation of PR in Portugal? The methodology used is a questionnaire send out to the current list of associate members of APCE. The expected results should point to the recognition of the importance of communication professionals and Public Relations to improve their career by investing in knowledge and new skills through a certification process. The results could be an opportunity for Public Relations to be raised from its current position in Portugal and serve as an example to other countries.

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Associativism,Trust,Trustworthiness,Public Relations,Certification