The founders of the American Society of Training Directors recognized from the very beginning the importance of establishing some means of identifying the training occupation clearly and spe-cifically for those who make use of its services and equally emphatically for those who might become employed in the field. They felt that a relatively new occupational activity needed, in addition to delineating its unique characteristics, some foundation upon which to build professional status and to establish a course of action leading to achievement of the goal of recognition as a profes-sion.