If you are reading this you have already taken the first step in getting involved with your association - Congratulations!  When I look back at my own involvement with MISA, I realize that it is the people I have met and the relationships I have built that are of most value to me.  I was first introduced to MISA when I attended the MISA conference in London in 2002 as a vendor (2005 was my first conference as a municipal delegate); since then I have not missed a single annual conference. 

The relationships I have built at MISA allow me to pick up the phone and call the CIO of a large urban municipality, a front line IT worker of a small municipality, the President of one of our associate members or one of our retired life members.  Every one of them will take my call whether it is a burning question or just to say hello because of our shared interest in MISA.  I value my association membership for many other reasons including the Information Security Forum (ISF) membership, member discounts, conferences and more.

Speaking of conferences, we have just had the biggest (boy did we fly IT high!) annual conference we have ever had due to the hard work and dedication from the team at Peel, Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon.  We owe them a huge thank you for a job well done for an informative, well run, fun and hugely successful conference.

The association has also recently gone through its first ever electronic election for the board.  A number of positions ran more than 2 people, and I personally had a really tough time choosing who to vote for as all the candidates brought great skills and enthusiasm to the table.  If only we had this kind of choice for Members of Parliament think where Canada could be!  I know I speak for the rest of the board when I say the board members you have elected are all dedicated to continuing to make MISA the voice of Municipal IT in Ontario and beyond.  To the others that put their names forward for positions during the election, I encourage you all to stay involved by volunteering on one of our many committees and SIGs.

When I look at the composition of the board I realize that it closely mirrors the composition of our membership.  We have members from small 25 thousand population municipalities to rural counties, rural/urban regions up to the City of Toronto.  Our associate member reps also range from small niche players to large multinationals.  As we make decisions going forward we will make sure the interests of all of our members are taken into account; both large and small members would lose something if either group was not strongly represented by the association.

I cannot talk about the future without reviewing the past.  What a busy year the association has had since we adopted our new strategic plan at the AGM in 2010.  Here are a few of the past year's accomplishments:

·        We hired an Executive Director (the first) for the association - Alison Hermansen brings a wealth of experience and efficiency to the association and I encourage all of you to get to know her

·        We passed a new by-law package at the AGM which redefines the roles of the board and the committees to align the association with the strategic plan

·        We created new Terms of Reference for the 4 new committees of the Association and have created a mechanism to bring like-minded members together under the Special Interest Group (SIG) banner

·        We have a new process to elect board members in a more transparent and inclusive way

So what is next?

·        We have the next phase of the strategic Plan to implement with the input of the membership surveys we have recently done

·        Our regional directors are keen to organize some regional events around the province - keep an eye on the web site for details

·        We are going to clarify and strengthen the relationship between MISA Ontario and MISA/ASIM so that MISA/ASIM can stand firmly on its own and be successful going forward

·        We are working on a communication strategy to ensure that all of the association's activities are communicated more effectively

Finally I want to say a huge thank you to the board members that are leaving their board positions. Our strong volunteer base is the key to the association's success; very little would be accomplished without you, so I would like to thank our outgoing board members:

Ralph Blauel, Past President
Helen McLaren, Western Director
Nigel Roberts, Central Director
Harry Turnbull, Director at Large
Bruno Mangiardi, Director at Large
Roy Wiseman, Director at Large
Karen Mayfield, Associate Member Rep

A special thank you to our outgoing President Garry Bezruki for his leadership for the last two years. Once again thanks for stopping by the Members Only section and I encourage you all to get involved to really discover the benefits of MISA.

Geoff Hogan, MISA Ontario President
Director of IT, County of Grey