I would like to thank you for the opportunity you have given me to be your Chapter President. As you can well imagine I am both excited and a little nervous about it. I will do my best to follow in the footsteps of previous leaders of this chapter. I am sure that with the support of the Board and the membership this will be a great year.

Before looking ahead to the coming year, I would like to first thank Tom Tisthammer, the outgoing President, for his service to our chapter. During the past year Tom made significant improvements to our chapter procedures and policies. These improvements also led to Tom making presentations about the changes at both the Central Region Leadership Conference in November 2008 and the North American Leadership Conference in May 2009. I would also like to thank our departing board members - Travis Finstad and Danielle Stariha. Both have provided valuable contributions to our chapter while serving various roles on the board over the past several years.

As for the coming year, I have a number of goals that I would like to accomplish to help our chapter in meeting our mission: To promote the education of individuals for the improvement and development of their capabilities relating to auditing and/or management consulting in the field of IS audit, security and control. ISACA International has recently implemented a tool called the balanced scorecard which helps us determine how well we are doing in meeting this mission via key objectives for an ISACA chapter in the following areas:

Maintaining an effective and active local chapter operation
Providing annual education programs for members and guests
Promoting the personal growth and professional development of members, including:

Support for the CISA/CISM designations
Serving as a leader in the area of IT Governance

Maintaining contacts and supporting ISACA International activities
Enlightening the business and regulatory community regarding ISACA and ITGI

One key goal for this year is for the chapter to use the results of this self-assessment as a basis for shaping initiatives to improve our Chapter’s effectiveness in meeting these objectives. Matt Hynes, President-Elect, has graciously agreed to coordinate our activities in this area. We welcome any suggestions that you have regarding how we can better serve your needs and will graciously except any assistance you can offer in helping us achieving those objectives

Another key goal relates to providing high-quality local educational opportunities to our membership. We know that with the current economy many companies are cutting back on training and looking for local training opportunities to help save on travel costs. So, we are working toward having our educational calendar set by September to help you in planning for your training needs. Two key people involved in this are Josh Wieland, VP-Roundtables and Jordan Serre, VP-Education. To help meet your educational needs, we welcome any suggestions you have regarding hot topics and speakers.

We are also planning to implement a monthly communication to keep members up-to-date on upcoming events, roundtables, seminars, volunteer opportunities and all other matters related to your local ISACA chapter. Mark Mathison, VP-Administration, is one the key person that will be involved in coordinating our activities in this area. Mark will welcome any help you can offer to help us with this task.

None of these objectives can be achieved without the active involvement of our membership. As a Board, we are committed to serving you and helping you achieve your personal and professional goals. Further, we need to make this an interactive experience between the Board and the membership to ensure that jointly we fulfill our mission. There are always volunteer opportunities to serve in the following areas:

Education – helping out at the annual Secure 360 conference, facilitating/teaching at CISA/CISM review courses, and working on educational events. Please contact Jordan Serre, VP-Education at Jordan.Serre@ey.com
Roundtables – presenting at or hosting the monthly meetings – for further information, please contact Josh Wieland, VP-Roundtables at Josh.Wieland@ey.com
Administration – being involved in membership surveys and the annual meeting – contact Mark Mathison, VP- Administration at mark.mathison@state.mn.us
Academic Relations – developing Campus Outreach program, assisting with Student Conference including booth volunteers, panel participants, etc. Please contact Reginald Abraham, VP-Academic Relations at rabraham@saspoint.com

I would like to note that you can earn up to 10 CPE credits each year to use toward maintaining your CISA, CISM or CGEIT certifications in volunteering to help the chapter. So, I encourage you to contact the appropriate Board member to see how you can become involved in your area of interest. They are likely the most cost effective CPEs you can earn this year. I also hope that you will be open to an email or phone call asking for your assistance.

My best wishes to all of you in the next chapter year, and thank you for your continued membership and participation. I hope to meet many of you personally as we move forward together in the fulfillment of our mission.

Sincerely,

Mike Wilm
2009-10 Chapter President