As your new President, I am going to provide unparalleled access for you to some of the inside workings of the ISSA.
One of my major goals for 2014 is to increase our membership substantially.
In order to accomplish this daunting task, I am reaching out to you to recruit as many of your colleagues, fellow students, and client contacts who meet our criteria for membership to come on board!
The upcoming ISSA International Conference for 2014 is going to be held in our own backyard, at Disney World, in Orlando!
It is my fervent hope that we can send two full buses of our membership to attend that event, all expenses paid, which will be in October of 2014.
To do this, as well as plan and execute our own Security Conference in May of 2014, may seem ambitious, but I feel strongly that we can do all of it.
In the upcoming months, we are going to turn up the volume on SFISSA to eleven.
Many fantastic ideas are becoming available to us, courtesy of recent events such as ITPalooza, the ISSA redesign of its corporate web presence, and our exploration of holding simultaneous events with other like-minded organizations, such as ISC2, ISACA, and others.
While I was manning our SFISSA booth at ITPalooza, I spoke with Dr. Eric S. Ackerman, Dean and Associate Professor of the Nova Southeastern University Graduate School of Computer and Information Sciences. Dr. Ackerman and I discussed the possibility of a simultaneous SFISSA meeting at three Nova campuses! He assured me that we could conceivably host the program at NSU in Davie, and their other campuses in Miami and NPB would then join the network.
The benefit to our members is that you can attend the meeting most convenient for YOU, and the subsequent networking event. Each campus would have an SFISSA officer in attendance to moderate, and each campus could also contribute speakers. The networking events will happen local to each campus.
Dr. Ackerman was extremely helpful and generous in our discussion of this possibility, and is ready to help us in any way he can.
However, the coordination for this will require a lot of work and help from our members, and NOT just the Board!
Some other ideas we are excited about is integrating a job board on our website, and the possibility of using Moodle to provide online review material for the CISSP and other certifications that interest our members.
There is also talk of creating an SFISSA Challenge coin, and colorful aluminum name badges that will enhance our networking efforts.
We are going to step up our efforts at recognizing both the contributions of outstanding members, as well as members who meet the requirements for Senior Member, ISSA Fellow, and ISSA Distinguished Fellow.
Since all of this will cost the Chapter real money, we are going to begin examining ways (outside of vendors and national dues) to fill our coffers.
Events as mundane as a car wash, raffle, or other similar fund raising activities are in our future.
The goal is NOT to become an organization that is centered around fund-raising.
The goal is to raise the appropriate level of funds to allow our members to maximize their benefit from being in SFISSA.
If that means we are able to pay the travel expenses for our Senior Members and Fellows to receive their awards at ISSA International events, that is wonderful!
If that means we send two bus-loads of our members to the 2014 ISSA Conference all-expenses paid, that would be remarkable!
YOU are the key to making this happen.
The SFISSA Board of Directors is setting up a series of committees to manage these projects and we will need ALL of your assistance to assure our success.
Look for more information about the process in the coming weeks.
Finally, please take a half-hour or so to review the Chapter Leader’s webinar material that is linked below.
I assure you it is worth your time to learn where we are going, and how we intend to get there!
Thank you very much for your continued support and assistance!
Sincerely,
William A. Cellich
President and ISSA Fellow
CISSP, CEH, AIIM ecmM, MCTS, CDIA+
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The ISSA held a Chapter Leader’s webinar on December 11, 2013.
The Subject: How to Recruit New Members
The Speakers:
Triad of North Carolina and Motor City are the first chapters to achieve Gold Chapter status. Both exceeded their annual goals for membership growth in just two quarters. Guy Bass of Triad of North Carolina shared what they did to recruit 23 new members and increase their net membership by 20% in six months.
Missed the meeting? Click here for the on-demand recording and click here to download the presentation slides.
