• Top Stories
• NASCIO in the News
• Members in the News
• NASCIO on the Road
• Staff Transitions
• Committee & Work Group Updates
• Mark Your Calendar

TOP STORIES

• Seventh Annual DC Fly-In Yields Results

  The seventh annual NASCIO Washington DC Fly-In was held on May 2, 2007, continuing NASCIO's now well-established tradition of state CIO advocacy on issues of importance in Washington, DC. The main message that the 29 state CIOs and deputies carried to Capitol Hill was restoration of funding for the State Homeland Security Grants Program. One of the key areas supported by this core assistance program is funding to enhance the capability of state government to address potentially malicious and virulent cyber attacks. On June 14, the Senate approved a Homeland Security Appropriations bill that would fully restore the funding as NASCIO requested. A similar bill in the House was also passed on June 15.

  In addition to Congressional action on NASCIO's specific funding request, the association has received numerous inquiries requesting information on other critical IT issues as a result of the DC Fly-In activities, indicating this year's event was a resounding success.

• NASCIO Unveils Disaster Recovery Tool Kit

  NASCIO's Disaster Recovery Working Group will follow the recent release of the Government At Risk: Protecting Your IT Infrastructure video with a Disaster Recovery Tool Kit to assist states in their planning processes. The Tool Kit, which will be released later this week, contains a series of checklists and questions which are designed to help state CIOs and IT officials anticipate potential problems and hurdles at each step - before, during and after a disruption or crisis situation occurs. To download a copy of the Disaster Recovery Tool Kit, click here.

• NASCIO Forms New Working Groups to Address E-Discovery

  NASCIO's Executive Committee approved the charter for a new working group that will investigate the emerging issue of e-Discovery on their June 7 conference call. The E-Discovery Working Group, chaired by Gary Robinson, CIO, State of Washington, will begin work in the near future with the goal of presenting their final deliverable in time for the Annual Conference in Tucson, Arizona this fall. The E-Discovery Working Group will explore the increasing role that state CIOs play an in the lifecycle of electronic records management. This issue has recently emerged in prominence due to IT impacts and potential liability concerns regarding "e-discovery" or the electronic records, documents and communications that could be requested during the discovery phase of litigation to which the state is a party. For more information about this working group, or to volunteer, please contact Mary Gay Whitmer at mwhitmer@amrms.com or (859) 514-9209.




Registration for NASCIO’s 2007 Annual Conference, Building on the Past, Managing the Present and Stepping into the Future, will open on June 25. The event is scheduled for September 30 – October 3 in Tucson, Arizona at the Marriott Starr Pass. Stay tuned to NASCIO's website for the most current information.

Sponsorship opportunities are still available for the Annual Conference. Fast-forward your business objectives by reserving your company’s sponsorship today. Click here for complete details.

NASCIO In The News

Members In The News

• CIO Transitions

  TEXAS
  On May 23, Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR), Board Chair Cliff Mountain announced the selection of Brian Rawson as the new Chief Technology Officer for the State of Texas and Executive Director of DIR. Rawson, who has held the position on an interim basis since December 2006, brings 23 years of progressive experience in information technology management, executive-level management and leadership positions in the public and private sector. Click here for more information.

• Bill Bott Named as American Business Awards Best MIS & IT Executive

  Bill Bott, Deputy for Operations in Missouri's Information Technology Services Division was named as the 2007 American Business Awards Best MIS and IT Executive during a gala and nationally broadcast ceremony in New York City on June 11. Bott was the only public sector award recipient in the more than 40 categories recognized. For more information and a complete list of finalists, click here.

  "I am extremely proud of Bill's accomplishment. This award validates that government and its' leadership can compete with private industry in business process change and in delivering efficiencies for the IT organization and our customers. His work with our customer model, strategic planning initiatives, and performance measures is the glue that holds everything in place and is certainly worthy of this type of recognition," stated Missouri CIO, Dan Ross.

• 2007 Intergovernmental Solutions Award Winners Announced

  The American Council for Technology (ACT) announced the recipients of the 2007 ACT Intergovernmental Solutions Awards on June 4 at the 27th Annual Management of Change Conference.

  The 2007 winners in the state and local category are:

  • KY-CHILD (Kentucky - Certificate of Birth, Hearing, Immunization, & Lab Data), Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services
  • No Wrong Door Initiative, Virginia Department for the Aging
  • Possible Criminal History and Case and Criminal History (PCH/CACH), State of Washington Justice Information Network
  • Using Decision Support and Advanced Analytics for Innovative Fraud Detection, Michigan Department of Information Technology in partnership with the Michigan Department of Human Services
  Award recipients were selected based on program criteria which included technology leadership, intergovernmental and collaboration, business transformation, available and transferable, and impact and results. For more information, click here.

• New Corporate Members

  NASCIO is pleased to welcome new corporate members General Dynamics, Nuance Communications, Inc. and Teradata.

NASCIO on the Road

• Dianne Adams, NASCIO Programs Coordinator, along with a number of state CIOs participated in the Governing Managing Technology Conference in Chicago May 30 - June 1. The event was attended by a wide range of state and local representatives from State Senators to Directors of Finance and Chiefs of Staff. NASCIO President Teri Takai (Michigan) spoke during the opening session and the breakfast symposium on Looming Challenges For IT Leaders: Are You Ready? Vice President John Gillispie (Iowa) took part in a panel discussion about Consolidation Challenges and one on Wireless, Wi-Fi and Broadband. NASCIO Secretary/Treasurer Gopal Khanna (Minnesota) participated on a panel about IT-Enabled Transformation and the discussion on Looming Challenges For IT Leaders.
• Doug Robinson, NASCIO's Executive Director, attended Gartner G-CON: Government Conference 2007 in Washington, DC on June 6-8. NASCIO was again a participating sponsor of this event. Informative and topical sessions on IT security, program management, health IT, shared services, enterprise architecture and Web 2.0 in government were presented. Several state technology representatives were in attendance, which provided Doug the opportunity for informal networking and discussion regarding the topics presented at GCON. Commissioner Mark Rutledge, CIO for the Commonwealth of Kentucky participated as a speaker on a panel titled Overcoming High Risks of Large IT Project Failures.
• Eric Sweden represented NASCIO as part of the opening keynote panel at the 2007 ArchitectureGOV Conference in Cumberland, Maryland on June 10. In the discussion titled How Social Networking is Changing How we Collaborate and Share Information, Sweden was joined by Ira Grossman, Chief Architect for FDIC and Chair of the Federal Chief Architects Forum, Mary E. McCaffery, Senior Advisor to the Assistant Administration, US Environmental Protection Agency, and Lynn Reyes, Managing Consultant Strategy and Change, IBM.

Staff Transitions

• Stephanie Czuhajewski, Membership and Communications Coordinator, has accepted a new position and will be leaving AMR Management Services effective June 29, 2007. As you know, Stephanie has served as a key resource for NASCIO's state and corporate members. The Executive Committee and the Corporate Leadership Council join me in expressing our thanks to Stephanie for her outstanding service to the Association and we wish her the best in her future endeavors.

  We have planned for a smooth transition of responsibilities and AMR is actively recruiting to fill this position. In the interim, NASCIO Assistant Director Beth Roszman will manage NASCIO’s membership and sponsorship programs. Please contact NASCIO Executive Director Doug Robinson (drobinson@amrms.com) or Beth (nascio@amrms.com) if you have any questions.

Committee & Work Group Updates

• NASCIO's Corporate Leadership Council, which represents all corporate members, recently distributed a survey to state CIOs to gain insight into the potential impact of the aging of the public sector workforce on the way that states will deliver IT services in the future. This survey is designed to gain insight into this issue and its effect on public policy from the view of the CIO. The deadline for CIO responses is Thursday, June 21.
• The Cross-Boundary Collaboration Committee released Getting Started in Cross-Boundary Collaboration: What State CIOs Need to Know on May 23. This brief explores common threads throughout various types of collaborations, reasons and drivers behind collaboration, and considerations for state CIOs before collaborating. The Committee is currently working toward a second deliverable in which they hope to establish a framework for state CIOs to use as a reference for collaboration.
• NASCIO's Enterprise Architecture Committee and Security and Privacy Committee recently co-sponsored an All-States Call entitled A Conversation with Bruce Schneier. This event was an opportunity for state CIOs, CISOs and Enterprise Architects to hear from the internationally recognized security architecture expert.
• The Enterprise Architecture Committee will be releasing the second brief in its series on Electronic Records Management and Digital Preservation later this month. Third brief will follow in July. The committee is also working on its second project on organizational transformation. The group is looking for examples of strategy and implementation of virtualization or transformation initiatives in federal, state and local government. Please contact Eric Sweden at esweden@amrms.com if you are planning or implementing an initiative in this area.
• NASCIO's Infrastructure and Services Committee will produce a suite of deliverables around results from its recent data center consolidation survey. These products will include a research brief and template slide presentation that each of the states can use as a tool to help justify data center consolidation efforts within their IT enterprise. These resources are scheduled for release in July.
• The Health IT Working Group is currently working toward a deliverable exploring the role of the state CIO in a RHIO. The brief will examine the impact of health IT and RHIO efforts on states and state CIOs and will explore ways in which state CIOs can become more involved in these initiatives. This brief has an anticipated late July release date.
• The Project Management Forum will combine their July and August Forum conference calls into one summer Forum call to be held July 24 and will feature Sean McSpaden and Ying Kwong from the state of Oregon presenting Project Management and Quality Oversight of Outsourced IT Projects. In addition, the September 4 call has been changed to September 18, in light of the proximity of September 4 to the Labor Day holiday.
• NASCIO's Security and Privacy Committee is currently working on a deliverable for release later this summer that will identify the top 5 state IT security priorities and provide best practices and tools for accomplishing those priorities.

Mark Your Calendar

• Recognition Awards Best Practices Webinar
  NASCIO will host a webinar today, June 19 at 2:00 pm ET featuring a presentation by Enterprise Architecture award recipient the District of Columbia's Enterprise Integration Stack. Also featured on this webinar will be a presentation on the Michigan Human Resources Optimization, recipient of the Enterprise IT Management Initiatives award.

  Presented in conjunction with NASCIO's 2006 Recognition Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Information Technology, this webinar series is designed to highlight the innovative initiatives and best practices exemplified in each award-winning nomination. To register for this event, click here.

• Disaster Recovery Webinar
  NASCIO's Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Working Group, in conjunction with its Corporate Leadership Council, will host a webinar entitled "You Can't Recover If You Can't Communicate," presented by AT&T on Tuesday, June 26, at 2:00 pm ET. The webinar will feature speaker Torri Behnke-Spiegelhalter, AT&T Government, Education & Medical Director Homeland Security, Southwest Region.

  Learn about Best Practices in Interoperability and Communications Technology during this sixth webinar in NASCIO's 12-part Disaster Recovery Webinar series, which features presentations by corporate members who have provided financial support for NASCIO's recently released DVD, Government at Risk: Protecting Your IT Infrastructure. Click here to register for this event.

• Upcoming Committee Calls
  
  • Programs Committee - Thursday, June 21 and Thursday, July 5 at 1:00 pm ET
  • Best Practices Working Group - Thursday, June 21 at 3:00 pm ET
  • Corporate Leadership Council - Thursday, June 21 at 4:00 pm ET *Please note that this call has been rescheduled from its original date
  • Disaster Recovery Working Group - Wednesday, June 27 at 2:00 pm ET
  • Cross-Boundary Collaboration Committee - Wednesday, July 11 at 3:00 pm ET
  • Executive Committee - Thursday, July 12 at 11:00 am ET
  • Enterprise Architecture Committee - Thursday, July 12 at 2:00 pm ET
  • Infrastructure and Services Committee - Thursday, July 12 at 2:00 pm ET
  • Health IT Working Group - Tuesday, July 17 at 3:00 pm ET
  • Security and Privacy Committee - Monday, June 18 at 1:30 pm ET
  • Project Management Forum - Tuesday, July 24 at 3:00 pm ET on Project Management and Quality Oversight of Outsourced IT Projects, Facilitated by Sean McSpaden and Ying Kwong from the state of Oregon *Please note that this call has been rescheduled from its original date
• Other Events of Interest
  

  National Governors Association Annual Meeting
  July 20-23, 2007
  Traverse City, Michigan
  
  

  Global Justice Information Sharing Users' Conference
  August 21-23 in Chicago, Illinois

  • NIEM Executive Briefing - August 20 1:00-5:00 pm ET
  • Users' Conference - August 21-23
  The cost to attend is only $195.
  For more information, visit http://it.ojp.gov/topic.jsp?topic_id=247.