One morning in late August as I was preparing to leave my apartment for work, I remembered I had tickets for the San Francisco Giants game that night.  A one-fourth partner of season tickets – equates to about 20 games per season – I grabbed the envelope, from the book shelf where the tickets were kept, on my way out the door.  Opening the envelope to snatch the tickets, I felt a tinge of melancholy when I saw there were tickets to only four more games after that night.  The nearly empty envelope not only meant, soon, there would not be any more Giants games to go to for the rest of the year, but it signified baseball season was nearing its end.  All the excitement that had welled up in March in anticipation of a new season, the joy that filled my spirit throughout summer from going to the ballpark to watch games, and the hopes, which sprung as early as childhood, of the Giants winning the World Series in the fall, were inevitably fading away, not to return again until next spring.

Not that dissimilar to a baseball season, our San Francisco chapter year has a beginning and an end, both marked by the Annual General Meeting held every July to recap the accomplishments of the past year and to announce new chapter leadership for the upcoming year, with activities in between.

In addition to the following elected officers and directors who also hold other committee chair positions (in parenthesis) – First Vice President Debra Mallette; Second Vice President Thej Mehta (Education Program Chair); Treasurer Anne Woodbury; Secretary Heather Ouellette; Directors Paulina Fraser (Communications Chair and Fall Conference Co-Chair), Mike Nelson (Membership Chair and Web Master), Steven Majourau (Volunteers Chair), Steve Shofner (Fall Conference Co-Chair) Bill Davidson (Chapter Historian), Sandy Lee and Tim Stapleton (Fall Conference Co-Chair) – I am pleased to announce the return of Bill Pankey (CGEIT Co-Coordinator), Todd Weinman (Fall Conference Co-Chair), David McKenzie (CISA Coordinator) and Carrie Deng (Policies and Procedures Chair), and the inclusion of De-De Hornes (Academic Relations Chair), Anjali Atanacio (CISM Coordinator) and Steve Kruse (CGEIT Co-Coordinator) to the chapter leadership group.  Plus, the chapter board will have the support and guidance of immediate past president Vikram Panjwani and past president Conny LeMieux.  It is this group of dedicated professionals who volunteer their time and will keep the chapter swinging for the fences in 2010-2011.

For the upcoming chapter year, we are already off to an exciting start.  At press time, the chapter leadership and its host of volunteers are gearing up for the annual Fall Conference on October 4 through 6 at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco.  The three-day, educational event marks the 10th anniversary of our Fall Conference, unquestionably a milestone achievement for the San Francisco chapter.  The San Francisco ISACA Fall Conference has become a celebrated event not to be missed because of the trainings and networking opportunities provided there.  Meanwhile, our Education Program committee is busy working to line up our monthly events, which will provide chapter members and professionals at-large with even more timely education on relevant topics and ample networking opportunities throughout the chapter year.  In fact, the annual December holiday event is just around the corner.  So watch for a calendar of upcoming monthly events on the chapter web site, quarterly newsletters and chapter communiqué.

While we are on the subject of education and training, our chapter’s certification coordinators are beginning their plans to conduct review courses for the yearly December and June exams.  As one of the CISA review course instructors earlier this year who saw almost a dozen participants spend an entire Saturday of a three-day, Memorial Day weekend attending two domains of the review course, I can tell you first-hand there is no waning of professionals wanting to attain an ISACA certification and to take chapter review courses in preparation of those certification exams.  The emails I have received at president@sfisaca.org and conversations I have had with professionals at chapter events, asking about our review-course offerings, are testaments to my observation.   I am also sure many of you have already heard about the new CRISC certification.  Discussions among chapter leaders have already taken place to consider this new certification in our review-course offerings.  Stay tuned for more details.

Another activity the chapter looks forward to every year is the Membership Survey.  This year, the survey will be conducted shortly after the Fall Conference.  The collection of feedback from chapter members is an invaluable process for the chapter leadership, which works diligently to keep the chapter functioning and successful by listening and providing benefits to the membership, which stands nearly 1,000 today.  During my involvement with chapter leadership the past several years, many volunteer leaders put forth creative thoughts and efforts to design and implement an online survey, making the survey process accessible and convenient for our members to partake – for the cause of improving benefits and experience for the membership.  As such, I strongly encourage you to provide us with candid and timely responses when the survey arrives.

Behind-the-scenes operation of the chapter never ceases regardless of who holds which volunteer position.  The chore of ensuring chapter processes, such as reporting, internal and external communications, financial management and by-laws, meet ISACA International and chapter missions and is consistent with a professional code of ethics is, well, just that – a chore.  But because of the folks whose names I previously mentioned – and many others who chose to help farther behind the scenes – have committed themselves to volunteer and serve their fellow professionals (in case you did not know, each year, chapter leaders are asked to read and sign a commitment-to-serve form outlining roles and responsibilities), I am humbly confident that San Francisco ISACA would continue to be a stalwart professional membership association in 2010-2011.  And in this new chapter year, leadership has already set its sights to continue developing and implementing operational policies and procedures for ISACA International reporting purposes and requirements, as well as continuing to update and improve existing P&P.  The bulk of this task will be primarily tackled by the P&P committee, which was established when past president LeMieux was serving her term two years ago.  Operating the chapter also involves purchasing products and services and managing the chapter’s identity in a global and dynamic environment.  The decisions within said tasks and the execution of them, which impact current and future chapter leaders and members, do not materialize without accurate and substantial data behind each and any given subject.  Consequently, it is also in our sights this year to establish a Research committee, whose function would be to research and provide subject data upon which chapter leadership could decide and execute.

Another of our to-do is something that First Vice President Mallette will begin this year and implement in her service as chapter president in 2011-2012.  I will not steal her thunder, so you will have to continue being an active and watchful member to see what chapter leadership has in store now and for the future.

As you can see, we have a lot of activities planned and going on for the new chapter year.  It feels as though we are the home team at bat with two out and the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning, down by one run and having fouled off half a dozen pitches already.  Whether you are an intense or a casual baseball fan, the just-described scenario is an exciting one.  Trust me.

Then, it’s a good thing for San Francisco ISACA 2010-2011, because we are looking into a full envelope of game tickets.

Steve Owyoung, CISA
Chapter President