About the NEW JERSEY ISACA Chapter
In the Beginning . . .
An application was made on January 25, 1978 to form the NJ Chapter of the EDP Auditors Association. The area to be served by the chapter was from the northern border of NJ to the area just north of Trenton to interface, but not overlap with the Philadelphia Chapter. The application was made by Richard Hirschfield, John Delaney, Pat Hall, Larry Vernon, Mike Grabowski, and Walt Conway. Companies expected to support the New Jersey Chapter included Merck & Co, Prudential Insurance, Blue Cross of NJ, McGraw Hill, Midlantic Banks, Triangle Industries, First National State Bank, Mutual Benefit Life, Purolator, Selected Risks, and Supermarkets General.
ISACA (then called the EDP Auditors Association) approved the request for Charter of the New Jersey chapter on June 8, 1978. The effective date of the chapter formation was July 1, 1978. It cost $160 (6 months dues for 16 members) to start the Chapter. The original bylaws are also part of this record. Unfortunately, records about Chapter activities were not maintained at that time.
At the time of formation, there were also 18 transfers from the NYC chapter, 3 members who had been members at large, and 1 transfer from Sidney, Australia. The original Board of Directors included Richard Hirschfield (President), John Delaney (Vice President), E. Patricia Hall (Secretary), Walter Conway (Treasurer), along with Directors Lawrence J. Vernon, Ted Hartanowicz, Mike Grabowsky, and Martin Latman.
Current Times
By the end of June 2004 the chapter had over 500 members, and by June 2005 there were almost 800 members. The New Jersey chapter of ISACA celebrated our 40th anniversary in 2018.
From humble beginnings, as of January 2024 our Chapter’s membership was 2,454 people. This makes our chapter the 9th largest chapter in the U.S. and 19th largest chapter worldwide. Our current chapter members hold the following ISACA certifications:
CISA: 1,000
CISM: 515
CGEIT: 79
CRISC: 415
CDPSE: 260
CFXF: 3
CSXP: 25
CSXA: 10
In addition, 563 Chapter members hold more than 1 certification
The chapter has progressed from:
- A quarterly hardcopy Chapter newsletter (Info-Net) to weekly emails and social media postings on Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter. As of May, 2023:
- Weekly emails are sent to over 3,500 chapter members and interested persons.
- The Chapter's Linkedin account had over 12,000 views of chapter posts.
- Our Facebook account was viewed by more than 1,800 users.
- Our Twitter account has over 1,000 followers.
- Chapter hosted events to joint events with various audit and security professional organizations and local Universities.
The New Jersey chapter has achieved numerous awards since its founding. The chapter website achieved the Gold Award for best websites from ISACA for three consecutive years. The chapter received Honorable Mention for its communications program in 2014 and 2015. In 2016, the chapter was awarded the K. Wayne Snipes award as the Best Very Large Chapter for both North America and Globally.
Among the many initiatives started by the chapter are:
- Career Connect was launched to hold career development sessions in order to assist ISACA professionals seeking employment.
- Provided numerous outreach sessions to university students prior to the launching of Academic Relations outreach by ISACA.
- Hosting an annual Board Development Session for Chapter Board directors to improve their understanding of nonprofit organization operations.
- In 2016, the chapter introduced certification boot camp classes available both in person and online.
- In 2017, the chapter introduced a scholarship program for students attending Rutgers University.
- Introduced a Rising Professionals program to provide a networking platform for our younger members.