ISACAOC has been lead over the last few years by some very inspirational leaders. Two come to mind in recent years. Jason Uhlman and Victor Monga. Both have driven significant change in the way the chapter provided education (and fun) to members and the board.
Two things stand out for me during Jason’s leadership were his jokes during the opening of events and the music he made sure was running before and after the event which keep people around and made networking such a pleasure. He also hosted some of the most collaborative board meetings at the ‘Duck Club’ in Irvine somewhere. So many great initiatives were started during those meeting and we were able to host joint chapter events, bring on new leaders and host fantastic CPE.
Victor Monga took the chapter out of the dark ages of face-to-face presentations where the chapter had a stone age projector and the speaker brought their own laptop to a virtual / online presence in social media, presentations with full vendor breakout rooms and certification training classes that received such positive feedback multiple more classes have been run since. The board is using online collaborative tools to plan and marketing our events, we have graphic designers and we are finally leaving Cvent for a modern-day CRM that will ensure every members knows at all time what is going on, where it’s going on, who is presenting and how to collect their CPE after the event. In fact, for most members CPE is now automatically uploaded to corporate without any member intervention required at all.
They are so many other changes going on with the board activity promoting local charity’s, offshore chapters as well as sister and partner chapter events. We are even holding a tri chapter event where all the proceeds go directly to the ISACA corporate research fund into bettering and influencing our industry. We have held more events this last year than I can even remember and had attendees from all areas and not just the committed few. We are also holding more free events.
So back to my original question. Has ISACAOC suffered under the strain of the Pandemic. Not at all, if anything the chapter has blossomed as a result of the challenges made by Victor, Nemi, the board and the governors, stepping up in a way that this writer has rarely seen from a volunteer organization.
So, what of 2021 and the possibility we might all return to the norm later this year. Will we all return to the sports clubs and golf clubs of past. Well, I really look forward to seeing you all again and sharing war stories, family stories and the good the bad and the damn right ugly of the last year and a half BUT the answer is again NO we won’t forgo all these get improvements! The chapter under Victor and now Nemi George will never look back and will continue its journey into online education as well and face to face, We have members all over the county that need to receive the same benefits as local member do and to that end you the reader should expect to see even more virtual events, free education and certification training and more fantastic speakers and face to face participation.
Jason James
Governor, ISACA Orange County Chapter