President's Message – Brian D. Kelley

First of all, I am excited to re-announce that the GMIS Data Dive results have been released! Thank you to all who have participated  and contributed to this new comprehensive GMIS public sector IT Benchmarking and Metrics tool that will help GMIS members justify new staff or budget, review new initiatives your peers are planning in the next three years or learn what the majority of agencies are using. Kudos to the leadership and efforts of 1st Vice President Justin Heyman, Data Dive Committee Members, CMP Management, and our IAC Partners as well to get us to this point with Data Dive!

If you have completed 70 percent of the information entry, you are now able to view the reports within the GMIS Data Dive platform. If you have not yet completed 70 percent of the information entry, we hope you will take a few minutes and complete the entry. If you have not yet started, GMIS Headquarters would be happy to help you get started. Just email them at headquarters@gmis.org.   

Secondly, as I celebrate my 10th anniversary as a GMIS member I am reflecting back on the immeasurable benefits both Portage County and myself have been blessed with through our GMIS membership over the years! The benefits we have mutually derived far exceed our investment in membership fees and attendance at GMIS International Conferences over the years! I encourage you and your agency to maximize your GMIS benefits by taking advantage of all that GMIS State Chapters and GMIS International offer from awesome networking opportunities with peers and vendors, to Data Dive, to the Knowledge Garden, to the List Serve, to GMIS Live, and through participation at the annual International and State Chapter Conferences! Atlantic City promises to be a stellar conference in 2016 so consider registering soon if you have not already done so!  

Finally, I am very thankful for and greatly treasure the many GMIS friends and relationships formed over the years.  Many of my closet friendships in life have been formed and nurtured through GMIS – one of the most priceless benefits of participation in GMIS that I am most thankful for! I had the honor to represent GMIS International at the V-ICT-OR Conference/LOLA meeting in Belgium in November. I would like to express my appreciation to our Belgium friends for  their hospitality and for executing an awesome V-ICT-OR Conference & LOLA Meeting! Our collaborations and sharing show the immeasurable benefits of LOLA  and our significant contributions to public sector IT and the organizations and citizens we collectively represent. The best part of my travel  in Belgium and France was having the opportunity to spend an entire week with some of my best friends in the entire world – sharing our passion for government technology, eating together, sightseeing, laughing, talking,  sharing and working on our LOLA collaborations. I even made some new friends too ... priceless!

Wishing everyone  a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Cheers!