Happy holidays, TAGITM!

Happy holidays TAGITM!

Admittedly I’m not a big holidays guy. We don’t stress or go over the top with anything holidays related in the McDaniel household. We just do what we do and are happy to do so in our own way. I feel the same about resolutions. I’ve always been an advocate for if I needed to make a change in my life, I want to begin taking the necessary steps today versus an arbitrary date on the calendar. Personal wiring I suppose.

One thing I do enjoy about the holidays is I tend to be more reflective this time of year. I live with a lot of gratitude from the journey derived by chasing goals through the years. I’m more settled these days than I’ve ever been, but there was a lot of runnin’ and gunnin’ that led to today without question! Many risks were taken that thankfully worked out. I mention this because that’s exactly how I feel about TAGITM. It’s a privilege to serve, to be a part of the conversation. It’s a privilege to do what we do serving fellow Texans and TAGITM membership. See, there’s that gratitude! 😊

So, I thought this would be a perfect time and medium to share some of the gratitude ascertained via TAGITM the past year. One thing that’s gained serious momentum in 2024 is our collaboration efforts. TAGITM has greatly extended its reach through some awesome partner organizations. It was a race between the South Central Arc User Group (SCAUG) and GMIS earlier this year to partner up. SCAUG won sort of, mainly because they had events that came up first that thankfully TAGITM was able to support and vice versa.

I was fortunate to attend both TASSC and GMIS this past summer, and our relationship with GMIS has blossomed ever since. GMIS is basically a mirror of TAGITM, just different states and folks. Very similar vibe, their culture is pretty much the same. Their president is ALMOST as cool as ya boy (ha ha Brenda!!!). I see a great partnership blossoming between SCAUG, GMIS, and TAGITM…and we have more lined up! We’ve begun a conversation with an organization called Women in Cybersecurity, WiCyS for short, that I believe has incredible potential.

I would be remiss to not mention Jennifer Frescaz, Fay Young, Lana Spiess, Angie Wright, KAT Thompson, and Lindy Jordan for leading the TAGITM women in technology initiatives. Their efforts made amazing progress in 2024. I could not be more proud of the partnership that materialized quickly with the Unger family leading to a new foundation, the women in technology scholarships (amazing!), and of course this organization establishing the Beth Ann Unger award. Several board members had ties back to Beth Ann’s service with TAGITM. It was the easiest conversation ever to build support and honor her legacy. I’m extremely proud of TAGITM for making that happen.

Financially, TAGITM continues to do extremely well. It’s always nerve racking “guestimating” the budget and annual conference. Costs continue to rise. As we prepare our budgets, we’re making educated guesses to balance attendance with costs. La Cantera and JW Marriot Hill Country are not cheap by any means, but that’s where TAGITM is as an organization. We expect to deliver high quality services at high quality venues for membership. Ever since Covid it feels as though TAGITM has exploded in popularity. It was always good, but it has seriously ramped up the past few years. That’s been incredible to see. I’m notorious for being an optimist, but I fully expect to blow the doors off La Cantera April 2025. I think CMP knows they better keep an eye on me come conference time because I want everyone there. Even if that means sneaking folks in the side door! 😊

So much has been done to move TAGITM forward. We still have our Houston summit coming up, and the GIS summit will happen at some point. I didn’t even mention GIS, but we’ve seen great progress there. Standing up a GIS committee. GIS members are days away from having their own listserv. GIS now has its own track at our annual event. Esri has been an awesome supporter of TAGITM (thank you Jacob!). I could go on and on. Long story short, the past several months has been a ride and I’m thankful for all of it. I’m thankful for all of you. I know one day I’m going to look back and smile knowing we accomplished some pretty cool stuff. I very much appreciate the opportunity. Thank you. I hope every single one of you has an incredible Xmas/New Years, and I hope y’all are ready to put your gotdang TAGITM party pants on in 2025. It’s going to be something. Until next time thank y’all for reading!