MISA Ontario is expanding its awards program in 2010 and providing better opportunities for people and organizations to gain recognition for excellence.

Every year, awards are presented at the MISA Ontario Annual Conference to individual information technology leaders, and to municipal and associate member organizations. An awards panel selects the recipients on the basis of submitted nomination forms.

To help entrants present the best possible case for selection, the awards panel this year is introducing a two-stage submission process. After the initial submission deadline of April 16, the panel will review all nomination forms submitted and provide the submitters with advice and feedback.

Submitters can then make any desired revisions before meeting the final deadline for submissions of May 3.

The awards panel, consisting of past-president Ralph Blauel of Halton Region and three representatives of municipal members, will post the 2010 nomination form on this site in early March.

The submission format will be designed to encourage follow-up submissions to Showcase Ontario and GTEC award programs.

The MISA awards will be presented June 15 during the annual banquet at the Annual Conference and Trade Show in Niagara Falls.

To recognize international delegates who will be attending the conference from GMIS and LOLA, a special International Excellence in Municipal Systems Award will also be presented.

MISA Ontario has published on this site a contract template that municipalities can use to save time when purchasing low-risk IT products and services.

The document, called the Ontario Municipalities Standard Form IT Agreement, is intended to be used voluntarily as an appendix to a municipality’s RFP, containing terms and conditions that would not be contentious to either the municipality or the supplier and could be accepted without further negotiations.

The template agreement could apply in typical commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) type procurements of equipment, software, and service and support services.

MISA Ontario is seeking comment from users on the effectiveness of this contract template.

We invite our member representatives to visit the Member Resources section of this site, click on “COTS Software Licence and Services Agreement,” and complete the brief survey of 10 questions.

We will use the survey results to improve the use of the standard form of the licence and service agreement. Thank you in advance from MISA Ontario!

Presentation submissions are being invited for the Managing Information in the Public Sector conference, to be held April 26-27 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

The Web site for the conference is now live and accepting registrations! Just go to: www.mips2010.ca.

The deadline for the call for submissions is fast approaching on Friday, January 15.

For more information on the call for the submissions and what will potentially be covered at this year's event, click on the agenda tab under the quick links section of the conference Web site.

Originally hosted by the Office of the Chief Information and Privacy Officer of Ontario, this year we are pleased to announce that it will be co-hosted and developed by
• Office of the Chief Information and Privacy Officer of Ontario
• City of Toronto
• ARMA NCR
• Professional Learning Centre, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto
• Ontario Government Libraries Council
• Association of Municipal Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario.

The focus for this year's conference will be "Shaping the New Information Space", a space that is constantly changing. In order to meet the challenges of IM today and tomorrow the various IM related communities across the public sector are recognizing that they must expand their horizons and network of resources to achieve the potentially monumental task of shaping their new information spaces.

Through industry experts' presentations and discussions of real life scenarios, a clearer vision of issues, methodologies, solutions and opportunities will be revealed.

Websense Canada Inc. has announced that municipal members within MISA/ASIM Canada associations are able to purchase Websense solutions at discounts of up to 66 per cent off list prices.

The offer applies to 14 products within the Websense suite of Web, data and e-mail security products. It is being made through MISA/ASIM Canada’s Member Special Offers program.

Websense has set up a tailored microsite on the Web specifically for municipal customers interested in this special offer. Prices and discounts for the range of solutions are listed at http://sites.syndicationlane.com/websense/misa/home. The information is also contained in the Member Special Offers folder in the Members Only section of this site, and at www.misa-asim.ca.

Websense describes its special offer as “best customer pricing,” with terms that municipalities could not normally negotiate on their own. The company has committed that its special offer through MISA/ASIM Canada will continue to contain the best pricing available to municipalities, so MISA/ASIM Canada has designated the offer as “platinum.”

Ottawa-based Websense Canada is wholly owned by Websense, Inc. (NASDAQ: WBSN) of San Diego, California, whose products are designed to enable organizations to use the Web, including Web 2.0 applications, safely to meet business goals without having to worry about security, productivity and liability threats such as malware, inappropriate content and data loss.

Regional contacts for the special offer are listed on the Websense microsite. For further information please contact:

Fiaaz Walji
Canadian Country Manager, Websense Canada
613-299-3543
fwalji@websense.com

MISA Ontario’s Executive will implement a plan to improve member participation in the association and its management, as a result of a motion passed at the Annual General Meeting on June 1.

Passage of the motion means that MISA will concentrate on its core mission of promoting collaboration among municipalities to make beneficial use of information and communications technologies, newly elected President Garry Bezruki of the City of Waterloo said.

“Now we’re going back to the basics again,” Bezruki said after municipal members voted to adopt a report recommending a series of steps to expand awareness of, and participation in, MISA Ontario.

“Let’s look at what this organization is really about, and start to live what its vision was originally -- collaboration and sharing among municipalities.”

The five-step program was proposed in a report tabled at the Annual General Meeting during the 2009 MISA Ontario Annual Conference, held at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology/Durham College joint campus in the City of Oshawa, with Durham Region as host.

The report was a response to a notice of motion presented at the 2008 AGM, urging that the Executive take initiatives to maximize opportunities for new members to become involved in the management of the Association.

Bezruki said the Executive will be focusing on expanding the number of member organizations in MISA Ontario, as well as educating people within those members about opportunities and processes in the association and encouraging participation by more municipal people at operating levels in addition to senior IT management.

The five-point program includes:
• Increased association activities at annual conferences to inform delegates of the benefits and opportunities presented by MISA membership;
• Expanding the number of contacts that each member organization has with MISA, with assistance from the organization’s primary contacts and IT leaders and through a direct e-mail campaign and a referral incentive program;
• Greater use of the MISA Web site as a resource for collaborative communications and discussion forums;
• Reviewing committees of the Executive for purposes of expanding their membership and activities and to appoint non-Executive members as committee chairs whenever possible;
• Expanding the outreach and recruitment activities of regional directors and directors at large on the Executive.

The report containing these recommendations was prepared by a committee appointed by then President Ralph Blauel of Halton Region, whose two-year term ended at the AGM. Committee members included Bezruki as well as Ron Blakey of Durham Region, who was chair of the 2009 annual conference, Scott Bradford of the City of North Bay and Daniel Munns of the Town of Whitby.

Municipal delegates at the AGM voted unanimously to accept the recommendations. The motion of acceptance was moved by Louis Shallal of York Region, who had submitted to the Executive the notice of motion that prompted the report.