For the second time this year, municipalities within the MISA community are being offered a special price for a training course called Ethical Hacking and Countermeasures that will be presented in October in Mississauga.

The five-day course beginning October 18 will be presented by IT Training Solutions, an associate member of MISA Ontario. It is being offered to municipal delegates for the discounted price of $1,950. The course at the Courtyard by Marriott Mississauga Airport Corporate Centre West will be the second round of a course initially presented at the University of Toronto in July.

The course is designed to show students how to scan, test, and secure their own systems. Students will hack into simulated systems and learn the vulnerabilities of their own systems through the eyes of an attacker.

Further information is available at www.ittrainingsolutions.net/Documents/ceh_flyer_mississauga.pdf.

Harry Turnbull, executive director of information technology for the City of Windsor, has received Canada’s highest municipal IT award from MISA/ASIM Canada as well as a major award from MISA Ontario.

One day later he was presented with the Regena Lerke Award from MISA Ontario, joining several other individuals and companies who were recognized for leadership during the 2010 MISA Ontario Annual Conference and Trade Show.

Making the Peter Bennett Award presentation at Niagara-on-the-Lake, to an audience of senior government officials attending the 2010 Lac Carling Congress, Maurice Gallant, president of MISA/ASIM Canada, said Turnbull exemplifies leadership in municipal information technology and inter-municipal collaboration.

He has represented MISA/ASIM Canada at several international meetings and was instrumental in arranging for an international delegation from municipal IT organizations to attend the MISA Ontario conference at Niagara Falls.

This was the first time that the Linked Organisations of Local Authority ICT Societies (LOLA), the only international association promoting collaboration among municipal IT directors, has met in conjunction with an annual conference in North America.

Gallant noted that Turnbull is also a representative of MISA/ASIM Canada on the Public Sector CIO Council and “has reinforced the important role that municipal CIOs can play on the PSCIOC and, more broadly, in the work of the Joint Councils.” Turnbull was host for a meeting of the Joint Councils in Windsor in February 2010.

The Peter Bennett Award is presented to an individual making an outstanding contribution to the Canadian municipal IT community and to the MISA/ASIM Canada mission and objectives, while exemplifying Peter Bennett’s spirit of demonstrated leadership combined with humour and humanity. Bennett, a municipal IT pioneer from Winnipeg, died in 2005.

“Harry represents a new breed of municipal CIO, who has become a part of the senior management of the organization, rather than just a technologist,” Gallant told the Lac Carling audience.

A few kilometres away on June 15, Turnbull received the Regena Lerke Distinguished Service Award at MISA Ontario’s annual banquet during its conference in the City of Niagara Falls.

The award is named for past MISA Ontario president Regena Lerke of the City of Peterborough, who died in 2001. It is presented for individual service to MISA that exemplifies Lerke’s spirit of working “beyond the call” and making a difference to the organization and its members.

Turnbull served as president of MISA Ontario in 2005- 2006 and as chair of the Ontario annual conference in 2005.

MISA Ontario also presented two Special Recognition Awards to Stephen Wong of the City of Toronto and Ralph Blauel of the Region of Halton for specific and outstanding contributions to the municipal systems community. Wong was cited for his contributions to the Lac Carling Congress Steering Committee and MISA projects; Blauel was honoured as MISA Ontario’s past president and the leader of its 2010 strategic-plan project.

Karl Drysdale, recently retired as the City of London’s IT leader and as MISA Ontario’s long-time secretary, was presented with a life membership.

Among awards given to organizations, the winner of MISA Ontario’s first-ever International Excellence in Municipal Systems Award was the national municipal IT organization of New Zealand, one of six countries represented in the LOLA delegation at the Ontario conference.

The Association of Local Government Information Management Inc. (ALGIM) won the trophy for its ALGIM Information Management Toolkit, a guide for technology implementation and reviews that has been adopted by 85 per cent of New Zealand’s local authorities.

Three Ontario municipalities were selected to receive Excellence in Municipal Systems awards, from among 17 provincial submissions. The winners were:
• Halton Region, for its SAP TCA Reporting Software Incubation;
• Niagara Region, for its Protocol for Electronic Clinic Systems;
• The City of Toronto, for its Children’s Services Information System.

Two awards went to the private sector. Rob Corazzola of SAP Canada, a champion of municipal solutions development and past board member of MISA Ontario, received the Associate Member of the Year Award. Microsoft Canada Co. was named Exhibitor of the Year at the Ontario conference’s trade show.

The 2010 MISA Security and Risk Management Conference will be held November 21-23 in Toronto. The City of Toronto will be host for this eighth annual event and has made available a catalogue for companies interested in sponsorships or exhibits.

Sponsorship opportunities will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. All companies are asked to submit their signed forms of intent by July 30.

For further information please see the enclosed catalogue or contact conference chair Kathryn Bulko of the City of Toronto, kbulko@toronto.ca.

There has been a lot of activity by the conference committee in getting vendor sponsorships in place. The week of March 15 - 19 was the last week for vendors to express interest in sponsorship or presentation opportunities. Any vendors who have not contacted Kevin Peacock to discuss sponsorship or presentation are recommended to contact him immediately. With vendors confirming their support of the MISA Prairies conference the conference committee has released its latest version of the conference schedule. It provides information on the welcome activity on April 28th, as well as information pertaining to the presentation schedules and keynote speakers. It is definitely worth a look!

If you haven't already booked your hotel for the conference we strongly recommend you do so very soon. The conference hotel, Hotel Saskatchewan, only has availability within the block of rooms that are reserved for conference delegates. Take advantage of this and book now!

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 municipal members have approved a new Executive team for 2009-11 led by President Garry Bezruki, director of information systems for the City of Waterloo.

Member representatives voted unanimously at the Annual General Meeting on June 2 to approve a slate of candidates recommended by the outgoing Executive, which was led for two years by Ralph Blauel, director of technology services for Halton Region.

Bezruki moves up from his previous position of vice-president. That position now is held by Geoff Hogan of Grey County. Also in a new position is secretary Dan Munns of the Town of Whitby.

Munns is succeeding Karl Drysdale of the City of London, who has retired from the Executive. Drysdale had been secretary since 1998.

Another retiree is Rob Corrazzola of SAP Canada, who served as the associate member representative in 2007-2009.

David Laneville of the City of Timmins remains as treasurer, a position he has held since 1995.

Other positions on the Executive include:
• Northern region director: Scott Bradford, City of North Bay
• Eastern region director: Glenn Burroughs, City of Ottawa
• Central region director: Ron Blakey, Region of Durham
• Southwest region director: Helen McLaren, Municipality of Chatham-Kent
• Director at large: Kathryn Bulko, City of Toronto
• Associate member representative 2008-2010: Ron Begg, StarDyne Technologies Inc.
• Associate member representative 2009-2011: Karen Mayfield, eSolutions Group
• Associate member representative 2010-2012: Chris Medina, NCI.