Databus Issue: 2008 1 01/28/2008
President's Message
Warren Williams PresidentA New Year
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Each new President of CETPA brings an agenda of projects that will help the organization to grow and become more responsive to its membership. I hope to follow in this tradition and build upon the work of those who have come before me. Those of us on the Board take great pride in CETPA and its accomplishments. We take even more pride in the dedication shown by our membership in the pursuit of providing world class educational systems for K-12 students. I hope that we can assist you as you tackle this monumental task.
To provide as many resources as possible, I will propose that the Board address four areas for attention in the coming year.
1. Continuance of the professionalization of the organization. Adding help to address your needs throughout the year, particularly at conference time. This would mean support for the Board and members with the business functions of the organization.
2. Growing the organization within the state and to adjoining states. A larger membership means more chances for collaboration and opportunities to provide additional in-service activities.
3. A redesigned web portal with a host of resources available only to CETPA members. This modernization project will include opportunities for podcasts, RSS feeds, webinars, RFPs database, technology job descriptions, spotlights on emerging technologies and new listserv capacity.
4. Finding a way to include a larger role for our vendor partners without jeopardizing the neutrality of the organization. Most boards that provide services like ours have this type of capacity. We will investigate their policies to assure the independence of the CETPA Board.
The theme for this issue, Security/ Infrastructure/ Business Continuity, presents an example of how the previous goals can compliment those concerns that confront educational technologists on a daily basis. An organization that has professional staff can arrange for opportunities to address constant themes; it can provide for collaboration on those themes; it can provide timely and in-depth resources and it can bring vendor resources and expertise into the discussion of resolution of complicated issues. The Board’s strategic planning meeting will lay out a roadmap for accomplishing these and other goals. It will also monitor progress on the great strides taken this year: the CTO Mentor Program, scholarships, and alignment with other organizations like COSN. Please let us know how well we are doing and afford us your insightful commentary to assure that we are providing a course of action that meets your expectations. Have a good year and take care of each other.
