Chapter Spotlight: Georgia
Like a good college road trip, we kicked off our Chapter Spotlight tour in Alabama, where Bear Bryant and houndstooth attire are either loved, or loathed if you’re an Auburn fan. This month, we’ve hopped on our GMIS Chapter Spotlight tour bus and are heading down Interstate 20 to Georgia, home of CNN, Coca-Cola and the Bulldog Nation – The University of Georgia.
This month, we talk to Jason Brookins, assistant IT director for Clayton County government and GA GMIS president, to discuss what is happening in the Peach State.
Where do you see your state chapter next year?
With the introduction of Geek Trak (our technical training track), I see our membership growing. Not only do we have a program designed for IT management and added a programs that would benefit all levels of IT employee from the Help Desk and Desktop Support Technicians.
What is one word to describe your state chapter members?
I would describe our membership as diverse. Our members come from a variety of backgrounds ranging from public and private sector experience, and bring a wealth of knowledge and experience that they are excited to share at the conferences.
We all have conferences, so what’s the big topic for your next conference?
With the size of technology projects getting bigger, we thought project management would be a great conference topic. We were able to take advantage of our partnership with UGA and some large service providers (Dell) to give a broad overview of technology project management and general project management and leadership.
Tell our readers one thing about what your state chapter is doing.
At our fall conference, we will be renaming our state chapter's UGA Leadership Program to Local Government Chief Information Officer (LGCIO). We chose to do this to keep our program relevant to today’s career fields and listening to feedback from our members of what they find most beneficial.
The Data Collection project is going to be going full swing shortly, which gives our members an opportunity to share a lot of information about ourselves. What is one piece of information you would like to see (IT spending per capita, ratio of IT staff to organizational staff, etc.)?
Since spending is so varied, I’ve found that staffing ratios are important and use that information when justifying new positions and staffing assignments.
Next time: We head to the University of South Carolina, and speak with Rita Anderson about SC GMIS in the Palmetto State!