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New governance structure promises closer management ties

Sam Burrell, Information Age

19/02/2008 15:05:30

Management Committee (MC) - comprising the president, three vice presidents, treasurer, immediate past president, four branch representatives and the CEO - replaces the old National Council as the key governing body of the ACS with responsibility for strategic decisions and initiatives.

A new body, Congress, has been established as an advisory body with responsibility for electing the key office bearers, providing input to the strategic plan and driving policy development.

The CEO now is a full member of the Management Committee with voting rights, and this is likely to lead to a change in the relationship between the CEO and MC, with the CEO now having a greater say in the strategies that he or she will be expected to implement. There also is a clear intent in the new structure for MC to focus on its governance and strategic duties.

At the time of writing, the ACS was in the final stages of selecting a new Chief Executive to replace Dennis Furini, who retired last year, with an announcement expected to be made in early 2008. You'll be able to find details of the new appointment on the ACS Web site when the appointment is finalised. Once the new CEO comes on board, high priority will be given to conducting a full administrative review of the Society with the goal of revising certain structures and processes to enhance efficiency and service quality. As always, we welcome feedback and input from our members about areas where you would like to see improvement.

This year is already shaping up to be at least as busy and exciting as last year with several major initiatives under way.

The ACS is continuing with work on the I3P program to establish an International IT Professional standard under the auspices of the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) by the end of this year. Once completed, this program will allow participating ACS members to be recognised around the world.

We are also making a substantial contribution to the Seoul Accord, which will be an agreement on mutual recognition of ICT academic programs in contributing nations, similar to the 1989 Washington Accord for engineers. At this stage, Australia, Canada, Korea, Japan, the UK and the US are signatories to the accord, with other countries expected to come on board during 2008.

This will mean that an ACS-accredited university course in Australia will achieve automatic accreditation in nations that are signatories to the accord and vice versa.

Closer to home, we finally expect to see some tangible results this year from our lengthy campaign to establish a "Cover of Excellence" scheme under the Professional Standards Act, with the Professional Standards Council due to consider our submission at its March meeting.

This is the culmination of years of work to bring the ACS into line with other professional associations that are covered under the Act. Members covered under the scheme will be provided with limited civil liability, which means that insurers can better predict the amounts that they might have to pay in claims and which should bring a reduction in policy premiums.

Under the scheme, members are required to disclose their limited liability status in all documents given to a client or a prospective client that promote or advertise their occupation.

Late last year, you should have received your first ACS membership recognition certificate. This is part of a new program aimed at acknowledging the thousands of ICT practitioners who maintain a long-term commitment to professional membership.

It seeks to provide members with a tangible sign of appreciation in the form of a quality certificate that can be displayed in your place of work, reinforcing your status as an ICT professional. You will receive a new certificate each time you achieve the significant milestone of five, 10, 20 or 25 years of consecutive membership, with certificates processed and mailed during the month after the anniversary.

For the initial mailing, all those who have been with the ACS for between five and nine years were sent a five-year anniversary certificate, those with more than 10 but less than 20 years of membership received a 10-year certificate, those with over 20 but fewer than 25 years received a 20-year certificate and all those who have been members for over 25 years were recognised with a 25-year certificate.

If you have been a member for over five years and not yet received your certificate, please contact the ACS National Office on (02) 9299 3666.

Finally, our Queensland office is relocating in early 2008. At time of writing, negotiations on the purchase of an ideal proposed site had just fallen through, so I am unable to provide details of the new address. Please check the ACS Web site for more information.

May I take this opportunity to wish each of you a very successful and rewarding year in 2008 and I look forward to seeing you at a future ACS event.

(Sam Burrell was Acting Chief Executive of the ACS)