Thoughts from the New SIA Chairman of the Board

I was honored to make my first public appearance as the new Chairman of the Board for the Security Industry Association (SIA) at the annual gathering of membership known as The Advance during ISC East in New York last month.
 
In brief remarks at The Advance, I outlined some of my vision and goals for my tenure as SIA Chairman, many of which extend and build upon initiatives fostered by Jay Hauhn, the previous Board Chairman.
 
I would like SIA to strengthen its collaboration with industry and end-user organizations, an effort begun by Jay during his time as Chairman. I’m going to look for opportunities to further advance opportunities at SIA with vertical market associations, making more headway into addressing the concerns and unique requirements of the healthcare, energy, banking, state and local government, and other industries. And SIA certainly will look to continuegrowth collaboration withother associations such asASIS, BICSI, CSAA and ESA.
 
Meanwhile, SIA will continue to create member value through learning and career paths with initiatives under SIA Education. SIA Education is in the midst of redeveloping the SIA Certified Security Project Manager® (CSPM), and I have every reason to believe the new CSPM program, scheduled to debut during ISC West in Las Vegas in April 2014, will help to enhance the SIA value proposition for our members, particularly integrators.
 
In partnership with ASIS International, SIA also will introduce an online “security university” through a shared learning management system in 2014. And working with Mercer County Community College, SIA will launch a two-year security degree program by fall of next year. I know the SIA Education team is working hard to implement these initiatives so that our members can be fully utilized by our members within the next several months.
 
In addition, we are going to strive to exceed traditional satisfaction levels with SIA Education@ISC conference programs, which already have been rated quite highly!
 
During my tenure as SIA Chairman, we will strengthen efforts to engage the entire SIA Membership andtoaccelerate membership growth—and we will create and implement programs that meet clearly identified member needs.
 
We have a great staff and an active and engaged board. Together we look forward to working with SIA Members to hit the ground running and getting folks engaged.