Dear Estemeed Members,
On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to thank our members for all the support provided throughout the term. As we close the term, I would like to brief members on the key milestones achieved by the Board of Directors in the past 12 months:
1) Asia Pacific CACS/ISRM 2013 Conference
For the first time ever, the Chapter was offered the opportunity to organise and host this prestigious regional event. Amy Ng, Chair of the Conference committee, along with other committee members have worked tirelessly to plan and prepare the conference. The conference will take place on 6-7 May. This is also a venue to celebrate Chapter's 30-year anniversary. More information is available at our website.
While Singapore has more than adequate conferences throughout the years, not many are designed for IT Assurance, IT Security and IT Governance professionals in mind without vendor presentations. The conference speakers have been selected from Call for Papers, and are well-known professionals in the industry both from Singapore and overseas.
I urge members to consider attending the conference as it will be years before it returns to Singapore. I am happy to see that we are able to keep the previous TACS pricing while upgrading the venue to The Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Marina Bay Sands. The conference receives wide support from 10 supporting organisations and is marketed to the Asia Pacific region.
2) Increased Governance and Cost-saving measures
The Chapter's bylaws was reviewed in full and major revisions were proposed and subsequently accepted at EGM in February. The revised bylaws enables better governance moving forward. The Chapter has implemented cost-saving measures by integrating various support functions under one secretariat. Other measures include appointment of new accountant and increasing efficiency of our operation.
3) Membership
Our membership figure, as of 06 April, stands at 2,033 (as of 15 April). For many years, the Chapter has been looking forward to cross the 2,000 members mark. We finally did it! ISACA Singapore Chapter remains the largest non-profit organisation in Singapore for IT Assurance, IT Security and IT Governance professionals.
4) Academic Outreach
Singapore Chapter maintains the lead in this area with 3 Student groups recognised internationally. Student groups from Temasek Polytechnic (TP), Singapore Polytechnic (SP) and Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) have each organised an ISACA day to introduce ISACA to fellows students and lecturers. In addition, all three student groups participated in a joint-event held at the Singapore Management University in March.
5) CoBIT 5 and Workshops
CoBIT 5 was recently introduced and the Chapter was quick to introduce the new version of CoBIT through various affordable workshops and seminar. The Chapter aims to enable professionals to be proficient in CoBIT 5.
This year also marks a reaffirmation to our commitment to organise affordable workshops for members. Apart from the monthly seminar, the Chapter provides different 1-3 days workshops to deep dive popular topics such as Personal Data Protection, SAP Audit, CoBIT and others.
Our Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held on 8 May 2013, I encourage all members to participate and actively take part in shaping our 30-year old Chapter. If you have the passion, commitment and capacity to serve the members as Board of Directors members, please look out for Call for Nominations. You may also indicate your intrest as a sub-committee member which is a great way to start.
Lastly, please join me in thanking the 2012-2013 Board of Directors for their contributions.
Leonard Ong, CISA, CISM, CRISC
President
ISACA (Singapore Chapter)