SIM Portland President's Blog

Dear Chapter members,  Apologies for my late June blog, things have been busy…which is good. Unfortunately, the planned attempt to re-open the State and the economy have shown the virus‘ insidious nature. Masks have gone from being voluntary, to being required in public, indoor spaces . The careful emergence from our cocoons seem for some to have turned into a defiant return to the way it was, allowing the virus to take hold once again. Portland and Oregon seem to be fairing a lot better than other States and cities across the U.S. but the emergence of hotspots and continued outbreaks across the country does not bode well for a continued opening up of the economy and holding larger events such as our monthly Chapter dinner speaker evenings. Watch this space for more information on our September Chapter meeting. Portland CIO Community Roundtable We had our final virtual Chapter meeting of the 2019-2020 program year on June 10th. A very successful partnership with Premier Connect...

Dear Chapter members,  Virtual Board meeting The COVID-19 response continues to evolve. We are starting to see Phase 1 reopening in many Oregon counties, though it looks like Multnomah County will be the last to do so. We are still a long way away from in person SIM Chapter events. Hopefully if we reach Phase 2 and there is no relapse, we will be be able to safely hold in person events with the start of next year's programs in September. I have begun to see a re-opening of my waist line, or my "Quarantine Pounds" as I like to call them. So I am desperately waiting for more tennis and squash to be available. I also started a new job as CIO for the Oregon State Police. I am very excited about this, and inspired by the mission of the agency as well as the talented team of IT professionals that I am now leading. The new Board has now met in April and May. We have been wrestling with adjusting this year's events and are looking to plan for next year. The Board ...

Richard's Home Office Dear Chapter members, I find myself writing my first Presidential update in a very interesting time. Like all of you, I have been following the "Stay Home, Save Lives" mandate and am holed up at home with my family. My daughter is home [early] from university in Paris (that’s a whole other story) and our family is together again under very unusual circumstances. I “commute” to work every day now by fighting the traffic in the corridor to my “cubicle” in the living room. I now work and meet at my seat in front of the computer which is making movement and exercise a challenge. Online meetings via Zoom and Teams are much improved, though I had to upgrade my bare bones internet service to handle the increased bandwidth demands of a quarantined family. For those of you who have not seen it, here is a very funny video on modern web conferencing , which I think needs to be included with the online meeting guidelines at every organization! SIM P...