The Forum - 05/08/2008  (Plain Text Version)

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In this issue:
Lead
•  President’s Corner – An Industry, A Profession and a Responsibility
Featured Columns
•  From the Editor’s Desk….
•  For Our Members
•  Focus on Three
•  Organizational Gatekeeping: itSMF USA Governance
•  Interest Group (IG) Services Update
•  San Francisco, Here We Come!
ITIL®/ITSM Related Articles
•  Service Strategy – The Intended Outcome
•  How to Justify Getting Started with ITIL® by Thinking Outside of the IT Box
•  Thinking Strategically about Services
•  IT Service Management: Where do we begin?
•  An old friend called Project Management: Bringing Project Management into ITIL® v3
•  ITIL® Strategy Needs to be Strategically Planned
•  Do’s and Don’ts - Business Service Management
•  Six Sigma and IT Service Management: Don’t recreate the wheel…just spin it a little faster and better!
LIG News
•  Practitioner Discussions Bring Wisconsin LIG Interests Into Focus
•  Speakers Needed for Ohio Valley LIG Professional Day on June 5
•  Growing Strong: National Capital LIG and ITIL®
•  itSMF New England LIG and Harvard University Host "Improving Process in Higher Education"

Interest Group (IG) Services Update

By Lisa Schlaf, itSMF USA® Board of Directors, IG Services Chair
Author Lisa Schlaf provides an in depth look at the how the IG committee, the LIG President’s Council and other Board members are working to identify and provide the support LIGs and SIGs need to succeed.

Our new President, David Cannon, sent an email out earlier this year highlighting the objective of the new portfolios. For the love of acronyms, the itSMF USA Board of Directors have shortened LIG and SIG Services to IG Services. The IG Services, or Interest Group Services portfolio, will ensure that the LIGs and SIGs receive the support they need in order to continue to be successful and to grow.  In a nutshell, this will include assistance with member meeting planning, access to speakers, marketing collateral, meeting themes and materials, and increased support with LIG and SIG operations.  However, it is a very large nut to crack. Working very closely with the Member Services portfolio, managed by Richard Berg, we feel that the IG Services portfolio will deliver many of the member benefits via the LIGs.  In addition, many of the other portfolios will be creating services that will enhance LIGs and members benefits.  These services will be delivered through IG Services and into your local groups.

Many of you have asked “When is the next President’s LIG meeting” or “When is the next Membership Chair meeting”? The meetings have been suspended.  After a review of the attendance levels and available past meeting agendas from both meetings, data revealed that the agendas were overlapping, meetings were not attended by a majority of invitees, and timing of the meetings were not aligned with other leadership meetings.  This resulted in stale information and did not provide value for time spent.

The first order of action of IG Services, outside of the portfolio development and budgeting, has been to engage the LIG President’s Council (LPC).  The LPC is the IG voice on the itSMF USA^® Board of Directors, as chartered.  Congratulations to the LPC members for 2008.  They are Denis Esslinger – past President of the Lehigh-Delaware LIG, Clarence Johnson – President of the Rocky Mountain LIG, Leanne Medlock – past President of the Ohio Valley LIG, Teresa Mount – past President of the Gateway LIG, Rick Sakowski – President of the Central North Carolina LIG, and Cassius Downs, past President of the San Francisco Bay Area LIG, will continue on the council in an advisory role.

The LPC, Richard Berg, other BOD members and I have been meeting every other week to establish the communications and operating structure of the LPC, and to address the value and develop the agenda(s) for the Membership and LIG President’s meetings.  We heard from you that communications need to be reinstated, so the LPC sent out invitations for LIG leaders to attend a special meeting on April 30. Going forward, the meeting will be structured in order to obtain maximum benefit from LIGs, SIGs and your membership

The IG Services works to support the organizational goal to achieve 20,000 members by 2010; to date, two new LIGs have been chartered in 2008, Dakota LIG and Salt Lake City. Also chartered has been the Health Care Special Interest Group (SIG) which held its first virtual meeting on Wednesday April 30.  The Omaha LIG has been reinvigorated by several volunteers in that area and the LIG’s new name, Mid-America, reflects its new dedication to delivering member benefit.  Please welcome and assist the provisional leaders of these newly formed LIGs and SIGs.  There is volunteer, leadership and speaking opportunities is all these areas.

On the itSMF USA^® website, there is a new link for Special Interest Groups.  Keep your eyes here for upcoming developments.  Intelligence SIG is expected to be chartered in May 2008. 

There are several leadership opportunities for Committees, including the formation of the IG Services Committee with a primary objective to update and revise the LIG Operations Guide.  Drop a message if you are interested.

LIG and SIG Leaders received an invitation from itSMF USA President David Cannon to attend the July 08 Leadership face-to-face meeting.  The invitation was for two leaders from each LIG and SIG to attend in St. Louis, MO, from July 15-16, 2007.  The meeting theme is Down on the Leadership Farm, and the final agenda will follow.  You will be provided with additional details as they become available. In the meantime, should you have any logistical questions, please contact Susan Trembly at strembly@itsmfusa.org.