Initiatives and More Board Updates

In this entry I will bring you up to date on a couple of initiatives as well as provide more ACT and IAC board updates. First, I am sure you are all aware of President Obama’s memo on transparency and open government. That memo requires development of recommendations for an Open Government Directive by late May. In the EC’s February meeting, I requested Bob Dix to chair a task force to clarify IAC’s position on this topic. The first meeting of the IAC task force was held a week and a half ago. Last week, OSTP, charged with writing the Directive, invited various representatives from industry to provide input into the Directive. The task force is considering ways to solicit input from IAC’s members on guidance that we can provide to OSTP during the comment period. Most likely, the task force will take advantage of Web 2.0 in order to rapidly seek broad-based input.

Next, the Congressional Education Working Group has held meetings with Hill staff to explore opportunities to provide programs to educate the Legislators and staff on various IT issues. In a meeting this week with Molly Wilkinson, she commented that IAC provides an “unvarnished industry perspective” that she finds valuable. It’s great to have a friend on the Hill that can help IAC connect to the right people that will be interested in the educational programs that IAC can provide.

Also last week, ACT held one of its Board Meetings. The Board had a discussion on the pending Open Government Directive and making ACT-IAC more transparent to members. The Board also supported the National Strategy steps supported by the EC and will establish a set of standards for ACT member councils. We received an update on the ACT strategic agenda planning process which is about to get kicked-off and will produce results in time to feed into the SIG restructuring process.

Last item of note, Martha and I discussed the formation of a working group to provide input to the government on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Several members of Government are interested in serving in an advisory capacity to a joint industry-Government group looking at issues related to ARRA. If you are interested in participating, look for an email announcement soon about this new group.

I hope to see you at the IAC membership meeting this Wednesday, and at the IAC Small Business conference next week.

Leslie