The Skeptical Informer, July 2007, Volume 1, No. 6

The dust is settling after the ITIL Version 3 launch. I've already said nice things in the May edition of this newsletter but it is appropriate to do so again. I congratulate OGC on the reception of the ITIL 3 content: a recent informal poll on the IT Skeptic site returned a nicely formed bell-curve between "useless" and "better than anything else". One imagines that coming from IT Skeptic readers the voters may be skewed towards the less-gruntled end of that spectrum, so I think Sharon and Co. you hit the spot. Thankyou!

[Disclaimer: voters were unverified so vote-stacking cannot be ruled out. It does happen online you know]

Rather than look back this month I want to look forward, to two significant upcoming events: the election of the itSMF International Board and itSMF USA Board.

International comes in for criticism on the blog from me and from readers, and obviously there is a pall cast over the USA Board at the moment by the Executive Director's abrupt departure ,and the fraudulent voting apparently of or on behalf of a member. (There is also the possibility that somebody fiddled the votes entirely without the knowledge of any Board member at all, for their own conspiratorial ends. Whoever it was they had some high-level database access. We await further revelations: as was said to me recently, this story is better than Harry Potter.)

The USA nominations have already closed, at the end of July. Quick, did you see it? The call for nominations was in the July Forum magazine and on the website (still is). I'm not sure for how long it was advertised (you might be able to call foul) or whether a late submission has any chance.

For International the notice is also terribly short: end of August.
That is not a long time to talk to family, employer and supporters; make a decision; get yourself selected as the national Board candidate (which is distinct from the national representaive to International); then wend your way through the bureaucracy; so please get on it.

Just about all paid-up itSMF members are in fact eligible for these positions. So please give it some serious thought. Are you happy with the way the organisations are going? Could you do better? Would you like to contribute?

You can bet that mates in the inner circles have already been fingered for these positions for some time now, but that doesn't mean you won't win the vote. The US Board is elected by all members (as we are painfully aware right now), and only about 10% voted last time so anything could happen.

The International Board is elected by national chapters, i.e. one country one vote. The entire International Board is to be vacated this year (Chairman plus 6 Board members), so there never was a better time for an outsider to run. And many countries are not entirely happy so don't expect consistently establishment voting.

So think about it please! (Yes I did and no I won't be)

Finally, and also looking forward, please provide feedback on where you would like the IT Skeptic blog to be heading in the future. I've had some great comments but I'd like to hear from more of you.