Happy Summer! The summer is one of the busiest times for the Association as we prepare for our new membership year, which begins on July 1st, and gear up for our Certified Inspector General Institute, which this year will be held August 19-23, 2013 in Jacksonville, Florida. I am pleased to report that both our membership and Institute application processes are going well. If you have not done so already, please help keep the AIG strong by renewing your membership; and if you are interested in joining us in Jacksonville, please submit your application as soon as possible.
With respect to the Institute, the AIG staff, and our volunteer Professional Certification Board (PCB) and Institute course managers are working diligently to ensure the success of all three of our highly regarded, five-day training and certification courses — the Certified Inspector General (CIG); Certified Inspector General Investigator (CIGI) and Certified Inspector General Auditor (CIGA). Each course is overseen by dedicated managers who are responsible for evaluating course content and recruiting qualified instructors from throughout the inspector general community. Our goal is to ensure that our curriculum is current and comprehensive, and that our instructors are experts in their fields and provide superior instruction.
I would like to thank everyone associated with making our Institute a success and I specifically want to thank AIG Vice President and Chair of the PCB, Robert Clift, and the institute mangers Matt Harris (CIG), Ben Redmond and Steven Pasichow (CIGI) and Hector Collazo (CIGA) for all of their extraordinary efforts. I would also like to mention Bill DiVello, who after years of being the driving force behind the CIGA, has decided to step down as course manager.
As you can probably tell, we take great pride in ensuring that our Institutes serve the inspector general community. Moreover, not only do they provide state of the art training and the certifications deemed essential to many professionals working in offices of inspector general, they also serve as a wonderful opportunity to build the inspector general community. I am pleased to report that based on our very successful Winter Institute in Austin this last February, a new Texas Chapter of our Association is in the process of being established. With the addition of Texas, we will now have 8 regional Chapters providing local training and networking opportunities. The new Texas Chapter follows in the footsteps of our San Diego Chapter that was established in 2012.
Our next event in 2013 will be our annual conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, November 5-8, 2013. Our theme is “Inspector General – How To…”, in which many of our speakers will provide practical information on the nuts and bolts of the work of inspector general offices. This year we are also adding a pre-conference workshop on conducting evaluations and performance audits. You will not want to miss it!
Hope to see everyone in New Orleans!