Edited By Mary Ellen Bradley

Profile: Phil Grigg | IPMA Board Elections | Board Retreat | March Board Meeting

Profile: Phil Grigg

Phil Grigg is the current Information Systems Director for the Department of General Administration (GA). He has been at GA for the past six years. Phil has served on the IPMA Board for several years and was Chair of the Board in 1994.

Phil was born and raised in Sydney, Australia where he attended high school. He also went to night school in Sydney for a few years where he studied accounting and personnel administration. He decided to take some time off and backpacked through Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and Europe in the mid 70's. Following this, he came to the United States in 1976 and attended the University of Washington. Phil graduated with a BA in Economics and Psychology in 1979. He actually worked for a couple of years and then went back for a masters degree. He graduated with an MBA for the University of Washington in 1983.

Phil admits that he is not sure how he got started in information processing. Originally he wanted to be a counselor. He worked in a child and human services organization in Australia and he studied Psychology at U of W. He worked as a volunteer on a part time basis at Seattle Mental Health. At one point he decided to move on to the business side of his education. He worked as a Business Analyst with Dun and Bradstreet for a couple of years between degrees. His job there was to examine businesses for credit worthiness.

Although his MBA was in Accounting and Finance, Phil also took some courses in computers. Following graduation, he took a job with Arthur Andersen ( which became Andersen Consulting). There he worked as a consultant programmer for many companies. He moved through the ranks to become a senior analyst and ultimately managed some big systems implementations. He worked all over the Northwest, particularly in the power utilities and telecommunications industries.

Phil decided to change careers once again and live on the land. He moved to the Wynoochee Valley in 1990 and obtained his position at GA in February 1991.

As the IS manager at GA, Phil is responsible for managing GA's networks and telecommunications. His section also manages the applications development area for the agency. GA runs a mini computing environment and have Novell and NT networks. They are completely TCP/IP throughout the agency. Every application that has been developed over the past 5 years has been client server based. They were the first agency to convert to Exchange. Exchange is an integrated messaging system.

Phil feels that there are a number of challenges for information systems professionals. According to Phil these challenges include:

• We must get applications out quickly. Our customers do not always want the most perfect, most eloquent, complex solution.
• We must aim for tangible deliverables every 3-4 months.
• We must become more business oriented (the day of the programmer working in an isolated cubicle is quickly disappearing).
• We must be able to add value to the business functions.
• We must be able to look at the business, understand its challenges and recommend business solutions which may involve both processes and automation;
• IS managers must have a sense of vision for the organization (we must be able to help in strategic business planning).
• IS managers must also create a path for retooling our people. There will be less programming and more business planning and design work in the future. We will literally be automating those who automate. Our people will require training. They will also need to learn a new IT professional paradigm

As he looks back on his career, Phil is most proud of the fact that the people at GA have been able to turn the agency's computing from extremely low end to state of the art. They have been able to change from 8 different computing environments to a common wide area network using modern, common tools. They are now sharing information on a scale that was impossible in the past. GA is also working on a number of state committees developing standards for the greater good of the community. Phil states, “I am very proud of our people. They work hard and use imagination to solve problems.”

Phil’s wife, August, is a self employed counselor. They have two boys, Mike who is a senior in high school and Dan who is a freshman in high school. In his spare time Phil coaches, referees and helps to organize youth soccer. He likes to ski in the winter. He likes to hike and camp in the summer. He fishes once in a while, but he claims to be no threat to the species. He is currently taking a Spanish class. He is involved in Soccer, IPMA, and serves on two CAB subcommittees.

—Mary Ellen Bradley

IPMA Board Elections

The following are the recently elected Board of Directors:

Chair Al Bloomberg
Vice Chair Jim Albert
Treasurer Phil Coates
Secretary Shelagh Taylor

Committee Chairman and members are:

Communications Mary Ellen Bradley, chair

• Joe Coogan
• Shelagh Taylor

Forum Dennis Laine, chair

• Phil Grigg
• Jim Albert
• Al Bloomberg

Executive Seminar Darrel Riffe, chair

• Phil Grigg

Professional Development Bob Marlatt, chair

• Bob Monn
• Joe Coogan

Business and Finance Jim Albert, chair

—Mary Ellen Bradley

Board Retreat

The February 20 - 21, 1997 IPMA BOARD RETREAT MINUTES

The meeting was called to order by Bob Marlatt, chair. The first order of business was election of officers. Al Bloomberg was elected the new chair. Jim Albert is Vice Chair, Phil Coates, Treasurer and Shelagh Taylor is the Secretary.

The three objectives that the board will focus on this year are

• Forum;
• Executive Seminar;
• Professional Development.

Phil Coates presented the Treasurers Report which was approved. He shared with the Board the report from our accountant Greg Schmitt. The report concluded that we are following sound accounting principles and that the books were in order.

Al Bloomberg reported on some suggestions for investments made by Merrill Lynch. It was moved, seconded and passed to have Phil Coates and Jim Albert meet with Merrill Lynch and implement the investment strategy.

Each committee was charged with developing a budget, the list of the past years accomplishments and the goals that committee has for the coming year. The board reviewed each committee and made the following suggestions:

Communications Committee

• See that timely updates are made to the home page.

• Ask corporate sponsors to provide articles for the newsletters on new directions in their businesses.

• Add links from the IPMA home page to the corporate sponsor’s home page.

• Jim Albert and Bob Marlatt will work on defining membership.

Forum

• The theme is “New Connections” and the Forum will be held October 21 - 22. The Executive Breakfast will be Oct 23.
• The committee will work on more timely marketing of the event. We will send notices to the people who attended last year and to all the Information Technology managers of state agencies.
• Dennis will do a telephone survey of the vendor’s to see if they wish to change the vendor reception.
• It was suggested that we pass out bags with the Forum Information at Registration and include a gift such a>s a pen or an IPMA cup to encourage registration.
• The Board agreed that the Executive Breakfast, held the morning of October 23, will be for Senior Information Technology Managers and their invited guests. The purpose of the breakfast is to educate agency executive management to current technology issues.

Executive Seminar

• The date for the seminar is September 24 - 26. Darrel and Phil have been checking on possible sites. Last year attendance was limited by the size of the facility and we will attempt to find a larger place. One possibility is the Shilo Inn at Ocean Shores.

Professional Development

• The board would like to hold more classes and project management seminars.
• It was suggested that we do a market study to identify IT training needs in the state.
• A goal is to sponsor events in Olympia rather than have people drive to Seattle.
• Joe Coogan will develop a plan for possible reinstatement of the monthly luncheon events. He will also explore the possibility of holding special events at certain times during the year.

—Mary Ellen Bradley

March 13, 1997 Board Meeting

Members Present: Bloomberg, Shelagh Taylor, Mary Ellen Bradley, Joe Coogan, Darrel Riffe, Phil Coates, Jim Albert, Phil Grigg, Dennis Laine, Bob Monn.

The IPMA Board meeting was called to order by the Board Chair, Al Bloomberg, at 7:40 a.m.

Secretary: Minutes from the Annual IPMA Board Planning session held in February were approved.

Fall Forum: Dennis Laine reported the Forum '97 Planning Committee is meeting regularly. The format for the Forum will be the same, and contacts are being made for keynote speakers.

Treasurer: Phil Coates, IMPA Treasurer, reviewed the monthly treasurer's report, and it was approved as written.

Executive Seminar: Darrel Riffe and Phil Grigg have been in contact with the Shilo Inn at Ocean Shores. The Shilo Inn could accommodate expanded attendance, and has good conference facilities. The Board recommended negotiations with Shilo continue.

Professional Development: Bob Monn reported there had been no activity since the planning session.

Communications Committee: Mary Ellen Bradley asked the Board to monitor their content as published on the IPMA Home Page to ensure the information is kept current. The Home Page is now measuring the number of visits it gets. The Board recommended the IPMA Newsletter be used to highlight successful information technology projects. Mary Ellen asked the Board to forward project success stories to her and/or to let her know of specific individuals to be interviewed for a story.

Business Planning: Jim Albert discussed possible areas of focus for Board consideration over the next couple of months.

—Shelagh Taylor

IPMA, P.O. Box 1943, Olympia, WA 98507-1943