The Honour of being made a Fellow of CSSA

Last week, at the Computer Society South Africa (CSSA) Awards Breakfast, I was honoured to have had a Fellowship bestowed on me.  What a surprise that was, I had no idea!  I was sitting at breakfast, thinking about the speech I was going to make for the 2011 IT Leading Employer award, which we sponsor.  And Adrian Schofield, current President of CSSA started talking about the Fellowship.

As he was talking I was thinking that it would be really nice to get this one day.  When he reached the part when he said “this is the time that the recipient starts to recognise themselves”, I started to look around to see who it could possibly be, based on the citation.

As the citation moved on, Adrian mentioned “Talent”, and I thought, who else is concerned with IT Talent – I need to get hold of them.  And I looked around even more fervently.  Then - very slowly, it began to dawn on me – this is ME!!!

Where did Tony and Adrian get all that information from?  I must get a copy of that citation.  Gosh, they went back years and years to the different things that I have been involved in – all to do with people development in IT, and promotion of the IT industry.

It really is a great honour to receive this, albeit that I was really not expecting it at this time.  Don’t get me wrong, I really wanted to be a Fellow of CSSA, but I didn’t think that I had done enough as yet – there is still so much yet to be done.  We need to introduce the “Professional” qualification, we need to put in place a “scheme” and methodology for growing people in IT against a common “framework” of job competencies, we need to get organisational “buy-in” to growing their IT people in line with the framework.  That is still a LOT of work.

For the rest of the day I was walking around with this dumb smile on my face and the feeling that I had a sign saying “Fellow of CSSA” stuck on my forehead.  It was a wonderful feeling.

I would like to thank the CSSA past-Presidents and EXCO for this honour, and for acknowledging the importance of “people” in IT today.  I would like to thank CSSA for the opportunities that it gives me to “self-actualise” (top of the Maslow’s Hierarch of Needs), and to “make a difference”.  This is what organisations like CSSA are all about.  We don’t all get the opportunities to self-actualise or make a difference in our work, or even in our home environment.  But, being an active member of CSSA facilitates this.  You get the opportunities to create, to participate, and to be all that you can be.

I would like to encourage all other members to grab the opportunities that are afforded by CSSA.  Get involved, help to make a difference in the industry, for today, and into the future.  Like me, you just never know where it could lead to and, who knows, one day you too will be a Fellow of CSSA.