MISA/ASIM Canada Achieves Incorporation

November 29, 2006 -- The last step has been completed in the long process of formally establishing a national not-for-profit corporation to promote e-Government services for municipalities.

MISA/ASIM Canada has announced that letters patent for its incorporation have been received from Corporations Canada, a branch of the federal industry department.  The date of the letters patent is September 11, 2006.

Incorporation means that the association has a formal governance structure based on principles and bylaws, and can proceed with full authority to fulfill its mandate on behalf of its five member organizations.

Those members are the four chapters of MISA and the Réseau de l’informatique municipale du Québec (RIMQ).  Together they have formed the first Canadian organization to promote municipal e-Government services and to work with other levels of government to make services efficient across jurisdictions. 

Formation of MISA/ASIM Canada, or Municipal Information Systems Association/Association des systèmes d'information municipale Canada, took a long time.  Its operating principles were first agreed to in writing in May 2005, when representatives of the five member organizations signed a Memorandum of Understanding while attending the Lac Carling Congress.

Formal launch of the national association took place in June 2006 during the MISA Ontario Annual Conference.  Incorporation, however, took longer than expected and was a cumbersome and delay-filled process.

It began in February 2006 and was led with patience and determination on behalf of MISA/ASIM Canada by Mike Proudlock, a manager in the Information and Technology Services division of the Region of Peel, Ontario.