Dear HTCIA Members, 

First off, this was a great year for HTCIA. I hope that all of you have engaged with the organization at a chapter or international level.  We have accomplished a lot to further the interests of the organization and that is simply to provide investigators High Tech Crime Investigations training by other investigators.

We had some exciting training events throughout the year. I hope you took advantage of the training and attending one, or hopefully more, of these events we offered:

• HTCIA International Conference: The HTCIA Annual Conference was a hybrid conference, online and in person this year where our members taught as well as learned up-to-date techniques and skills to stay relevant in the High-Tech Crime Investigation field. The 2022 International Conference is planned for September 27-30 online and in person in Atlantic City, NJ! 
• HTCIA Webinar series: Our monthly webinars were held this year and they were free to HTCIA members. A big thank you to our sponsors and members for all of this training.
• HTCIA Virtual Cyber Summit: Canadian Cyber summit was online and a great success thanks to the members that made it happen. Th 2022 meeting in planned virtually for May 3-6, 2022. Contact canadacybersummit@htcia.org if you are interested in speaking or sponsoring. 
• HTCIA Chapter Meetings: Each active chapter supported its members with a minimum of a quarterly meeting.  

Since the Covid outbreak most of these meetings have been online and available for any member to attend. Some of the chapters have moved into in-person meetings again which is great to hear.

Our certification program was launched this year in cooperation with the National White Collar Crimes Center.   This has afforded ALL our members the opportunity to obtain relevant recognition of their hard work and education in the field of High-Tech Crime Investigations.  Thanks to Jim Emerson and Chuck Cohen for helping to make this happen.

Based on the input from the International Board and our members we have made many updates to our website and our online infrastructure. On the backend of our website and membership portal access we have made significant upgrades to our ability to provide services to the members. 

• The HTCIA.org website: Updates to functionality and requirements to address the new Association Management system have been made.  Most of the changes are behind the scenes, but there has been a lot of work here to facilitate the updated AMS and LMS.
• The New Association Management System (AMS): This was a significant change for our organization. The new backend system will change significantly how members and the chapters officers can access HTCIA information and interact with each other. Lot’s more to come on this in the near future from the office team.
• The Learning Management System (LMS): Big changes are occurring here We are improving the backend system that provides our online learning to members.  This will hopefully be completed shortly after the new year and give easier access to our online training.  A significant change will be to conform the training to meet the NWC3 requirement s for the certification program. That way members can export a report of their training and get credit for training hours obtained through HTCIA.
• The HTCIA Smart Phone APP: This has been a yearlong process to get this to our members. It is finally here! All our members will be able access HTCIA information from our new app on your smart phone. You can access the forums and communicate with other members, pay your dues and access much more information without logging into the system on your computer. 

I would like to thank the volunteer members of the International Executive Committee; I was lucky to work with a great dedicated group of HTCIA members who see the value of HTCIA and what it provides to the industry. Specifically, our previous 1st VP Brand Watkins for his many years of hard work. Thanks also to Warren Kruse for stepping up and filling Brandt’s big shoes and becoming HTCIA’s next President. Our 2nd VP Sheila Mellor for taking an ongoing problem of getting memberships processed and new members into the organization. Ken Haynes, both our conference Chair and our Treasurer. Wow, Ken took on some big jobs and made it look easy, thanks Ken. Also, Jude Buckley, our secretary. Jude stepped up and took over the new LMS project which is an ongoing project he has committed to finishing.  Then there is the office Staff who makes this all work.  Libby, Karen and Gabby are often the face of HTCIA from member calls and email. They deserve a bug thanks for all of the hard work that actual keeps HTCIA moving forward.

I appreciate everyone in our organization for the support you have provided over the past few years. The chapter officer who keep us going and the volunteer trainers that give their time to the organization. As my term as your President comes to an end, I look forward to seeing you online or in Atlantic City next year for our annual conference and training. This is a great organization and one I am proud to be associated with for 25 years.  And lastly the vendors that provide so much to the organization. Thanks to all of you and the support that you provide to the organization.

Happy Holidays to everyone and thanks for letting me serve as the International President, again. Good luck to HTCIA in the New Year and our exciting future.

Sincerely,

Todd G. Shipley, CFE, CFCE
HTCIA President 2020/21