Mi-GMIS Award Winners are Announced at the Fall Conference

Howell, MI, January 06, 2010 --(PR.com)-- The Michigan Government Management Information Sciences announced the winners of their 2009 Mi-GMIS Awards during their Fall Conference held September 20-23, 2009 at the Bavarian Inn in Frankenmuth, MI. The Mi-GMIS Awards were developed to recognize and foster creativity and innovation in the government sector with regards to Information Technology. The Awards are offered in three different categories.

IT Professional of the Year – Awarded to Colleen Hinzmann
Colleen has been a Monroe County employee since 2000. Since joining the county, Colleen has implemented the county’s first storage area network and disaster recovery site. She is also currently in the process of managing the upgrade of the county’s entire infrastructure in preparation for VOIP. But the biggest accomplishment to date has been the planning and implementation of the combination of IT services and resources between the Count of Monroe and the City of Monroe, Michigan. Due to economic factors, both the City of Monroe and County of Monroe were facing significant budget challenges. Preliminary meetings resulted in discovering that many of the applications used at the City were also used at the County. This presented an opportunity to combine resources, infrastructure and technology.

Best Website – Awarded to City of East Lansing
(www.cityofeastlansing.com) The new Web site showcases the character of the community through its use of vibrant photographs, all taken within the East Lansing community. The photographs are the site’s main design element and highlight the community through a photographic montage. Each department and section of the Web site is set apart by the use of photographs, which are distinctive to the content area. In addition, the backdrop photographs can easily be changed to reflect content, seasons, special projects, etc. Improved access to city news was accomplished through the incorporation of a user-friendly carousel on the homepage. This carousel features both a News and Around Town section, as well as changing photos for each featured headline.

Online patrons can easily navigate the carousel and its photos by scrolling over the headlines with their mouse. In addition, a number of modern interactive features were integrated into the site including a bi-weekly blog published by the City Manager, the ability to request a newcomer packet, the addition of community videos, the ability for public comment on news releases and blogs, interaction with social networks and the publication of a variety of e-newsletters.

Best Technology Project – Charter Township of West Bloomfield
This project integrated information distribution networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, with other existing methodologies to distribute relevant township information. This project allowed the township to push information out into the community for the first time without using an external media source. Within one month of implementation the township had over 300 individuals following the various feeds and these numbers continue to grow. The township has been using these feeds to increase involvement in community activities.

Already covered in just a short amount of time are road construction warnings,
school district activities, township activities, parks and recreation events, library services and events. We are all separate government organizations but we have one thing in common...we service the same people. This is a new way of enriching their living experience within the township.

For additional information on the Annual Mi-GMIS awards, visit Mi-GMIS.org.

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