CUCCIO-CDPIUC
Inaugural Business Meeting
The Briars: Nov 12 – 14, 2006
CUCCIO-CDPIUC (Canadian University Council of CIOs - Conseil des dirigeants principaux de
l'information des universités canadiennes) held its first meeting of the membership since
agreeing, at CANHEIT 2006 in Halifax, to create this new organization of senior IT leaders at
Canadian Universities. 45 participants representing 36 Canadian Universities (see attached list)
attended this inaugural meeting and significant progress was made on a number of fronts: the
organization and structure of CUCCIO-CDPIUC were formalized, goals and objectives were
discussed, some specific initiatives were proposed and some fundamental principles were
confirmed.
There was agreement on the following mission for CUCCIO-CDPIUC:
 To provide a national voice for Canadian university IT leadership
 To foster the professional development of the IT community within universities
 To facilitate information exchange among the members
 To provide a focal point for liaison with national and international organizations and
interest groups concerned with IT
 To provide a vehicle for IT collaboration, cooperation and collective action
 To advocate national IT positions to national university governance groups,
government and the vendor community
Several specific objectives were identified, including:
 Providing a forum for sharing ideas, best practices, technologies, etc.
 Facilitating joint project initiatives among interested Universities
 Taking responsibility for the annual CANHEIT conference and two other national
CIO meetings each year
Steps were taken towards defining potential initiatives in six areas of interest:
1. Establishing a secure, online repository of RFPs, policies, best practices, etc. for use by
members. Leader: Gerry Miller (Manitoba)
2. Establishing special interest groups in some key areas along with mechanisms to support
their work. The areas identified were: disaster recovery and business continuity,
security, wireless, learning management systems, portal. Leader: Sean Reynolds
(Queen’s)
3. Pursuing a national strategy for Federated Identity Management to enable
service/resource/application sharing (e.g. wireless roaming). Leaders: Gary Bernstein
(McGill) and Kent Percival (Guelph)
4. Developing a mechanism to gather a common set of data for measurement and
benchmarking amongst Canadian universities. Leaders: Mike Ridley (Guelph) and Bob
Gagne (York)
5. Implementing a set of web-based tools to support communication and collaboration
among members (e.g. wikis, survey tools). Leader: Jeff Sutton (Laurentian)
6. Developing an external relations plan. Leader: Lori MacMullen (UNB)
The leader indicated for each area has a mandate to form a work team and report back to the
members at the next meeting (March 5-6, in Vancouver) with terms of reference and initial
plans/actions.
Two key principles were confirmed relating to CUCCIO-CDPIUC activities:
1. First, an “opt in-opt out” principle: any member institution has the right to participate or
not on any specific CUCCIO-CDPIUC initiative at their sole discretion. This principle
eliminates the tension of having the organization spend funds on initiatives that are not a
priority or interest of all members;
2. Second, a “keep it simple” principle with respect to funding joint initiatives: the members
recognized the need for simplicity here. Rather than trying to define and manage chargebacks, credits or other financial mechanisms, it was recognized that the early adopters on
any initiative would be likely to incur some additional costs, and this will benefit those
who chose to participate later. It was felt that this should balance out over time as
institutions will lead on some initiatives and follow on others.
In accordance with these principles 14 institutions supported the further pursuit of a project
proposed by a working group consisting of Queen’s, McGill, Toronto, UBC, Guelph and
Windsor in federated identity management (per priority #3 above). The participating institutions
agreed to cost-share the preparation of a formal project charter and project plan with the intent
that a technical demonstration of shared services enabled by Shibboleth be presented at
CANHEIT 2007 (May 26–30, in Waterloo) followed by an evaluation phase.
Members attending the meeting also discussed a wide range of issues facing the Canadian
University IT Community. Andy Bjerring of CANARIE and Kent Percival of Guelph gave
presentations on the changing needs of researchers and the attendant demand for campus cyber
infrastructure (CCI), and Ted Dodds of UBC led a discussion of open source software, focusing
on the Kuali Student project in which UBC is a key participant. These discussions clearly
demonstrated the range of future challenges and the need for greater collaboration and
information sharing as outlined in the CUCCIO-CDPIUC objectives.
Finally the members confirmed the mandate of the initial volunteer “Board” and formally elected
a CUCCIO-CDPIUC Board and Officers of the incorporated (federal non-profit) entity.
The CUCCIO-CDPIUC Founding Board
Jim Cranston - Chair
Rick Bunt - Vice Chair
Gerry Miller - Secretary
Bob Gagne - Treasurer
John Sherwood
Gary Bernstein
Sean Reynolds
Paul Sorenson
Ted Dodds
Harold Esche
Michael Ridley
Andre Lee
Lori MacMullen
Alan George
Debbie Jones
Roger Lauzon
Mike Langedock
Simon Fraser University
University of Saskatchewan
University of Manitoba
York University
Dalhousie University
McGill University
Queen’s University
University of Alberta
University of British Columbia
University of Calgary
University of Guelph
University of Moncton
University of New Brunswick
University of Waterloo
University of Western Ontario
University of Windsor
University of Winnipeg
Our second meeting takes place in Vancouver on March 5-6, 2007, and we invite representatives
from other Universities to join CUCCIO-CDPIUC and participate in these activities. More
information is available on our website at www.cuccio-cdpiuc.ca or from any Board member.
Current CUCCIO-CDPICU Member Institutions
Athabasca University
Brock University
Carleton University
Collège universitaire de Saint-Boniface
Dalhousie University
Lakehead University
McGill University
McMaster University
Nipissing University
Ontario College of Art & Design
Queen’s University
Royal Roads University
Ryerson University
Simon Fraser University
Thomson Rivers University
University of Alberta
University of British Columbia
University of Calgary
November 30, 2006
University of Guelph
University of Lethbridge
University of Manitoba
University of Moncton
University of New Brunswick
University of Ontario Institute of Technology
University of Ottawa
University of PEI
University of Regina
University of Saskatchewan
University of Toronto
University of Victoria
University of Waterloo
University of Western Ontario
University of Windsor
University of Winnipeg
Wilfrid Laurier University
York University