The Origin of OAGITM

The original group that make up what is now OAGITM was an informal meeting of county IT Directors back on the early 1990’s.

Ballot Measure 5 (1992) significantly changed how Oregon property taxes were calculated. County Assessors were forced to think about how to use data systems to implement the measure’s calculation requirement. The Assessor sub-group of the Association of Oregon Counties (AOC) began involving their respective IT staff in their conversations. Made up of county IT department directors, these IT staff found these meetings worthwhile. They decided it would be beneficial to meet regularly independent of AOC and created the Association of County Data Processors (OADCP).

By the early 2000’s OADCP was meeting twice a year. OADCP conference attendance numbers were typically in the high teens to low twenties. OADCP would regularly invite city IT directors to talk about partner projects and certain State agencies to talk about State services tied closely to county services.

OADCP began getting requests from cities to be able to regularly attend conferences. An associate membership was created to meet these requests. Several cities began attending conferences regularly. It became apparent that cities should become regular members. The OADCP membership voted to change the bylaws to allow city IT departments to become voting members. The bylaw change resulted in renaming of OADCP to the Oregon Association of Government Information Technology Management or OAGITM.

A year or two after OAGITM was formed, the board found associate State members requesting to be voting members. Given the growing number of State conference attendees, it made sense to again change the bylaws allowing State departments to become voting members.

This is how the OAGITM we know today came to be.