Message from New York Chapter President

BDPA New York is the 9th largest chapter in the nation. One reason for the growth and success of this chapter is the open communication style of its leader, Judaea Lane.

Here is the July 2009 message from Judaea to her chapter stakeholders:

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Dear BDPA Members and Supporters,

Recently our chapter's Executive Board went to Sylvia’s Restaurant in Harlem to have our monthly Board meeting. Listed below are highlights from each committee:

Community Outreach - Education

• Our SITES program had a wonderful time at Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference. The High School Computer Competition (HSCC) Team came in 3rd Place and the IT Showcase Team came in 2nd Place. Everyone is now gearing up for the National Conference which is taking place in Raleigh, North Carolina.


• Kudos to UBS Financial Services, for hiring two SITES students for summer internships at their Stamford, CT location.


• Lastly, this committee is asking members and supporters to stop by in Brooklyn on Saturday, July 25th from 10:00 am to 12:00 noon to visit with our SITES team. The location is 257 Macon Avenue (between Tompkins and Throop Avenues). The goal will be for members to not only show BDPA love to our SITES students, but to share business and technical knowledge with them. The skills will be utilized by SITES students at the National conference. SITES students interning at UBS will also share their experiences. If you are interested, please RSVP via email to hr@bdpa-ny.org.

Communication

• The summer edition of Humanware is available. At your leisure, download your copy and to read about the exciting activities going on in our chapter.


• Our website contains exciting information such as our next Program meeting and other upcoming events. Also please encourage our youth to check out the students page, where we post the latest scholarship and internship information.


• Lastly, check out the kudos on our webpage to our Sponsor of the Year, UBS Financial Services and our HSCC/SITES students.

Membership Management & Services

• This committee is working vigorously to recruit members. If your membership has expired then you should have received a postcard reminding you to renew your membership.


• Save the Date family as we will have our Annual Membership Drive & Summer IT Mixer on Saturday, August 22th. This event 'BBQ@BDPA' is our way to say thanks to our members and supporters for their phenomenal support. So put on your shorts, bring your cards or dominos and come out relax and have a good time. Yours truly is making “Jerk Burgers”. Additional information will be provided shortly.

BDPA Members on the Move

• BDPA Member Eric Hamilton has an exciting opportunity for our members. The Web Academy offers FREE web design courses and FREE web development services to the community. 100% of the course work is distance learning taught by live instructors in real time. In exchange for offering FREE web classes, members are required to take on at least 3 web development projects of their choosing. Working on these real life web projects with real web clients gives members actual work experience in the web industry. If you are interested, please send an email to hr@bdpa-ny.org or info@thewebacademy.org.


• Happy Birthday to all June and July BDPA Members.

Fundraiser/Finance - Please mark your calendar to join us Thursday, December 10 for our Annual Holiday Networking Event. Several venues in Manhattan have been identified and the fundraising committee has excellent ideas for what will be a memorable event.

National BDPA Election - BDPA Philadelphia chapter president Monique Berry is candidate for BDPA National President Elect. She wants to hear from you. Please join her on Facebook or send her an mailto:president@bdpaphilly.org to share your thoughts on the following:

1. What do you expect from our organization
2. What do you value most
3. How can BDPA meet your highest expectation
4. What action do you think will help us move toward our vision for 2010

Sincerely yours,
Judaea Yarde Lane, President
BDPA New York
(212) 802-5341

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NOTE: Our BETF-Blog is willing to provide this space for any of the 51 chapter presidents to share their message. What are your thoughts on Judaea's message this month?

2006 National BDPA Technology Conference (Video)

The BDPA Foundation YouTube account now has 17 videos including these from the 2006 National BDPA Technology Conference was held in Los Angeles CA. This 3-part video runs for a total of 23 minutes. The video produced by video produced by Kevin Jones (Visual Propaganda) and divided into three parts by Jeff Walt (Jeff Walt Designs)

2006 BDPA Conference (1 of 3)




2006 BDPA Conference (2 of 3)




2006 BDPA Conference (3 of 3)


Do you have any memories of the 2006 BDPA conference held in Los Angeles that you can share with us?

Companies Can Contribute Skills, If Not Cash, to Nonprofits in Recession

In the world of corporate philanthropy, cash has long been king. However, at a time when charitable cash contributions are being squeezed, when 76 percent of corporate donors acknowledge they must adjust their giving strategies, and when there is renewed emphasis on volunteerism, this one-track "show me the money" approach is untenable.

It's time to expand the traditional definition of corporate giving, to encompass what many business leaders consider their most valuable asset: the skills of their employees.

According to the 2009 Deloitte Volunteer IMPACT Survey, 95 percent of nonprofits need more skilled volunteer support. And while 78 percent of corporations agree their employees' skills would be valuable to nonprofit organizations, only 50 percent offer skilled support.

The need for cash, of course, is legitimate and undeniable. However, with corporate donations on the decline, the need to hasten the adoption of skilled volunteering as a complementary giving strategy has never been more urgent. Consider this: Nearly 40 percent of nonprofits will spend upward of $50,000 for outside business consultants in 2009. If they secured skilled volunteering support instead, they could free up those funds for other uses. That's the beauty of skilled services; the money goes further.

Read the rest of the article.

Charitable Giving at Major Corporations

Many of the largest American companies plan to decrease their charitable donations in 2009, or at least keep them level with last year's, according to the latest Chronicle survey of corporate giving.

• Table: Companies That Have Increased Giving to Hard-Hit Charities Due to the Recession
  
• Table: The Chronicle's Annual Corporate-Giving Survey: By the Numbers
  
• Table: Companies That Made 50% or More of Their Gifts in Products
  
• Table: Companies That Gave More Than $10-Million to Charities Outside the United States

Read the full article here.

Business Compute-N-Show: Finding Free Applications and Utilities on the Internet (Video)

April Jackson, Desktop Support Specialist and BDPA Memphis member, is interviewed on the Business Compute-N-Show by host Nancy Ford in Memphis, TN. This show originally aired in January 2009.

What is your favorite FREE application or utility?

Where Are They Now? Hayes Modems

What they were: Dial-up modems from the company whose founder, Dennis Hayes, essentially invented the PC modem in the 1970s. The commands he devised became such a standard that all dial-up modems use them to this day. Hayes dominated the modem business for years -- it was as synonymous with the product category it pioneered as any tech company before or since.

What happened: Well, dial-up modems don’t matter as much as they once did, in case you hadn’t noticed. But Hayes’ decline and fall dates to well before the death of dial-up: The company stubbornly kept prices high even in the face of much cheaper competition, and thought its future lay in making ISDN modems, a market that never took off. It declared bankruptcy in 1994 and again in 1998, and was liquidated in 1999.

Current whereabouts: In 1999, Zoom Telephonics -- the company whose dirt-cheap modems played a major role in crushing Hayes -- bought the Hayes name. It continues to market a few Hayes-branded modems. But it’s a pretty obscure fate for a once-mighty brand -- I didn’t know it was still extant at all until I checked.

SOURCE: 'Where Are They Now? 25 Computer Products That Refuse to Die' by Harry McCracken.

BDPA Hall of Fame Member #1: Earl Pace (Philadelphia)

BETF-Blog is proud to announce the inaugural member of the mythical BDPA Hall of Fame ... Earl A. Pace Jr! BDPA existed in the mind of Earl Pace before it became a reality. Earl worked with David Wimberly and others to turn their vision into a reality.

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Earl A. Pace Jr. has been in the Information Technology industry since 1965. He began as a computer programmer trainee at the Pennsylvania Railroad. He left the PRR in 1967.

Over the next ten years he rose through the ranks of programmer, programmer analyst, programming manager to Vice President of a financial telecommunications company in Philadelphia, PA.

He became a business owner in 1976 when he incorporated Pace Data Systems for which he is still president. Pace Data Systems is a full service Information Technology firm providing services through its Philadelphia, PA and Washington, DC offices primarily to Banks and Savings Banks.

In 1975 he co-founded Black Data Processing Associates in Philadelphia and operated as its president for two years, In 1978 he coordinated the formation of BDPA into a national organization and functioned as its First National President until 1980. BDPA has grown into the largest national professional organization representing minorities in the IT industry.

Within BDPA and on a broader national scale, Earl Pace has been a vocal advocate for business ownership. His primary message since starting BDPA has been that minorities should strive to rise above just a job to Board of Director’s membership and beyond that to owning and operating their own businesses.

Earl Pace continues to be very active in the business and education community in Philadelphia, Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD. As well as other cities in which he has business interests that enable him to be present regularly.

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Please use the COMMENTS section below to share your thoughts, memories or insights about Earl Pace.

P&G Undergraduate Colloquium Information: Application -- Deadline: July 31, 2009

A Unique Experience

You are invited to apply to the R&D Colloquium. The Colloquium is designed to give undergraduate chemistry and life science majors a broad overview of the current state of research in the health and beauty care industry. Some of the program highlights include:

The Colloquium is held annually in the fall in Cincinnati, Ohio. Applications are accepted year-round but must be submitted by July 31 to be considered for that year's event.The Colloquium is primarily intended for African-American, Asian, Hispanic and Native American undergraduate students. All qualified candidates, however, will be considered.

Accommodation, meals and travel expenses will be paid for by P&G. The Colloquium language is English.This opportunity to get an inside view of industrial R&D will be offered to a limited number of candidates. Applicants must be full-time college students, preferably in their junior or senior year, majoring in biology, biochemistry, chemistry, pharmacology, toxicology, chemical engineering technology, chemical technology or another life-science-related program. [Read More]

Preparing for the ACT/SAT Exams

I wanted to make sure that the “Class of 2010” or those students needing to prepare for the upcoming ACT and SAT that they have information that allows them to perform or do the best that he or she can. It is my hope that you will share the information with others so that they can prepare for the exam(s) as well. The opportunity should always be shared with the individuals wanting to take the ACT/SAT; be it “Class of 2009”, GED or non-Traditional students because college is open to all regardless of age, career or profession.

I am often reminded of the students that I and others have assisted or guided in workshops or through advice. Some of the students that stand out are those students that didn’t have a mentor, had low self-esteem or didn’t think that they could pass the exam or could even attend college. I am especially pleased with Julian’s story. A student that wanted to attend college, but didn’t believe he could. At the time, Julian had just graduated with the “Class of 2008”, but during August of 2008, he had never applied for college or taken the ACT. But in my meeting with him, I felt he had a fire and desire to want to achieve and had the ability to do so. I advise him how to prepare for the ACT and to utilize the links on my blog, Planning and Preparing for College (Scholarships, Internships, Etc) located at http://www.ctherd.blogspot.com/ . He took the advice and took the ACT exam and scored a 21 on his first try which allowed him to be eligible for the TN Lottery and get assistance's to attend college.

The reason the workshops were successful is because it taught students’ methods and techniques and to utilize practice exams to build up their test skills and speed. In the end, knowledge is powerful, if used properly.

Below is a link that provides two technique documents (Math and Science) that I summarize from our workshops that I offer as tips along with suggested websites to practice the ACT/SAT with.

How To Prepare for the ACT/SAT

I encourage students to take 3 to 4 days a week with 2-3 hours per day and to complete your online test. Performing these practices will allow you to understand the exams better and to build up your timing and be able to complete the full exam. If a student doesn't understand how to solve the problems or get the answer then they should seek additional help through their teachers at school, an expert in the subject area, etc. The key is to learn the method/techniques to solve the problems or questions.

Grant Award: IBM

We are very pleased to report that IBM sent BETF a $1,000 corporate community cash grant on behalf of Paulette Johnson-Davis for her hours of volunteer service.

The grant will be placed in the restricted Greater Columbia chapter fund to be used for their high school technology training program.

The IBM Corporate Community Cash Grant is a remarkable funding opportunity for any BDPA chapter with IBM employees or retirees in its membership.

Does your chapter have any IBMers in it?

Where Are They Now? Dot-Matrix Printers

What they were: The printer you probably owned if you had a PC in the house any time from the late 1970s until the early to mid-1990s. Models like the Epson FX-80 and the Panasonic KX-P1124 were noisy and slow, and the best output they could muster was the optimistically named “near letter quality.” But they were affordable, versatile and built like tanks.

What happened: Beginning in the early 1990s, inkjet printers from HP, Epson and Canon started to get pretty good -- their output came far closer to rivaling that of a laser printer than dot-matrix ever could. And then, in the mid-1990s, inkjet makers added something that killed the mass-market dot-matrix printer almost instantly: really good color. (I still remember having my socks knocked off by the original Epson Stylus Color when I saw it at the Consumer Electronics Show in 1994.) There was simply no comparison between even the best dot-matrix printer and a color inkjet.

Current whereabouts: Nobody ever thinks about dot-matrix printers anymore, but they haven’t gone away -- my local Office Depot still stocks them, in fact. That’s because they have at least two valuable features inkjet and laser models can’t match: Because the dot-matrix printhead hits the paper with a hard whack, they’re perfect for printing multiple-part forms, and their use of tractor-feed mechanisms rather than dinky trays lets them print thousands of pages without a paper refill. Consequently, small businesses everywhere refuse to give them up. It won’t startle me if there are still Epsons productively hammering out invoices and receipts a couple of decades from now, assuming we still use paper at all.

SOURCE: 'Where Are They Now? 25 Computer Products That Refuse to Die' by Harry McCracken.

2009 Best Companies for Blacks in Technology

National BDPA and WorkplaceDiversity.com, the source for diversity talent, announced Allstate Insurance, American Airlines, Compuware, Eli Lilly and Company, Health Care Service Corporation, Merck and Company, Monsanto, State Farm Insurance, SunTrust Bank, Wal-Mart Stores, and WellPoint as the winners of the 2009 Best Companies for Blacks in Technology Award.

"These companies deserve special recognition for their outstanding community outreach and diversity recruiting programs and for promoting a significant number of African Americans into their IT management ranks," said Milt Haynes, National BDPA Past President. "One of these companies will be announced as the Top Company for Blacks in Technology and receive the much coveted Epsilon Award."

The Epsilon Award is presented annually to the top company in the nation that promotes a workplace and environment that supports the advancement of Blacks in the information technology industry. The Epsilon Award will be presented later this year at the 2009 National BDPA Technology Conference to be held August 5-9 the Raleigh Convention Center in Raleigh, NC.

"We are very pleased to recognize the outstanding contributions that these companies have made for Blacks in Technology," said National BDPA President, Denise Holland. "In this economy, many African Americans in technology are concerned about opportunities for both employment and advancement. It is important to recognize those exceptional companies that have provided African Americans with challenging and fulfilling career opportunities in Information Technology."

BDPA Corporate Sponsors and Supporters were asked to complete a comprehensive survey that was used to rate their performance in the areas of Demographics, Diversity Programs, Diversity (Training, Affinity Groups), Tenure, Promotions and Terminations, Diversity Recruiting, Career Path Programs, Minority Vendor Programs, and Community Outreach.

"BDPA is the voice of African Americans in IT," said Dan Honig, Chief Operating Officer of WorkplaceDiversity.com. "WorkplaceDiversity.com is honored to be working with BDPA because it is committed to closing the digital divide and helping African American IT professionals advance." Added Honig, "We are very pleased to recognize these companies that are truly practicing workplace diversity in their IT departments."

HSCC Testimonial: Andreaus Robinson (Chicago)

BETF is actively raising funds to support youth education programs taking place all over the nation. In today's tight economy it is important that all BETF donors clearly understand why we need financial support. We hope that as you learn more about the young people that we support ... you will be more open to secure online donation.

Today, we would like to introduce you to a national champion and Jesse Bemley Scholar. Andreaus Robinson and his teammates, trained by BDPA Chicago chapter, won the national championship in 2006. Andreaus earned a bronze medal for his efforts at the national high school computer competition (HSCC) held in 2007.

Here are his thoughts on BDPA:

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My name is Andreaus Robinson; I participated on national High School Computer Competition (HSCC) teams trained by BDPA Chicago chapter in 2006 and 2007. Our team won the championship in 2006 and took third place in 2007.

I am currently a sophomore at the University of Illinois in Champaign. My major at this point is computer science; however, I plan to pursue a minor in business and possibly degrees in electrical and mechanical engineering. I know this may sound like a lot, but I am a highly ambitious person I have many career goals I plan to pursue. I desire a career in robotics, which is why I am trying to get so many degrees; I want to know as much as I can about the different sides of robotics. I also plan to one day own my technology company, which is why I also want to minor in business so that I’ll be fairly business-savvy as well.

Over the years, I have had the pleasure of interning for several different companies. The first was for my dad’s architecture company when I was only 15, for which I designed a project management tool based off the needs of the company. My next internship opportunity came in 2006 when I worked for a professor at DePaul University. I worked with Professor Jane Huang and her team to design a traceability application that they were building for Siemens. This provided a great opportunity for me because my name was published on a project and I got the opportunity to work with a group of foreign students.

My most recent internship was in 2008, when I was working for Allstate Insurance Company as a developer helping to create the next installment of the employee desktop page. This was a wonderful opportunity for me because it was a large project and I was able to learn a lot while working on this project, as well as personally work with people who had been programming for years. It was also nice to see firsthand how life working in IT might actually be.

I owe my thanks to BDPA for acquiring this internship, because Willie Anderson an active member of BDPA as well as the IT director at Allstate helped me acquire this position.

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Share some BDPA-Love with Andreaus and the BDPA Chicago chapter volunteers that worked with him in 2006-2007!