Message from the BDPA Cincinnati Chapter President

Dalric Webb

Spring is in the air and the BDPA team of volunteers are busy as bees!

I represented Cincinnati Chapter at the 2015 BDPA Midwest Region chapter president's meeting held in Chicago on March 21-22. The meeting allowed us to leverage best practices, lessons learned and networking with other key leaders including National BDPA president Pamela Mathews and vice president Mike Williams. As the second largest chapter in the nation (out of 46 chapters) Cincinnati was tapped to host the 2017 Midwest Region president's meeting! We look forward to hosting all the leaders here in the 'Queen City'!

Congratulations to all the students who completed the 12-week computer camp held at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College (CinState)! Your commitment, dedication, determination, and positive attitudes made helping you learn the 'code' of technology that will change the world, an awesome experience for all the instructors! Please visit our computer camp website to see some of the fine work these up and coming technologists have developed. We move on to the second phase of the training program with a smaller team invited to compete in both the regional and national High School Computer Competitions. Our team should be prepared to compete for trophies and college scholarships at the 37th annual BDPA Technology Conference in Washington DC.

We had a FANTASTIC 'meet and greet' last month at Margaritaville. The event was well attended and everyone in attendance had a great time. We appreciate BDPA member Malik Spencer for sharing his Salsa line-dancing expertise with our attendees.

Babacar Guisse

BDPA Cincinnati chapter successfully celebrated its 10th Annual Awards Luncheon this weekend! All of the chapter's corporate sponsors from 2014 were recognized. CinState earned the award as '2014 Corporate Sponsor of the Year' -- the highest award given to any corporation. Babacar Guissé was named '2014 Member of the Year' -- the highest award given to any member.

Other winners announced during the event included:
- Michael Pulliam (Quest Diagnostics) was named '2014 Director of the Year'
- Wayne Hicks (Hicks Enterprises) was named '2014 Executive Officer of the Year'
- Frank Hill (Cincinnati State) won the '2014 Community Service Award'
- Deborah Prince (xpedx) won the '2014 Spirit Award'

I encourage you to attend our next monthly program meeting on 4/15/15 to join our discussion on '3D Printing: The Promise of Tomorrow'. We will have a 3D printer on hand to provide examples of this new technology. Light refreshments will be available.

Shelton Graves

Our board of volunteers continues to grow as we welcomed Shelton Graves (North American Properties) on as our chapter's Marketing Department director. Shelton seeks to enhance the marketing presence of the BDPA chapter – making BDPA a household name in Cincinnati. There are still a few more volunteering opportunities that can use your support. Send me an email or  give me a call on (513) 549-6991 and let’s chat about it.

2015 is off to a FANTASTIC start! Membership continues to grow with the chapter growing over 200 members during the first quarter of the year. We hope to continue that trend with the active engagement of our members. Remember, this is YOUR organization. What are you looking to get out of it? What are you putting into it to obtain those results? Are you engaged? Did you attend the last program meeting? The last social? The last computer camp session? Have you chatted with President-Elect Shawnda Peterson about her thoughts and plans for her upcoming presidency in 2016-2017? The chapter is ACTIVE in our communities – we’d love to have you be active with us.

Looking forward to seeing you at one of our upcoming events!

Sincerely,
Dalric Webb, President
BDPA Cincinnati Chapter