Message from National BDPA President

Mike Williams

Good morning BDPA members. As my first official post as your National President, I just wanted to tell you how excited I am about BDPA and what's to come in 2016 and beyond.

Over the weekend the National Board of Directors engaged in some very productive discussions about our strategy, our finances, brand rejuvenation, and our upcoming conference in Atlanta. We also welcomed our new regional leaders and board members (Ashton Clark, Hayward West, Curtis Jenkins and William Smith) and Andreana Dunbar as our new secretary.

As we discussed our conference, we all agreed that our conference theme should be about connecting. During our conferences we connect generations of professionals, professionals with employers, vendors with companies, and people with each other. Lastly, in this digital world we live in, everything is connected in one way or the other. So, we thought it was fitting that the theme of our conference for 2016 be 'BDPA CONNECT'.

We also talked about leading from the top. What that means is that at the national level we want to support and enable chapters at the local level by providing tools they can use for member orientation, sponsorship pitches, and general information about BDPA that can then be re-purposed and used at your discretion. Soon we will be forwarding a presentation and brochures that every chapter can use to enable you to achieve your chapter objectives.

We have a lot ahead in 2016. Our collective goal at every level should be "to do better and be better" than we were last year. That is not to say that last year was not a successful one; in fact, it was very successful by all accounts, however, we must continue to raise the bar and our own expectations of ourselves. My challenge for myself and to all of you is that we raise the bar and our expectations. Let's hold ourselves and each other accountable in 2016.

Fear is something you can overcome, doubt is just giving up before you even tried. Change can cause fear but fear never prevents you from stepping forward. Let's step forward.

We are already the champions, we just need to go pick up our trophy. Let's go!

#OneBDPA
Mike Williams, president
National BDPA