Future of BDPA

Soulclap to Cliff Samuels, Jr for sharing some candid thoughts about the future of BDPA. Cliff is a longtime member currently serving as the chair of the BDPA Detroit Technology Automation Committee. His post on the 'Future of BDPA' is a must-read for all BDPA leaders around the nation.

Here are some excerpts:

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Seems like you turn on the news and all you hear is everything is in turmoil; the economy, Wall Street, mortgage collapse, more job layoffs, and just a general doom and gloom everywhere. In Michigan, this is not new to us since we have been a recession for many months and now the rest of America is feeling the pain now.


I like many IT workers was hit by the layoff bug and was out of work for over 14 months and during that time period had major heart surgery to boot. I too had to switch my priorities but kept a level of involvement in BDPA. Oddly, the position I am currently hold was in part made possible through networking with BDPA members in Detroit.


So BDPA does work if you work the system. BDPA can not guarantee you a job when you are laid off but it does help improve the odds of finding employment. But for BDPA to work, members must get involved and create a true network. We need to realize the definition of a network is a system to share resources. BDPA's resource are the members that share knowledge, time , effort and resources improve BDPA and the community.

You can read the full blog post here.

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I encourage you to share your thoughts and comments after you read his post. I am very interested if you are sensing similiar challenges in other parts of the country for African American IT professionals.

What say u?