BDPA Online Community: YahooGroups

BDPA can be found on all of the major social networks. The organization has come a long way from the days when it created its own Bulletin Board System (BBS) known as BDPANet. That BBS network operated with 2400-baud dial-up modems ... and we thought it was 'sweet'! The first BDPA BBS was set-up by the BDPA Detroit chapter with technical direction from chapter members Ray Larkins and Dr. Ethelene Jones.

The next evolution of the online presence for BDPA was with eGroups ... a system that was eventually bought out by Yahoo and is now known as YahooGroups. The first-ever BDPA YahooGroup (YG) was created on October 26, 1998.

The second YahooGroup was created by BDPA New York chapter member James Supe and it was designed to support BDPA Entrepreneurs. James created the BDPA-Entrepreneur YG on December 29, 1998.

The next evolution of BDPA's online YahooGroup occurred almost a year later on December 3, 1999. That is when the BDPA-Cincy YG was created. It quickly became the largest BDPA-related YG in the nation with over 1,000 subscribers. BDPA Cincinnati chapter leadership used that communication channel to grow its membership ... and quickly the chapter became the 2nd-largest chapter in the nation!


BDPA has been part of the YahooGroups family for about 13 years. There are scores of BDPA-related YahooGroups based on geographic location or technical discipline. Here is a partial list of existing BDPA-related YahooGroups (with the number of current subscribers in parenthesis):

1. BETF (201)
2. BDPA (485)
3. BDPA-Africa (167)
4. BDPA-Atlanta (399)
5. BDPA-Austin (55)
6. BDPA-Baltimore (100)
7. BDPA-BayArea (170)
8. BDPA-Birmingham (203)
9. BDPA-Boston (74)
10. BDPA-Charlotte (309)
11. BDPA-Chicago (493)
12. BDPA-Chicago-Jobs (504)
13. BDPA-Cincy (1077)
14. BDPA-Columbus (115)
15. BDPA-Consultants (95)
16. BDPA-CorporateSponsorship (92)
17. BDPA-Dallas (24)
18. BDPA-DBAs (225)
19. BDPA-DC (385)
20. BDPA-Detroit (116)
21. BDPA-DigitalDivide (1000)
22. BDPA-Educators (139)
23. BDPA-Entrepreneurs (200)
24. BDPA-Florida (81)
25. BDPA-Government (107)
26. BDPA-HelpDesk (150)
27. BDPA-Houston (155)
28. BDPA-Internships (61)
29. BDPA-Jobs (2045)
30. BDPA-JobSeekerAdvice (71)
31. BDPA-LA (147)
32. BDPA-MemberServices (75)
33. BDPA-MembershipManagement (108)
34. BDPA-NY (626)
35. BDPA-Philadelphia (189)
36. BDPA-Press-Release (323)
37. BDPA-ProjectManagers (100)
38. BDPA-Recruiters (126)
39. BDPA-RhodeIsland (24)
40. BDPA-RMAC (120)
41. BDPA-SITES (110)
42. BDPA-SoFlorida (139)
43. BDPA-Software (79_
44. BDPA-Students (132)
45. BDPA-Tampa (174)
46. BDPA-Trainers (148)
47. BDPA-Triangle (72)
48. BDPA-Women (126)
49. BDPA-WritersNEditors (115)

There are dozens of other BDPA-related YahooGroups in the online universe. Let me know if you don't see one on this list that should be there. Also, let me know if you see any value in the continued existence of these YahooGroups. What say u?