Dear BDPA Family,

On behalf of the Columbus Chapter of BDPA, I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year.  By now, you have started thinking and hopefully written down your New Year resolutions. This is one of the most important times of the year because you give yourself time to dream about the future.  You set your eyes on goals for the year.  You envision what your life will look like when you reach your goals.  Well, here at BDPA we set our eyes on the future as well.  We are excited about the upcoming year because we see how as an organization we have the opportunity to affect and improve our members, stakeholders, and community lives.

We have a new mission for the chapter "BDPA Columbus will be essential to Central Ohio by empowering minority stakeholders with innovative programs that advance information technology excellence amongst our members & serve to close the digital divide in our community."  This new mission will guide our strategic plans for the next three to five years.  Our success will be measured by the implementation and execution of the mission.

My personal motto for the year is to "Keep it Simple."  At BDPA, we will do the same by keeping our focus simple.  We will focus on three P's.

Preparation - Prepare our stakeholders for their future by providing top notch Information and Exchange meetings and training sessions that will assist them in their careers and businesses.  Provide our stakeholders opportunities to interact and share knowledge with others through offline and online tools.

Promotion - Provide young teenagers a vehicle to enhance their interest in technology through our High School Computer training program. Provide a conduit for the community and members to learn about Information Technology news, business, and career opportunities.

Personalization (People) - Provide our stakeholders an opportunity to give back to the community through community service projects.  Promote a family environment through positive and supportive interaction with each other.

We will kick off the New Year with a bang!  At our January Information and Exchange meeting (I/E) we will have one of Central Ohio's most dynamic Chief Information Officers (CIOs) - Deborah Smedley as the speaker.  You do not want to miss this event.  This event will start our journey for 2010 and set the stage for the organization. I look forward to talking to each of you at this event.  For more information regarding the I/E meeting, please visit our cutting edge website.

Thank you,