SHPE Office Role in Conferences

I was recently asked a question about SHPE National's role in the SHPE Conference and Regional conferences.

Several years ago, SHPE began to make an effort to have the national office take over the main responsibilities of the NTCC (now the SHPE conference). In recent years we have suffered turnover in the national office and as a result have lost the experience to run the conference solely from the national office. While the volunteer effort has been tremendous, especially in the professional development tracks, I believe it is important to ensure that the national conference comes back under the control and oversight of the national office to ensure budgetary control and consistency. At the regional level, this year SHPE National began providing assistance to the RLDCs and I will ensure that we continue to build on that support next year and provide more support to the regions that require the most help.

The Issues I will Focus on

The three issues I’ll focus on as president are Hispanic dropouts, professional membership, and SHPE’s use of technologies.

As SHPE National President, the number one issue I want to focus on is the issue of Hispanic Dropouts in the United States. I strongly believe that if we don't do more about this problem, the very existence of the organization will be in jeopardy. My plan to tackle this issue will be to focus on creating more programs that exposes children to STEM at a younger age, such as middle school and elementary. I’ll also continue to ensure that we develop, support and maintain SHPE Jr. chapters across the nation. I’ll create a specialized task force consisting of the best minds in early childhood development to select or suggest the most effective programs across the nation and provide recommendations on how SHPE can make an immediate impact throughout the nation. I firmly believe that if we are graduating more Hispanics from High School, then there will be more members in the organization, but more importantly, the United States as a whole will be stronger for it.

The second issue I’ll focus on, is professional membership. I’ll put more resources into ensuring that the number of professional members increases to levels equal to that of the student membership. With over 400,000 Hispanic professionals in stem throughout the united states, it is inexcusable that our organization has only captured less than one percent of the potential membership. I intend to correct this in three ways.

• First, I’ll provide actual benefits that you the member can use. I’ll work with all our current IPCs and then will focus on commercial companies that are interested in capturing a part of the fastest growing segment of the united states. Reduced vacation and travel packages, low interest credit cards, and discounts on cars, computers, gas and even your groceries are just some of the benefits that other non-profit members enjoy today and that I’ll ensure are available to you as well.

• Second, I’ll ensure funding for all of our professional development programs and will begin a new line of professional certification and technical development series aimed at professionals that need more than just soft skills. My strategy to fund these and other professional programs, is to tap into the companies that want to develop a large customer base through our organization. What company wouldn’t want to have a hand in helping Hispanics across the nation achieve higher level positions and greater levels of education that provide them the means to buy their products.

• Third, I’ll change the thinking of the organization to focus more on family oriented national and regional events. Many times I have heard of outstanding leaders and passionate SHPE members having to pull back from the organization because SHPE separates them from their families and their commitments. I believe we can come up with ways to ensure that our national and regional programs allow SHPE professionals to afford to bring their families along with them and at a minimum provide events that families can participate in together while attending national and regional conferences.

The third issue I’ll focus on as SHPE national president is on SHPE's use of the technologies available to its users and to the organization. It is already apparent that we have members fully capable of implementing these technologies in ways that will be a benefit to the organization and its stakeholders. Also, our organization already has a Chief Information Officer that has begun to strategize on how SHPE can provide a flexible, adaptable open architecture that allows chapter and regional leaders to create and utilize the tools necessary to run a SHPE chapter in the 21st century. As national president, I promise to no longer allow SHPE to lag behind stuck in archaic technologies, but I’ll ensure that SHPE will strive to be at the forefront of technology in its use and development.

Michael on the Mic

In an effort to let you know how committed I am to answering your questions and giving you the opportunity to get to know me and ask me questions. I will be available to talk, chat or skype with you all week long. Please feel free to call into my conference calls or chat with me in the evening if you see me online. Below is the schedule I will be holding conference calls. All conference calls will be 30 minutes.

Wednesday, 4/1, 2pm (CDT)
Thursday, 4/2, 10pm (CDT)
Friday, 4/3, 11:30am (CDT)
Friday, 4/3, 6pm (CDT)
Friday, 4/3, 9pm (CDT)
Saturday, 4/4, 2pm (CDT)
Saturday, 4/4, 6pm (CDT)
Saturday, 4/4, 9pm (CDT)

Conference Call Information:
Conference call number: 641-715-3630
Participant Code: 799821#

Accepting Skype Video Calls:
3/31 Tuesday, 4/1 Wednesday, 4/3 Friday and 4/4 Saturday, 10pm-11pm (CDT)
also on 4/3 Friday and 4/4 Saturday at 7pm-8pm (CDT)
Skype version 2.0.0.216
my user name: michael4prez

Google Talk:
Anytime you see me online
my user name: michael4prez

What do you want Michael to talk about?

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