April Dinner Meeting
Tuesday,
April 27, 2004 ~ Jim & Nick's on 220 Oxmoor Rd. in Homewood ~
5:30 pm - 8:00 pm |
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Featured Speaker
Bill Cook
"Lessons He Has Learned"
Bill Cook has over
15 yrs experience in the IT field where he has worked as a consultant,
contractor, team leader and director for myriad projects. He has worked
with Skytel, Just for Feet, NationsTax, Intergraph and Jefferson County
Information Services. At Jefferson County, Bill is the Director of Program
Management and Web Services.
Bill is married to Sheryl, has two children Alicia and
Meredith and lives in Chelsea, Alabama.
Bill will speaking to us from some of the valuable
Business and IT lessons that he has learned over the course of his career. |
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President's Message |
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 Hello to all,
It is hard to believe that it is April already. Easter
has come and gone and I hate to even dredge up that awful T-word that we
are all facing. Hopefully by the time you have read this everyone has
already taken care of their taxes and are joyfully spending their refunds.
Although, a lot of what we do in life is very similar
to paying our taxes if you will bear with my analogy. It is similar to
spreading our seeds over all types of ground to see where our labors will
bear fruit. With our taxes we pay to fund all of our governments efforts
and are happy to see some return coming back at the end of the year. Just
like in life where we seem to spend time doing things that may not show
benefit right now and in this case we never know where and when that
benefit will come back to us.
My time in AITP has been this kind of effort. Although I
hardly have the time to put into other efforts out side of my family and
my work life some things I continue to do hoping that I will be repaid in
ways that I can’t imagine. I have met many wonderful people in this
organization. I also know more about the business community at large than
I could have understood any other way. I now have a network of
acquaintances that I can turn to when I need help in other areas of my
life. And I have already reaped benefits from these people on several
occasions. We can never know where or when we may have to turn to someone
else for help or that those same people may turn to us.
AITP is all about creating a circle of friends that are
like minded IT professionals. Life is getting more complicated and we need
to have the ability to reach outside ourselves to find some answers that
we are looking for. This organization is all about bring these people
together and creating that environment. Don’t ever look at you involvement
with AITP as a burden. It is a blessing waiting to happen.
And lastly, this would not be a message from me if I
did not mention the Student Chapters. Ted and I will be going to the
University of Alabama to make a presentation of an IT scholarship that the
University funds. We have served in this capacity for many years and are
happy to be involved. The UAB AITP chapters paperwork is being processed
and they are shortly away from being our newest student chapter. Also,
Andrea is working with Auburn to create a chapter at that university.
As I have said, opportunities abound all around us. The
greatest thing that we can do is to provide for the future of IT in
Alabama and around the world. The folks from the student chapters are
wonderful to talk with are passionate about expanding their networks and
horizons and their energy is infectious.
So please make plans to attend the April meeting and
share in the joys and excitement that the group has. You never know what
kind of catalyst your spirit will bring to the group so that we can
continue to expand in ways that we can’t even imagine today.
I look forward to seeing you there.
Chapter President
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Minutes |
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No Board meeting for
March. |
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Board
of Directors |
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President
Steve
Romine -
sromine@comsys.com
Past
President
Maurice Myers
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mmyers@amsouth.com
Liaison
Ted
Hagler -
ted.hagler@motion-ind.com
Executive
Vice President
Barbara
Shook -
bshook@regionsbank.com
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Secretary/Treasurer
John Barnhart
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jbarnhart@acipco.com
Program
Chair/Newsletter
Paul Stewart
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pbs@uwa.edu
Toni Ellis
- tellis@regionsbank.com
Student
Chapter/Publicity
Andrea
Simmons -
javischristian@aol.com
Membership Attendance/Acquisitions
Charlie Cook
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ccook@uwa.edu
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AITP Anniversaries
April
Charlie Cook -- Univ. of West Alabama
Sylento R. Lewis -- ITT
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Deadline for articles submitted for the next
BITPRO is the first of each month. The editor reserves the right
to edit for clarity, accuracy, and length. All entries for
publication should be submitted to
Paul Stewart or
Toni Ellis by email. |
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AITP Region/Association |
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AITP and Robert Half
Technology are dedicated to the continuing education of IT professionals.
The education opportunities are open to us as AITP members. Please visit
the AITP web and click on AITP announcements to find more information AITP
has with these learning opportunities. Also check out what is offered with
Gartner Technology. Along with these two educational representations, AITP
has a partnership with Microsoft. These leaning tools can be used by our
membership at a discount and are the up to date topics. Also each member
will be receiving a discount card from Kinko's. This is another
partnership AITP has incorporated. Please take advantage of these
opportunities that AITP has to offer to you as a member.
The 2005 association nominating committee is forming
and if anyone is interested in serving on this committee. Please contact
our Regional President, Steve Flowers. I have his e-mail and phone numbers
if anyone would like to be on this committee.
At the National level, all chapters were invited to
participate in a series of conference calls with AITP headquarters and
members of the AITP Executive Council. Please review the findings and
comments from these calls. I would like to quote some of the resolutions
that are being worked on by our National Officers and Directors.
Marketing and promotion of benefits and services to
members, potential members and corporate leaders. Increase industrial
awareness of AITP. Illustrate how dues are used. Assistance to Chapters in
programming, meeting planning, and speakers. Education of chapter leaders
and members as to the value of the Portal and how to use it. Develop an
enticing segue from student membership to professional membership.
The calls were designed to get information from the
local Chapter of the needs on programs and services. If you have a request
to add to this list please e-mail or let's talk at the next business
meeting.
I have some sad news to pass on to the Birmingham
Chapter, for those of you who remember Joe Cobb, Regional Past President.
Jean, Joe's loving wife of 47 years, passed away on Monday, March 29. Joe,
retired but is still very active in AITP. He installed our Officers/Board
about four years ago. Please keep Joe in your prayers.
Have you visited the National AITP web-site this month,
there is so much information you can learn. I have asked this question for
several months and just want each member to take the opportunity to learn
and be on top of the newest knowledge. Do you know that security is one of
the top priorities of the IT departments but the security issues are not
in most IT contracts unless you specify. Then while you are on the web,
click in to the Birmingham Chapter site. Our Chapter website has been
updated and looks great
http://www.aitpbirmingham.org. Please take a look and make your
comments during our April meeting. Also Southern Hospitality Region 7 has
a new and improved Web site.
http://www.aitp-region7.org. Look these over.
Please don't forget the Regional 7 Student Conference
is in Nashville, October 15-17. Let's try to get several of our Student
Chapters involved in this conference. We need to encourage and support our
local student Chapters. Anyone that would like to help in this Conference,
Please let me know.
Bring a new member or visitor to our Chapter meeting.
We as a Chapter need to encourage our workforce to find out what AITP is
all about.
Hope to see you at Jim N' Nicks, Tuesday April 27.
Chapter Liaison
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