January 2005

From The Desk of Sharon Scoby...

Hello to the AITP membership and all of you who get our newsletter. I am so pleased to be the new President! At our Board of Directors' meeting for the new year I asked the Board members to each write an article for our newsletter, one for each month. John Zeman agreed to be first. I asked them to write about what it has meant to each of them to be an AITP member over the years. I read John's article and it was inspiring and exciting and I share some of the same reasons why it means so much to me too. I can't wait to read next Month's article from the next Board Member to share his or her experience.

I am looking forward to this New Year for the St Louis Chapter of AITP! We have some priorities and goals:

• Focus on the Student Chapters and develop, enrich and encourage our future leaders
• Attract new participation from our Student Chapters
• Bring back previous members and attract new members
• Provide stimulation to our membership and offer an environment for empowerment, growth, and networking with other technology professionals

So when you come to future meetings we want to welcome you and make you feel comfortable with us, while providing informative technology topics, and an environment for networking with other IT Professionals. We will provide programs to inform, educate, and inspire you. Our January program will be an exciting presentation by Gregg Maryniak, Executive Director of the X-Prize Foundation. I am grateful to Tom Smith, the founder of SyllogisTeks, my employer. He asked Gregg Maryniak and he agreed to be our speaker for the January meeting. I also want to thank Maurie Smith, President of SyllogisTeks for sponsoring the December Board meeting.

I can remember my first meeting of the St Louis Chapter fifteen years ago. There were those who reached out to me. Sue Morton asked me to help with membership and meetings. I did and I enjoyed it. Sue has continued to inspire me. She was a great Chapter President and she has agreed to be my mentor this year. Over the years I have worked in Orange County California, and in Tyson's Corner, Va. in the Washington DC Beltway. I attended those AITP chapter meetings and I found the St Louis chapter was where I preferred to be. I love this chapter and we will move forward with the leadership of this awesome Board of Directors this year:

You may have seen me as you signed in over the years helping Gene Dultz with registration. I learned a lot from Gene and found no one handled meetings as well as Gene. I always admired his efficiency. I will look forward to seeing you at the next meeting!

As you proceed through this year, please remember:

"Our attitude towards life determines life's attitude toward us."
-- Earl Nightengale