April 2005
Our March speaker, Scott Aken of the FBI, spoke about cyber crimes. I looked out into the audience at the faces of the members and guests in attendance. They were all listening closely, as I was. Scott gave so much information regarding how cyber crimes are committed and then told us what we can do to better protect ourselves. It was interesting and informative. He did a great job!
I was so pleased that we had good student member attendance again. We are focusing on Students this year and the St Louis Chapter is sponsoring several students each month to attend the dinner meetings. We have a 50/50 drawing and ask those in attendance to purchase a chance to win. The winner gets half of what is collected, and the other half goes to our scholarship fund and later in the year, an Information Technology student with receive the total amount plus a matching amount from the St Louis Chapter treasury. John Shadley won the 50/50 in March and donated his winnings back to the Scholarship Fund. Thanks John, we really appreciate it!
Sue Morton AITP's Central District Director attended AITP 10th annual National Collegiate Conference (NCC) April 7th through April 9th. There were close to 800 students competing in contests ranging from web design to COBOL programming. Sue will have a full report at April's meeting.
The April speaker is Lewis Reed, 6th Ward Alderman for the City. Lewis is an Information Technology Professional and is a member of the Technology Council for the City. It will be an exciting presentation. Lewis has accomplished so much for the 6th Ward and for the City of St Louis. I admire him and I know that you will enjoy his presentation. The May speaker is Patricia Smith, the Vice President of MasterCard, Information Technology. Because of the Memorial Day holiday, The May dinner meeting will be the 3rd Thursday, May 17.
The Board of Directors will be circulating throughout the guests during the cocktail hour, when we encourage all present to let us know any ideas for topics of future meetings. We would also like to hear what you want that we have not provided. We are very interested in making the St Louis Chapter of the AITP the place where you come to meet other professionals in the Information Technology community and to enjoy our presentations and learn from our speakers. We welcome your input.
The Region 5 Spring Meeting is Thursday, June 9, Friday, June 10, Saturday, 2005, in Springfield Illinois at the Northfield Suites and Conference Center, and on Saturday there is a scheduled tour of The Abraham Lincoln Library. It is the Grand Opening of the Presidential Museum. Christine Leja is the AITP Chapter Laison and she can be contacted for more information. You can also download the registration form (MS Word Document). There is a Laptop computer being raffled and raffle tickets can be purchased on the website or in person for $20.00. Proceeds will cover Region 5 Spring Meeting expenses.
As I have been doing for the past few months, I am reminding you how important it is to have an attitude that is positive and empowering. Have a great month, and until next month...
"Our attitude towards life determines life's attitude toward us."
-- Earl Nightengale