Holiday Greetings from Danny Cardenas: SHPE-NYC President

Greetings,

As the holidays draw near and we bring the year to a close, we recognize 2008 will undoubtedly be one for the history books. This year we lived through extreme market volatility, radical market swings, including the first ever 1000 point swing in a single trading session. We have all witnessed and participated in this year's historical election, one which has produced our Nations first African American president.

These are also historic times for SHPE-NYC, and as the year comes to a close, it is traditional that we reflect on our past achievements and look forward to the New Year's opportunities. Our professional chapter earned the highest recognition by SHPE National this calendar year, special thank you to Johny Lopez and the 2007-2008 executive board for their dedication to SHPE. We were proudly recognized with the following awards.

National Large Professional Chapter of the Year

Region 4 Professional Chapter of the Year

National Most Improved Chapter of the Year

This fiscal year (July '08 – June '09) we are capitalizing on these successes and have increased the quality of SHPE-NYC to better serve its members and corporate partners. We are proud to say our professional chapter continues to be one of the largest, fastest growing, and most active chapters in the nation, a fact we should all celebrate.

We can also be proud of these accomplishments:

• We continue to experience record growth in our chapter and are delighted to share we have 100 members on file, the largest ever 6 months into a fiscal year. We are well on our way to 200 by June 2009
• We increased the quality and number of our events to ensure our members continue to see SHPE-NYC as a valuable resource. We are proud to state we had weekly activities from October 14^th to December 19^th.
• We held the largest event in SHPE-NYC history, our annual Holiday Dinner and Toy Drive were we had over 170 RSVPs and collected 160 toys. We were honored to have Nick Donofrio, Retired Executive Vice President of IBM address our attendees
• We hosted our first cultural oriented event in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month were we also kicked off our Executive Relations initiate to engage Latino Executives. We were also privileged to have Alberto Montufar, Managing Director as keynote of the event.
• The kick off of our Speaker Series where Carlos Dominguez, one of the top 50 Hispanic Executives in the United States and Senior Vice President of Cisco Systems addressed our members on how technology is changing our lives.
• Additionally, we also kicked off of our Technology Series with a presentation of Cisco Systems Telepresence technology, and how it has changed the way we can effectively communicate and collaborate.

Please join me in thanking the executive board members of SHPE-NYC for their hard work and dedication, their tireless work brings you events that allow us to learn and grow together as the premier Hispanic Engineering Organization in New York City.

As we look forward into 2009 I am energized and committed to working with the executive board and corporate partners to continue bringing you quality events, which you have come to expect from SHPE-NYC.

My best wishes to you and your families for a joyful holiday season and a happy and healthy new year.

Les deseo una Feliz Navidad y un Prospero Año nuevo 2009!

Danny Cardenas

SHPE-NYC President

www.shpe-nyc.org