... Welcome to Phoenix, NV ...

So RLC was held in Phoenix this year from the 11th to the 13th of August (Don’t get on my case for my tardiness – Times are tough and time is really hard to come by). For those who don’t know, RLC (Regional Leadership Conference) is an event geared to those who would like to know more about how NSBE runs and what it takes to run a NSBE chapter.




One of the most amusing things about the trip was the flight there. So it just so happens that Arizona is a state plagued by a monsoon system during summer. So given this, we left San Jose for Phoenix on Friday night and being the extremely busy person I am I blacked out as soon as I got into my seat. A while later, the plane landed and I woke up as soon as the tires hit the tarmac. The very first thing I noticed though was that the skyline was really like whoa! I thought to myself “Wow, the Phoenix skyline has changed a lot within the last six months!” I mean there were lights all over and …




10 seconds later the captains voice goes on the intercom “Folks we just touched down in Las Vegas to refuel just in case we have to circle the Phoenix airport for a while because of the monsoon thunderstorms”. Do I need to say more. I don’t think I have to.




RLC was good (I have noticed that I am really short on my vocabulary – I use “Good”, “Great”, “Nice”, “The Bomb” a lot.) How about RLC was mind blowing! (Then insert a scream here). There were a ton of workshops as usual that will definitely help make the SVC Board a more effective board and we were blessed to have the national collegiate and alumni chairs in attendance, the national treasurer (she was great. Gave us some great tips on investments and how to get on the NSBE investment bandwagon … Oooh, I take that back – She was mind blowing).




So this year’s theme is LOVE.
Leadership and Academic Development
Operational Effectiveness
Vital Technical Excellence
Expanding Career Access

As an alumni chapter, some of these definitely do match with the goals that we set for ourselves as a chapter when we first convened to form the Alumni group. Our initial goals were:

- To recharter the chapter (done)
- To increase membership (in progress – we have grown tremendously so far)
- To offer professional development for members (we haven’t gained much headway in this yet)
- To strategically align ourselves with other black organizations e.g. black MBAs, to form a relationship with PCI Chapters and to form strong bond with collegiate chapters. (We currently have a very strong bond with San Jose State, a working relationship with Stanford, great … MINDBLOWING relations with NCCBPE among other black orgs)




For a corny ending – The thunderstorms in Arizona definitely reminded us of the NSBE lighting bolt symbol and we shall definitely keep striving towards the striking impact that will be felt by the society and industry due to the contributions and accomplishments made by the dedicated members of the National Society of Black Engineers.






For (string that was a really corny ending = really corny, corny < that was so corny, corny * infinity) {

cout << That was sooooooo corny;
endcorny; // Thanks!
}