...February General Body Meeting...

Ah...another wonderfully great and useful general body meeting. Good job, Elvis...or Alex. Here's to whomever invited our guest speaker!

Yes, a great and useful meeting. I know, I know - the advertisement for the meeting stated that it would be a 'Tax Workshop". While under most circumstances, that tagline would succeed in scaring away many potential patrons, the turnout for the meeting was fairly significant. Perhaps the idea of doing "taxes" DOES have a lure of its own. Go figure.

The meeting started with a hearty breakfast featuring not-from-concentrate orange juice, miniature bagels, and Little Debbie snack cookies as a little extra gift...for myself. (As the meeting's breakfast shopper for the day, I threw in a little extra. :) ) Next was the ice breaker - always a ridiculously entertaining and energizing spectacle no matter who's running it. This time, Tari played the role of game show host. In honor of Black History Month, Tari attempted to be the game show host of a Black History Month trivia guessing game. The goal was to excite the audience by luring them into a(n educational) game show about modern and notable engineers and scientists, but he succeeded in driving a few people crazy with his sparsely explained "rules" of the game. Further complicating the game were the EXCESSIVELY COMPETITIVE people (cough, cough...Jeremy, cough, Renee,...cough, Seitu, cough, cough)!! After a while, I just sat back and watched the chaos unfold. Now THAT was awesome. Sadly, though, it looks like most of us need to brush up on our modern day Black History facts. Well, there's always next year!

Up next was our guest speaker from H&R Block, Master Tax Advisor Dan Hunt. Mr. Hunt selected tax topics that most affected the age range of the meeting attendees: student debt, participation in Employee Purchase Programs, stock sales, and 401(k) and other retirement program contributions. Mr. Hunt was a unique H & R Block employee because of his background. He had earned an engineering degree, worked several years (decades?) as an engineer, and then retired from industry. Now, in his retirement, he utilized his love - yes, LOVE - of taxes and tax preparation to the community by providing group informational sessions to the public. His goal is to educate his audience on the pros and cons that result from their financial decisions and to get them to start thinking about how they're going to prepare for the following year.

The response from the audience was great! Once everyone realized that there are many different ways to, uh, *cheat* the system, the level of intrigue was palpable. No, the most interesting blog read, but certainly a very interesting live presentation. He was armed with an abundance of tips. Basically, if you can funnel your money into retirement savings (which you can still do for the 2007 year by April 15th, by the way...) or if you donated a whole bunch of money/gifts to charity, you could move into a lower tax bracket and possibly receive a larger refund. Or you can receive tax credit for driving back and forth between jobs! Or you can be credited for your business lunches! Thus, the moral of the story is that life's a game of chess - there are just a few smart moves that will help you win. To much disappointment, Mr. Hunt had to leave. He handed out information about tax brackets to help in preparations for 2008 taxes.

To get in contact with Master Tax Advisor Dan Hunt, call 408.253.8871 and ask for him. I'm sure you'll jog his memory of who you are if you mention NSBE Alumni. Just a tip.


After the tax help, the meeting drew to an end. Here were the announcements:

- First Friday Lunch: Siam Taste Thai Cuisine in Sunnyvale on March 7, 2008.

- The March general body meeting is cancelled due to the NSBE National Convention.

- NSBE National Convention is on the week of March 19 - 23, 2008. (Please contact the chapter President, Elvis, regarding room availability and/or list of conference attendees.)

- NSBE-AE Silicon Valley Banquet is on April 5, 2008 @6:30pm. Stay tuned!!


Until next time, enjoy!

...Let the Webbing of Networks Begin!...

What do you get when you mix a group of professionals, a nice restaurant, free refreshments, and wine? A networking event!!


Everyone who joins our NSBE Alumni Extension chapter says, “Yeah, I really want to attend this… yeah, I really want to volunteer for that…and I really want to network!” Perhaps it’s not stated with that much enthusiasm, but ask any member of the board, and they’ll confirm the truth behind that statement.


The NSBE response was to do it big: become a partner in a combined, multi-organizational networking event, sponsored by a major corporation, to acquire the full effect. Held at Il Fornaio Restaurant in Palo Alto, professionals from the National Society of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA), the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), The African Network (TAN), and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), gathered in a covered (and heated!) patio area of the restaurant. Perhaps a few people *forgot* to RSVP because the room was a bit on the crowded side. The plus side to the large number of people was that it wasn’t quite as difficult as usual to strike up a conversation with a total stranger. It was harder work to stand in the corner and NOT talk to someone!



Host Qualcomm allowed everyone to freely mingle before they formally introduced themselves to the packed room. There were several employees dressed in Qualcomm apparel ready to answer questions about the company. They raffled off a Blackberry right at the start – just the right kind of technology to get everyone excited. They were also handing out USB flash drives and advertising their numerous job openings located in sites throughout the Bay Area and San Diego. Once the company introduction was complete, everyone was free to start working their net. (Get it? “net” – “work”??)

One couldn’t help but notice that initially, a large majority of the crowd stuck with their professional organization cliques…it was like junior high and high school all over again! Excessive shyness and/or discomfort, maybe? Who knows? But once everyone inhaled the available refreshments and loosened up on vino, intermingling began. Throughout the room, business cards were exchanging hands. It was great talking to different people about what they’re doing in their job and what they’re getting out fo their professional organization. (Don’t worry; I took notes.)


Networking is an artform that takes guts. You need guts to walk up to a stranger on the premise that the only thing you have in common is that you’re both professionals. You need guts to know what to say after initial introductions have been made, and guts to know when and how to end a conversation, hand over your business card, and walk on to the next person. It’s practice that can only be honed when used in a practical setting.

Major lessons learned:
1. Uh...I should probably start carrying around my business cards. Hm.
2. Practice, practice, practice!
3. When in doubt, just start talking to the person standing next to you!

... fast, faster, more faster, even more faster ...

By Victoria Onyeabor

"Engy 500"

Mindful of the new California cell phone law, I scanned for blue and red out the driver's side window, while my right hand tossed my cell to its partner before deftly shifting up gears to narrowly cut off a blue Ford as I caught the 101 onramp with my headlights the way a sprinter catches a breath. The horizon of the freeway opened up before me, and I unzipped the rows of reflectors with a black knife shaped like a 2007 Sentra. Elvis' "K see ya" was squished between folding halves of my RAZR halfway along its trajectory from hand to passenger seat. My right foot earned free reign as I eyed Corollas carrying tired fathers home from work, and Camrys taking little Jimmys to their birthday dinners, my targets of domination. I checked the clock: after 7. I immediately weaved dangerously around an ambitious Hyundai Sonata to satiate my car's hunger for HOV diamonds. In my mind, I was already on the GoKart Track, the deathly stadium of impending collision with cackling whiplash curves, the Coliseum of man vs bloodthirsty speed demon.







In Fremont, the stately daredevils of NSBE's Silicon Valley Alumni Extension were already strapping up for the moment of truth. Gloves, helmets, blue flag means faster, black flag means faster, yellow lights mean...

FASTER

Breathless, I charged onto the makeshift track, blinded by streaks of beautiful brown as they dangerously embraced curves of tarmac. Within 60 seconds, I merged with the fast and furious, tracing the brown ribbon in an impossible loop, viciously pulling the rug out from under my brethren. Yellow flag…

Faster?







I cut off Elvo and Shred You 2 before competing for the inside turn with Brit, sending her on a spiraling collision course with the wall. Makinde the Raptor charged past me and Elvo recovered his rank as I fish tailed across the lane from a collision with Dan and Idleyute. Blue flag…

Faster?

The moderators were waving wildly, but I couldn’t hear a damn thing over the ear shattering rubber squeal of my determination, and the sputtering roar of mental machinery calculating every z-plane steering angle needed to achieve the desired x-y acceleration inside seven fellow engineering minds. I veered to the left, hogging the lane lest Disterics lap me, and focused my attention on Mr. Action. Back at the start of a long smooth curve, he floored the gas to edge up on Big Homie. I followed suit. Checkered flag…

It was over. We proudly marched from our steaming karts in slow motion and referenced the projected scoreboard for our respective judgments.

Fourth.







I’ll take that. The undepleted adrenaline demanded that we refuel at Dave and Busters. We drove in real cars on real roads like raving maniacs, and threatened the lives of those sharing the path between Lemans Karting and Dave and Busters like 16 year olds heading to the club. No one should ever drive a real car after GoKarting.

Over rigatoni pasta, chicken quesadillas, nachos, and colorful drinks, we introduced ourselves where needed and discussed the usual before launching into a heated debate over the appropriate dance floor approach of the male Homo Sapien. “He shouldn’t come up behind a female he doesn’t know,” “But it’s whack to introduce yourself first,” and “How do you make the front to back transition without looking crazy?” and “By the way, did you see those freaks ‘dancing’ behind the DJ booth at NSBE Nationals last year?”







It was late, it was Thursday, numbers exchanged, cold outside, last minute jokes, and back into the solitude of my black knife, cutting over the horizon of the 101 onramp on my way to an early Friday in my cubicle.

... February Power Lunch ...

Ok, so this one was nice and intimate … one of those words they teach you in political correctness class. Translation – there was a solid group of four people at Vive Sol. I guess the smaller the group the better you get to know each other so it wasn’t exactly such a bad thing. Plus it works out pretty well for the crowd shy folk.







I’ll tell you what you missed out on though. You missed out on an opportunity to learn about:
1. How the post office guarantees that you get mail that is not laced with Anthrax
2. HD DVD vs Blu Ray. Who’s winning?
3. Core 2 Duo? Really? Intel – AMD … How about an old meaningless video to add fuel to this fire. Emphasis on old.
4. Why the powershot camera is so great! (Its not always about some sort of war be it an Anthrax war, DVD format wars or chip maker wars. We can all agree that Canon knows their stuff)

Next time? Lets lunch. 1st Friday of the month as always. Check the schedule here.