December Newsletter and more

December newsletter posted to website. Lot of activities coming up! Look forward to seeing everyone at one of next events! Just this past Friday we had our holiday dinner with 30 people in attendance. Great food and great networking at the 1022 Restaurant. Check out the photos on either Facebook or our website.

Region 1 Sponsors Holiday Party

BIG NEWS... HUGE.

We just found out that Region 1 is going to help SPONSOR our Holiday Party as a way to promote SHPE's core goals of Membership Recruitment and Retention. This enables us to drop the price of the ticket to only $15/person! What a great deal!

We are extremely excited for this opportunity to attract new members and to show appreciation for our existing members. Networking with SHPE National Board of Directors members really does pay off... Please help us spread the word to ensure we reach our goal of 30 attendees!

~SHPE Sacramento

SHPE Sacramento Holiday Party

We’ve been busy planning a really fun event for members and guests to celebrate the holiday season and to promote the benefits of SHPE membership. Typically, our holiday party is a potluck style event held at a member’s home. This year, we’ve decided to step it up a notch and also capitalize on the newest restaurant to open in Old Sacramento, from the owners of the Firehouse, Ten 22. The restaurant occupies the first floor of the Orleans Building, which was left unoccupied for several decades and reopened as a loft/retail space in fall of 2008. Ten 22 celebrated its grand opening on November 13, and has welcomed SHPE Sacramento to host our event in their private back room. The chef has come up with a special menu to meet our needs and will include a salad, entrée of herb-roasted half chicken or Dijon-dill salmon, plus a dessert.

Here are the details:
When: December 11 @ 7:00pm
Where: Ten 22, 1022 Second Street in Old Sacramento Cost: $25/person includes your meal (alcohol purchased separately)
RSVP is required by December 8 by clicking here

This event will also include a silent auction to raise funds for our Chapter. Included in the auction will include gift certificates, art, wine, and other items guaranteed to spark your interest especially with Christmas around the corner. Give to a great cause! We hope to see you there.

SHPE Sacramento

Wine Tasting in Amador County

Saturday October 3 a group of us attended the Big Crush wine festival in Amador County. It was a first for most who attended, and the first of this type of event for SHPE Sacramento. We also rented a van to maximize attendance, leaving the driving to Mario who was a great sport about being designated driver!

Highlights from Borjon Winery - mariachi and great wine!

The wine festival included food, live music, and samples of many of the wineries' best varieties including zinfandel, barbera, chardonnay, and dessert wines such as port and muscato among others. At least 30 wineries participated in the festival, but there was really only time to visit about 5 wineries during our visit to really fully enjoy what each of them had to offer. At one winery, we missed the grape stomp but got a chance to talk to the owner about the straw bale construction of their building and their grape press process. Then we moved onto the next place and stuffed ourselves full of tri-tip sandwiches and pasta salad! It was a great day overall. Hope we will do it again next year.

Enjoying ourselves at Convergence Winery

Hearing from the owner of Amador Cellars

A view of the valley - great way to end the day!

And we're off!

SHPE Sacramento is off to a running start!

First, for our schedule of events for the next couple of months. We’ve got a LOT going on right now, our officers are in constant communication by our google group or conference calls to bring these events together. We could use as much support and participation as possible – so spread the word!

Schedule of events

High School Career Day in Arbuckle Fri, Sept 18

• Organized by VP, Delia Aguirre. 2 professionals and 1 student attending so far.

BBQ at Land Park Sat, Sept 19

• Don’t miss out on our annual kick-off BBQ at Land Park, located in the picnic area off of Land Park Drive
• Students, professionals, friends, and family welcome for Carne Asada lunch, volleyball, and socializing.
• BBQ will be from 11:00 to 2:00

SHPE at the Raiders Game Sun, Sept 27

• A special fundraiser for SHPE programs organized by Diana Gomez (past national president of SHPE), SF and Sac Professional Chapters. $14 of every ticket sold goes towards the Professional Chapter scholarship programs for students pursuing degrees in math, science, and engineering. See our website http://www.sacramento-shpe.org for more details and how to purchase tickets!
  
• Tailgate preceding the game at 11:00 – purchase tickets the day of the game.

Wine Tasting – Big Crush Sat, Oct 3

• A shuttle will be taking us to the Amador County Big Crush Event. Over 30 wineries participate and offer food, games, and of course wine tasting.
• Cost is $30 for the event ticket and $15 for transportation to the event (1-hour east of Sac, in the town of Plymouth)

General Meeting Wed, Oct 7

• Something very special is being planned for our first general meeting of the term. Stay tuned!

Noche de Ciencias Fri, Oct 9

• Organized by Sac State Chapter – more details will be posted to the website.

MEP Day-in-the-Life @ Sac State Thurs, Oct 8

• Mario and Davina will be presenting at this event to MEP students

Bomba Blast Resume workshop Sat, Oct 17

• 3rd Annual Resume workshop for student members attending the SHPE Conference
• Held at UC Davis, Haring Bldg Room 1227 from 9am-12pm
• We are currently looking for a presenter – if you have anyone in mind, please contact us!

SHPE Conference Oct 29-Nov 1

• Washington, D.C.
• So far SHPE Sac Professional E-board members will be in attendance
• Professional Track information available on the SHPE Conference website: http://neptune.shpe.org/shpe2009/professional-members

Thanks for your interest in our events. We hope to see you at an upcoming event soon!

Greetings From NILA

Mario Carreon, SHPE Sacramento Treasurer, and I had an opportunity to attend the National Institute for Leadership Advancement (NILA) in Dallas, TX. We're wrapping up our 3rd day of workshops and group case study presentations.

Conference highlights so far have been an inspiring presentation on the "Executive Presence" where I was called to speak in front of the room of 400 people and demonstrate how I would start a conversation in an elevator! Talk about being put on the spot. The presenter assured me later he wouldn't have done that if he didn't think I could handle it. I suppose that's a compliment!

Fernando Rosario, Accenture

The group case studies were intense. The topic was to propose regional and national solutions for increasing professional membership. Groups gave 7-minute presentations in front of judges. Winners are announced tonite at the gala banquet. Fingers crossed!!

Although it's been a pretty great experience so far, I have to admit I'm looking forward to my returning home to (catch up on some sleep) but mostly to keep the momentum going in Sacramento! I'm returning with a ton of ideas to implement in the coming months, so STAY TUNED.

Davina Gonzalez
President, Sacramento Professional Chapter

Teambuilding Scavenger Hunt

June 13, 2009

June is the month best known for graduations and good-byes; students say ‘adios’ to exams, while professionals vacation to get re-charged for the year. On June 13th, the Sacramento Professional Chapter said goodbye to outgoing officers, welcomed three new officers, and participated in a Teambuilding Scavenger Hunt with the Bay Area SHPE professionals in San Francisco. The purpose was to find a way to promote teambuilding among officers while fostering a relationship with a fellow Professional Chapter.

This was not your ordinary scavenger hunt. Picture a fast paced, web-interactive activity requiring smart phones, quick thinking, creative problem solving and fresh legs as teams—literally running through the streets of San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf district—searched for key landmarks to decipher cryptic codes and riddles in their quest to accumulate the most points. The chapters later attended the NBOD meeting and farewell festivities for outgoing National President Diana Gomez that same evening. Overall the day’s activities were a great way to exercise all that SHPE has to offer: leadership, networking, personal and professional development, and of course FUN. The scavenger hunt was a great way to motivate the incoming executive board to continue to seek out the benefits of SHPE.