Join us for our Social on Thursday January 26th!  

SHPE DFW will be meeting on Saturday January 14th, 2012 to plan the spring calendar of events.  Members are encouraged to participate and throw their ideas in.  Contact us to learn more and find out details on how to attend the retreat.

Join us Saturday November 5, 2011 at 2:00pm for a tour and beer tasting of the Franconia Brewery in McKinney, TX.  Admission is $20 and includes several tastings and a Franconia glass.

SHPE DFW will be going to support FC Dallas as they take on the Houston Dynamo on Saturday September 24th.

Reduced-price tickets can be purchased through our Paypal.  Visit here do so.

Dear members and colleagues,

    I, Michael Zamarron as the incoming president, and along with the rest of the Board of Directors would like to welcome you all to the 2011-2012 Dallas-Fort Worth Professional SHPE Chapter year.  This year I am proud to announce that our board has grown to eleven including some new faces. All of who are committed to making SHPE DFW the source for quality Hispanic engineering and technical talent and driving force in the DFW community. I’d like to thank the previous board and President Naomi Hernandez for their excellent stewardship of the chapter and for the strong position we hold in the region.
    Thus far, the board has met twice at the board retreat and in session to discuss our goals for the coming year. We will be embarking on some ambitious ventures to bring more value to your membership via socials, networkers and professional development. All the while, maintaining or impact on the DFW community with our hosts of community involvement events. We will also look to partner with new and familiar organizations that share our values and can add to our member’s professional interests. In keeping with our long term goals, the DFW Professional Conference will be scheduled for the spring of 2012. Finally, we will look to establishing ourselves as a 501c3 tax exempt chapter to increase our ability to fund-raise for our scholarship and other charitable endeavors.  To this end, our treasurer has formed a committee to look at the process and begin the necessary research and applications.

    Over the coming months we will spotlight individual board members and their responsibilities. To that end I will share a bit of my background. I have been involved with SHPE since becoming a professional with Lockheed Martin where I am a Senior Electrical Engineer specializing in RF design and computer simulation. I have served at the chapter level as a director of community outreach and nationally as the Region 5 Vice President (2009-2011). I am also a lifetime member of SHPE and believe in the organization’s ability to provide great benefit to the community and my career.

 I thank you for your interest and involvement in SHPE DFW and welcome you to get involved in our events throughout the year. If you’d like to be a part of any of our chapter’s sub-committees or have an interest in planning or volunteering for individual events I encourage you to contact the committee lead or the board. Contact information can be found on the Board of Directors page.

Sincerely,
Michael Zamarron
SHPE DFW President

SHPE DFW Familia,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for allowing me to serve as your SHPE DFW President for the last year.  I am proud of our results we accomplished together as a chapter including  mentoring our student chapters with resume reviews to prepare them for the SHPE National Conference, pre-college outreach activities including leading a workshop and hosting a booth at both Llaves del Exito events in spring and fall, volunteering at SMU’s Visoneering, engaging our membership at networkers, hosting Technical speakers at Bell Helicopter and Frito Lay, having a large DFW representation at the SHPE National and Regional Conferences, fundraising at Franconia Brewery, assisting UNT to become an official recognized chapter, and being awarded THREE awards at our Regional Conference.

To start off the year our Board of Directors set twelve aggressive goals which I would like to review.

• Goal: To raise $5,000 for SHPE DFW Scholarships for Spring 2011 (CO)
• Result: Goal not attained.  We had one fundraiser last year and will restart the SHPE DFW Technical Conference to generate funds for the Scholarship.  Students will be awarded funds raised from the last Technical Conference in September.
  

• Goal: To sponsor one community outreach event per quarter (CO)
• Result: Goal attained.  SHPE DFW was awarded Community Outreach Professional Chapter of the Year at our Regional Conference.
  

• Goal: To partner with local corporations to host one technical speaker per quarter who will also provide employment opportunities (PD)
• Result: Goal not attained. We hosted one technical speaker per semester at Bell Helicopter and Frito Lay.  After review of our goals the board felt that once per quarter was too aggressive.
  

• Goal: To host two training sessions per year (PD)
• Result: Goal not attained. We only had one training which was a Lean Six Sigma training. 
  

• Goal: To host one networker per quarter (PD)
• Result: Goal attained. 
  

• Goal: To host two family friendly events per year (CD)
• Result: Goal not attained.  We only hosted one family friendly event at a Rangers Game.
  

• Goal: To recruit members in Fort Worth by hosting two FW events per year (CD)
• Result: Goal attained.  A networker was held in Fort Worth in March, and a Rangers game was held in September.
  

• Goal: To increase paid membership to 50 members by June 2011(LD)
• Result: Goal attained. We had 57 members which was a 12% increase from the previous year.
  

• Goal: To send one SHPE DFW Board member to NILA in  August 2010 (LD)
• Result: Goal attained.  Our VP Gabe Villarreal represented DFW and his group was awarded 2nd place in the Professional Case Study Competition.
  

• Goal: To host a Board Retreat in August 2010 and January 2011 (LD)
• Result: Goal attained.
  

• Goal: To have five (10%) SHPE DFW members participate in the SHPE National Conference (LD)
• Result: Goal attained. We had ten SHPE DFW members attend the SHPE National Conference in a variety of functions including attendees, volunteers, recruiters, and workshop leaders.
  

• Goal: To have five (10%) SHPE DFW members participate in RLDC 5 (LD)
• Result: Goal Attained.  We had ten members attend the Regional Conference in Houston, and were awarded three awards at the closing banquet.
  

I would also like to thank our past board for all their hard work and dedication.  I would like to recognize our past Vice President Gabe Villarreal who worked tirelessly all year from volunteering at every outreach event, to sending out our monthly communications, to maintaining our website, to taking the lead on writing our two National Reporting Program Reports which are each 30 page reports and are the basis for how SHPE Nationals ranks us against the other professional chapters - thank you Gabe for your exceptional example of servant leadership.   A special thanks also goes out to Luis Galarza, Mariano Rivera, and Tony Ariza.  Luis Galarza has been on the SHPE DFW board for over five years and most recently served as our Membership Director where he organized our successful Cheer for Careers Fundraiser last year.  Luis has now left Texas to attend Columbia Business School to attain his MBA. Congrats Luis! You will be missed!  Mariano has been involved in SHPE for over twelve years most recently serving as our Professional Development Director and has created a mentorSHPE program with UT Dallas.  Thank you Mariano for your great example!  Tony most recently served as our treasurer. Tony is a Commissioned Officer in the United States Army Reserves. His current assignment is Platoon Leader of the 721st Engineer Company 2nd Platoon out of Paris, Texas.  Tony and his platoon will be deployed to Afghanistan later this year.  Thank you for your example.  May you and your platoon be blessed!

I am excited to see what the next year brings to SHPE DFW.  I am confident in our new leadership, and know that we will continue to reach out to the community to provide opportunities to both our youth and our membership. 
Please take a chance, and come out to an event.  Make a difference, meet some great people, and have some fun doing it!
Kind Regards,

Naomi Hernandez
2010-2011 SHPE DFW President