Memphis SIM Chapter Quarterly Newsletter

The SIM Memphis Chapter continues to enrich its membership with opportunities to network, learn and grow in addition to serving the community. Work is always in progress - from scholarships to Teen Tech Camp - and there are many ways you can make a difference by supporting chapter activities. Want to volunteer and become more involved? For more information, contact: Jana Branham, Community Outreach, Susan Caldwell or Judy Simon, Membership, Stephen Schaefgan, Strategy Series, Tony Rooney, Programs, or Diane Coons, Marketing.

Sincerely,

Dick Vandenberg

President

Show Me the Money!

by John Lewis

Have you ever wondered what happens to the local dues you pay and the money the chapter generates from programs like the Strategy Series? Most people think that we simply use the money to pay for speakers and dinners at regular monthly meetings. Well... that's partially correct. But that's not the whole story. Read on to learn more about how our funds are put to work.

Teen Tech Camp

SIM Memphis began supporting and developing Teen Tech Camp in 2005, and it has continued to gain momentum each year. This month, our chapter has donated $3,000 plus laptop hardware to the Memphis Public Library for this annual event. It's a free summer library camp which offers students ages 13-15 an opportunity to learn to edit photos, music and videos to produce animations or simple games.

"Project in progress," Teen Tech Camp 2008

This year, the camp will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. July 20-25 at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library, and it has enthusiastic support from the SIM Memphis Members. The camp's primary purpose is to encourage teens to pursue IT careers. Each day, a SIM Member will be onsite to demonstrate the latest bright shiny object (BSO). This year's line up will include a demonstration by Ed Charbonnet of his hovercraft (take pictures, please!) and Sue Conklin demonstrating a scanner glove. Colin Onita and Pat Ruckh will also be BSO presenters, and Jana Markowitz will give this year's Career Talk.

The demonstrations and daily activities will culminate in the students creating projects. SIM members will judge the projects on Saturday, July 25th, when parents of the participants will also come to see their work. If the final projects are anything like past years', judges will have a tough time!

Prospective campers must complete and return an application, including a recommendation from a teacher and a parent's consent. Out of the many applications received, over 25 students are selected to participate.

Memphis SIM Member Kevin Morgan Assists
Judging Projects, Teen Tech Camp 2008

Over the years, this event has drawn a lot of attention both locally and nationally, and other SIM chapters around the country have reached out to us learn how they can create something similar in their own communities.

Members in Transition Program

Over the last few weeks, several of our SIM Members, including Susan Caldwell, Jana Markowitz, Mary Jo Greil, and Rick Pride have been volunteering many hours of their time to lead a series of "Members in Transition" (MIT) programs to help our career transitioning members. These programs have been open to all members - regardless of their current status - as many aspects are applicable to the professional development of every one of us. SIM Memphis covers the cost of materials, food and other supplies. And best of all....Susan, Jana, Mary Jo, and Rick have graciously shared their time and talent as a service to the organization and to their fellow SIM members. What more could you ask for?

MIT Working Session

Some of the topics that have been covered include:

Personal Change Strategy - what's next
Marketing Yourself, Networking
Hands-on Training on how to Leverage LinkedIn and other Social Media
for Networking and Job Searches
Resume Writing and Posting
How to Work with a Recruiter
Soft Skills for Technical People (body language, listening, gender differences)
Behavioral interviewing
So you want to be a Consultant - how to get started
Self-awareness Tune-up

MIT Instructors Jana, Mary Jo, Susan

MIT Instructors Jana Markowitz, Mary Jo Greil, Susan Caldwell, Rick Pride (not shown)

The feedback that we've gotten from attendees indicates that the programs have exceeded expectations in every way. It's just one more way that our local chapter provides value to its members.

Scholarship Programs

In the last few years, some of our most significant outreach efforts have centered around providing scholarships to college students who are pursuing careers in IT. SIM Memphis has already established two significant scholarship funds at local colleges, and several of our members have taken very active roles in all aspects of the scholarship reward process.

A scholarship fund at the University of Memphis was established in 2003. The Gary Lasko Memorial Endowed Scholarship Fund was funded with $30,000 and is named in honor of one our SIM Memphis Chapter members who perished in the 9/11 attack in New York. Additionally, we added an additional $1,000 to this fund in 2007 to memorialize Mitzi Pitts who was both a SIM Memphis Chapter Member and a Professor in the Department of Management Information Systems at the University of Memphis.

Interviews of the candidates for 2009/2010 Gary Lasko Memorial Endowment Scholarship were held in the month of June; this year, the award was divided between two recipients: Vic Pitchford was awarded half of the annual award for the Fall 2009 period, and Stefan Erdedi was awarded the scholarship for Spring 2010.

Another scholarship at LeMoyne-Owen College was established in honor of James Robinson who created the computer science program at the college. It was established in 2004 with initial funding of $30,000. To date, several candidates have submitted applications for the James Robinson scholarship, and those applications are being reviewed both by the College and by the SIM scholarships representatives. Interviews for these candidates should be held in the coming weeks, and we will have more information on the student that is awarded the scholarship. Several of our chapter members, including Jana Branham, Christi Daigre, Judy Simon and Judy Brown have worked to maintain an active relationship with each college. They have worked many hours as part of the selection and interview process when rewarding these scholarships. The educational bodies have continued to express gratitude and excitement about these scholarships, and are interested in growing their relationships with SIM. We are extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to have such a significant positive impact on future Information Technology leaders!

Social Networking Tools and "Millennials" in the Workforce

by Jana Markowitz

If you didn't make it to the April SIM Memphis meeting, you missed a great conversation on why Social Network applications (Facebook, My Space, LinkedIn, You Tube and Twitter) should matter to corporations. We also discussed why those Gen Y "kids" (those under 30) are so different from the rest of us "normal" people. Jana Markowitz and Jimmy Johnson of Small Planet Works facilitated these discussions.

Jana Markowitz, Memphis SIM Member

Jana began by explaining the evolution of social networking apps, starting back in the early '80s with the growth from internal-only email to Compuserve, moving on to the late '80s when Lotus Notes and other types of 'groupware' evolved into listservs and online meeting tools. Even corporate applications like SharePoint morphed into wiki's in the late '90s.

Between 2002 and 2005 social networking applications such as Facebook and LinkedIn appeared on the Internet and exploded into homes, garnering literally millions of subscribers worldwide. What's fascinating about this is that for the first time these applications started in the public venue and corporations are now frantically trying to figure out if, and how, they can be of value in the corporate venue. All previous social applications began in corporations and migrated to the Internet.

So how are corporations using Social Networking applications?

Talent acquisition (LinkedIn, Facebook)
Sharing information across departments/divisions (Facebook, Yammer)
Business contacts - finding and maintaining both clients and providers (LinkedIn)
Public branding for organizations and executives (all social networking applications, including Twitter)

Of course teenagers use these applications much differently than corporations and executives, just as in our youths we used telephones at home much differently than adults used them at work.

This observation led us into a discussion, which Jimmy facilitated, of how Millennials (aka Gen Y, born between 1982 and 2002) are revolutionizing the workplace as they join the other three generations already there - Traditionalists (1925 to 45), Boomers (1946 to 64) and Gen X'ers (1965 to 81.)

Jimmy Johnson

Jimmy identified how all four generations view things differently from work style to leadership, communication to recognition and work/life balance. While Millennials certainly are different, this is really nothing new - Boomers entered the workforce with very different goals and expectations than their predecessors and this seems to hold true as each generation joins. The big concern is how managers can have four different generations reporting to them and still develop and manage all of their work. Jimmy also advised the group on recruiting, maintaining and managing Millenials in the workforce.

Based on the number of people who stayed after the meeting to talk to the speakers, perhaps we should integrate generational differences and social networking applications into future discussions of technology topics.

Upcoming Meetings - Mark Your Calendars

by Tony Rooney

August Social Night with the Redbirds

Batter up! Get ready to relax, network, enjoy good food and beverages, and hopefully a good game from one of the suites at AutoZone Park! Stay tuned as we finalize the date.

AutoZone Park

September 3, 2009

Speaker: Jaime Capella, Managing Director with the Corporate Executive Board's IT Practice in Washington, DC

Topic: New Business Demands and Implications for Corporate IT

Jaime will present his findings and observations based on research he has recently conducted to identify the longer lasting impacts on the IT organization as a result of the recent economic crisis. We will review what IT leaders need to know to effectively manage these changes and help their companies use technology to compete more effectively, with a longer-term view. The presentation will specifically focus on two key areas:

1. Improving knowledge worker productivity via better collaboration. How to boost user adoption by thinking beyond tools and really understanding how teams work and relate online.
2. Leveraging web self-service to slash customer service costs while boosting customer loyalty. Guidance on how to keep customers on the web instead of simply migrating callers online.

Jaime has been with the Corporate Executive Board for the last 10 years. Previously, he was the Director of Business Development with Congressional Quarterly, Inc., a privately held company providing news, analysis, and information on Congress, politics, and public policy. He earned an undergraduate degree from Harvard and two advanced degrees from Yale including one form the Yale School of Management. His research is typically focused on significant challenges and opportunities that tend to be of most interest to CIO's.

Call for Business Speakers - Have You Volunteered Yet?

Can you find two hours in your work to make a difference in the life of a Memphis City School Student?

SIM Memphis is helping make it possible for Memphis students at the Stax Music Academy to be educated in the technology of making music by partially funding the renovation of the Stax Music Academy's Recording Studio and Control Room. The Stax Music Academy is one of the major programs of the Soulsville Foundation, a non-profit organization, created to serve the South Memphis neighborhood of Soulsville, USA.

"In Class" at Soulsville Charter School

The mission of the Soulsville Charter School is to produce students who will be able to read, communicate effectively and possess high-order thinking skills through the interconnectedness of academics and music.

What can you do to help with this mission? Be a business luncheon speaker!

The Soulsville Charter School is asking business people to visit the school at lunchtime and talk about their job, the education needed for their profession, and what they like about their job.

There are four lunch sessions - one for each grade, six through nine. You may speak to one, two, three, or all the grades.

The business luncheon exposes their students to various career opportunities that they might not have known about or considered for themselves.

Please contact Lamonn Daniels at (901) 946-2535 ext. 360, identify yourself as a SIM Member, and arrange a time to speak.

Please contact Sue Conklin with any questions. Thanks and you will have a great time!

Special Thanks

Thanks to Sue Conklin for initiating the SIM Business Speaker Program with Stax and for its ongoing development!