May 31, 2011

The mission of the Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council is to significantly increase business relationships between our corporate members and our certified MBEs. We believe that minority business development is a key component of reducing poverty, unemployment, increasing wealth, and integrating American society. You are receiving this email in order to keep you abreast of developments with the Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council, Supplier Diversity Issues and Minority Business Development. If you like what you read please share internally and externally.

Corporate Performance Survey Results

The GNEMSDC is currently conducting a survey of local and national corporate members. If you did not receive the survey instrument via email, we would be happy to send it to you directly. The information provides the Council with valuable intelligence that will help us to better serve our corporate members. Also, those who complete the anonymous survey can see the summary results that might also help you see where you stand relative to other corporate members. To receive a survey link, email Tatiana Paredes at, tparedes@gnemsdc.org

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NMSDC/GNEMSDC Upcoming Events, Activities and Information

Please take a close look at the events listed below. The links will take you to detailed information about the events. We will have more information for those events that do not currently have live links, but please mark your calendars and call the office.


Events and Activities

  • Monday, June 13, 2011 - Pitney Bowes Supplier Diversity Summit 2011 from 8:30 am - 2:00 pm at the Stamford, CT office. The day will include a keynote address form Leonard Greenhalgh, Professor, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, insightful presentations, impactful workshops, and an opportunity for you to meet with Pitney Bowes stakeholders to discuss procurement opportunities. Space is limited, attendance is limited to 1 (one) person per company and registration will close June 6, 2011. Directions & Parking information will be sent out once we get closer to the date of the event. To register for this event & to see the agenda please click here.
  • The GNEMSDC RI Regional Advisory Committee is holding a corporate reception at Citizens Bank in downtown Providence on June 14 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. The RI RAC has invited local RI companies that are not GNEMSDC members to join us for this cocktail reception to learn more about the GNEMSDC. All GNEMSDC corporate members are welcome to join us. Call Andie Kim at 617-578-8900 for more details.
  • The New York New Jersey MSDC ("The Council") will be holding its Business Opportunity Expo, Thursday, June 16 at the New York Marriott Marquis in New York City. The Keynote Speaker for the event is Allan Houston. For more information about the event visit www.nynjmsdc.org/expo2011.
  • The St Louis MSDC will be holding its Business Opportunity Expo and Conference, June 15-16 at the Renaissance Grand Hotel in St. Louis. Your truly will be the Keynote Luncheon Speaker on Thursday, June 16. For registration information visit, http://www.slmbc.org.
  • MBE Hospital Opportunity Expo- Connecticut Hospital Association and GNEMSDC, June 23, 2011 - Aqua Turf Club - Contact the office if you are interested in attending this important event.
  • NMSDC Quarterly Meeting, Westin Copley Boston, July 18-21. (This meeting is for Regional MSDC Presidents, Regional Council Corporate Chairpersons, Regional MBEIC Chairpersons and NMSDC executive leadership. MBEs and corporate members who are not a part of the NMSDC leadership are welcome to register for luncheons and networking/cruise dinner on Boston Harbor, July 20. There are also advertising and sponsorship opportunities, call the office for details.)

Information

Non-GNEMSDC Events

Most of these activities our corporate members, MBEs and Council staff have been invited to attend. The links will take you to detailed information about the events.

If you have events and activities that you want to share with our network send us a PDF file at least two weeks before the event.

We reserve the right to publish or not publish events and activities.

Golf Alert! GNEMSDC Supplier Golf Classic - July 15 - SOLD OUT!!!!

Golf

The GNEMSDC Supplier Diversity Golf Classic is coming to Lyman Orchards Golf Club on Friday, July 15. The event is SOLD OUT! We are asking for sponsors to provide us with the names of their guests by June 15. Due to the limited space, we will not be able to hold your slots if you do not send your names to the office by June 15. One of the main attractions of this event is getting MBEs and Corporate members together.

If you are interested in a fun afternoon of golf, networking, food, drinks and relationship building and are not registered, we can put your name on a waiting list.

If you would like to donate any items for our very popular raffle, please contact the office (888-874-7114). We are also looking for volunteers. Volunteering is a great way to meet hundreds of guests.

We are SOLD OUT Again!

2011 Supplier Golf Classic Co-Chairs: Larry Wooten and Jere Eaton

Contact Volunteer Coordinator

Contact Raffle Item Donation

2011 GNEMSDC Supplier Golf Classic

Opportunities with Corporate Members

  • DAS Open for Business Contracting Opportunities for Connecticut Small Businesses
  • The New Haven Parking Authority is seeking sealed bids for the Air Rights Garage Repairs, Year 2011 NHPA Project #11-002 util 3:00 PM local time on Friday, June 3at the New Haven Parking Authority, Temple Street Parking Garage Office, One Temple Street, New Haven, CT. Bids are for "partial depth concrete repair, overhead concrete repair and other projects. For more information and to obtain bid documents call 203-946-7562.

If you are a corporate member, and want the Council to spread the word about your opportunity we would be happy to do that for you anonymously and for free!

NMSDC Quarterly Meeting in Boston - July 18-21

The GNEMSDC will be hosting the NMSDC Quarterly Meeting in Boston at the Westin Copley from July 18 through July 21. We welcome the NMSDC executive staff and the leadership from the 36 regional councils. Some of the corporations represented in the national leadership as chairs of regional councils include the following:

  • Verizon Wireless
  • Macy's
  • Sempra Energy
  • Disney
  • Southern Company
  • Lilly
  • Brown - Forman
  • Exxonmobil
  • Ahold USA
  • Aetna
  • Ford
  • Black & Veatch
  • Ameren
  • Lockheed Martin
  • Turner Construction
  • Shewin Williams
  • Honda USA
  • Conoco Phillips
  • Pepco Holdings
  • PNC
  • Johnson and Johnson
  • Volkswagon
  • Johnson Controls
  • Centerpoint Energy

These are a few of the companies we expect to join us in July. GNEMSDC corporate members and certified MBEs are welcome to join us for the luncheons on Tuesday and Wednesday and on the Cruise of Boston Harbor on Wednesday, July 20. See the link for registration information. This should be a great event for the region as we showcase Boston, our corporate membership and our outstanding MBEs.


And Finally...

ItFred in ohio is now graduation and wedding season. I recently attended a scholarship program sponsored by the fraternity I am member of, Sigma Phi Pi. Sigma Phi Pi, aka the Boule, is the oldest African American fraternity. We had many African American leaders in our organization including W.E.B Dubois and Martin Luther King. The chapter I am a member of in New Haven, CT funds the Promising Scholars program for New Haven area high school students who are or will be attending a four year college. The scholarship we present is known as the Edward A Bouchet Scholarship.

Edward Bouchet was an interesting and little known figure. His father came to New Haven as a slave to a South Carolinian Yale student. In the antebellum 19th century it was not uncommon for students to bring their "valets" with them to Ivy League schools. The younger Bouchet studied hard in elementary school and was awarded a scholarship to the esteemed Hopkins School where he became valedictorian of his class and the first African American graduate of Hopkins. From Hopkins he attended Yale where he received a BS degree in 1874, and was 6th in his class. He returned to Yale in 1876 and earned a Ph.D. in physics, only the sixth American to earn such a degree and the first African American.

But post Yale life was not kind to Bouchet from a professional perspective. He was unable to get a teaching position at any university in America and ended up spending most of his professional career teaching in a segregated Philadelphia high school. America was a very different place in the late 1880s when Jim Crow laws were passed and lasted into the 1960s.

But today we honor achievement and opportunity. This story is about how achievement in order to be manifest must be accompanied by opportunity. So as I celebrate my daughter's graduation from Princeton this week, I know she has opportunities as well as talent. Thank you Edward A. Bouchet for paving the way.

In your service,

Dr. Fred