| Nelson Mandela |
| Maya Angelou's tribute poem on behalf of the American people express what many have felt about the life and passing of Nelson Mandela. His dream of freedom, peace, respect, human dignity and forgiveness are lessons for us all to remember and cherish. |
Boston Holiday Business Card Exchange
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Attend the Boston Holiday Business Card Exchange hosted by Prince Lobel Tye LLP on
December 10th from 6:00pm - 8:00pm at 100 Cambridge St., Suite 2200, Boston, MA
Please note the change in date to December 10th. Join us as we celebrate accomplishments of 2013 and make additional networking connections before the end of the year.
This year we will be joining with Prince Lobel in a toy drive benefiting the H.A.R.T House. The H.A.R.T House is a family residential program that offers individual, group and family therapy, case management, psycho-educational groups, relapse prevention groups, referral to medical and dental services, as well as a wide range of counseling for those struggling with various addictions. Please bring a toy to donate.
RSVP to Sarah James: sjames@gnemsdc.org. Learn more here.
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MBE Input Committee Elections Information
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Greetings GNEMSDC MBEs:
As some of you might know, Gary Stiffler's 2 year term as the GNEMSDC Chair ends on December 31, 2013. He will not be running for the next term. Thanks to Gary for all his commitment, hard work, and the contributions.
As the MBEIC Chair Election Committee Chair, I am reaching out to you to advise you that we have just initiated the process to elect the MBEIC Chair for the 2014-2015 term! The election will include five key steps:
Step 1. Solicit nominations and self-nominations from those interested in this position (This process starts with this email and nominations & self nominations are due by 5:00 PM EST, Wednesday, December 11. ACT NOW!
Step 2. Confirmation of Nominees' intent to run for this position and the completed "Candidate Platform Documents" due before 5 PM EST, December 16.
Step 3. The ballot for voting, along with each candidate's Platform Documents are emailed to MBEs on December 16 evening.
Step 4. All completed ballots from MBEs are due back by 5:00 PM EST on December 20.
As you can see, the timing is VERY tight and your help and high level of participation is key to our success with this.
If you have any question, please email to me or to other members of GNEMSDC MBEIC Chair - Election Committee:
1. Arvin Chaudhary, Nadicent Technologies, Election Committee Chair (arvin.chaudhary@nadicent.com)
2. Carlton L. Oneal, Lightspeed, Election Committee Member (carltononeal@lightspeededu.com)
3. Ronald Williams, RCI, Election Committee Member (rwilliamsrci2@sbcglobal.net)
4. Jennifer Little-Greer , GNEMSDC, Election Committee Member / Observer (non voting) ( jlittle-greer@gnemsdc.org)
Here is an overview of the nomination, voting and election process as set forth by the National MBE Input Committee:
Who can run?
· Any certified MBE in our council or a certified reciprocal MBE in good standing with their home Council
· MBE must have a minimum of two (2) year as an "Active" member of the council/MBEIC that he/she is representing
Who can vote?
· Any certified MBE in good standing with the council can vote for the MBEIC Chair
· The elections process is open to all qualified MBEs
What's the process?
· An Elections Committee has formed
· Any Certified MBE can nominate him/herself.
· Any Certified MBE can nominate another MBE from the same council.
· Each candidate submits his/her platform (All candidates' platforms must be attached to their Nomination form).
· Voting ballots will be created and made available
· Election will take place, votes will be tallied and the winner will be announced.
Regards,
Arvin Chaudhary
Nadicent Technologies LLC
PLEASE EMAIL THE NOMINATIONS & PLATFORMS TO : ARVIN.CHAUDHARY@NADICENT.COM
If you are interested in a sample platform, please call the office and we would be happy to send you one.
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| GNEMSDC 2014 Upcoming Events | ||
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Growing to Scale Development Workshop
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The Growing to Scale Workshop is a program for small business owners to expand and improve their businesses exponentially. The workshop will deliver powerful strategies for increasing sales by joint ventures, strategic alliances; results based marketing and other proven strategies. The Growing to Scale Development Workshop is the blueprint to grow your business quickly and safely. Gain knowledge from a faculty that has actually grown successful businesses and can help you grow yours.
The Growing to Scale program will run for two and half days from Tuesday, February 18 through Thursday February 20. The program will take place at our MBE Training Room at 333 State Street in Bridgeport, CT. Please mark your calendars. Learn more here.
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Corporate Member of the Week
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MBE of the Week - CommVerge Marketing
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CommVerge Marketing concentrates on expanding your company's market visibility.
Whether you are broadening market reach, focusing on lead generation or sharpening your industry vision, we provide insight on the true business needs that motivate the adoption of your products and services. CommVerge Marketing provides the following services:
Their consulting and digital marketing services are delivered to get you to be "top of mind" with your customers, prospects and partners. Accomplishing this means having a consistent presence and valuable message that is woven throughout all of your marketing efforts.
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Upcoming Events
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There are several events coming up on our calendar that are designed specifically for MBEs to learn about corporate opportunities. We know how busy everyone's schedule is, but these are events often hosted by our corporate members with the expressed purpose of finding out more about you and your business with the ultimate aim, to make you a valuable supplier to their companies. Here are some events you should consider:
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Hosted Events
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Green Line Extension Team to Host Outreach Event
MassDOT/MBTA and White Skanska Kiewit, JV, are pleased to announce our first outreach event for the GLX Project. DBE's and Small Businesses are encouraged
to attend and this event will focus on the following topics:
The event is scheduled for: Wednesday, December 11, 2013
3:30 - 5:30 p.m. at the Massachusetts State Transportation Building
10 Park Plaza, Boston, MA 02116
2nd floor Conference Rooms 1 - 3
Interested subcontractors and vendors must register by emailing Mark Smith at WSKdbe@jfwhite.com.
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Invitation for Bid
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Opportunities
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Full benefits including medical/vision/dental/life and 401(k). Learn more here.
Send resume to mroy@haynes-group.com. For any questions, please contact this office.
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| FYI |
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| Small Business Innovation Research |
Small Business Innovation Research ( SBIR) is a highly competitive federal program that encourages small businesses to explore their technological potential. It provides the incentive to profit from its commercialization by funding qualified small businesses in the nation's R&D arena.
The permanent site, located on River Street in Bridgeport, is scheduled to open in late 2013. The Bridgeport factory has approximately 8,000 square feet and will be used for both Phase II research and the beginning of commercialization. Learn more here.
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And Finally...
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Every week is busy for everybody it seems. Last Thursday, we had a very productive board of directors meeting at the offices of SAI Systems of Shelton, CT. This was followed by a Quarterly meeting, featuring United Rentals, The Metropolitan District Commission and Pitney Bowes. An this was followed by the CT Holiday Business Card Exchange. Unfortunately, I had to miss the Quarterly and the CT-HBCE because of a commitment I made over a year ago to speak at the South Florida MSDC Symposium 2013. So after the board meeting I hurried down to Newark Airport to catch my 5 PM flight. I arrived at 3:00 PM and settled in - and settled in - and settled in. The flight was delayed, it was a bad weather day to begin with so it was not a total surprise that the flight was delayed. We waited and waited and waited. Finally at 10:45 PM the airline announced to over 200 very frustrated passengers that the flight was canceled and that the flight would leave at 8:00 AM on Friday. Well that did me no good since I was scheduled to speak in Florida at 9:00 AM. So I apologized to my host and returned home. The only good thing about my time at Newark Airport was that I got a lot of work done!
But I was so looking forward to speaking on a subject near and dear to my heart; influencing others. In this case, part of my speech to corporate members of the SFMSDC was going to be on how supplier diversity professionals can influence leaders and decision makers within their own organizations and with other large vendors and customers. As the readers of this column know, supplier diversity success requires not only committed and knowledgeable supplier diversity professionals, it requires that those supplier diversity professionals exercise influence over decision makers, whether they be buyers or C-level executives.
I was going to retell a story that is in one of my favorite books, and one that I think every MBE and aspiring leader should read, The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene. In one chapter on influencing people, Green states that you are more successful influencing others by your actions not your words. He tells the story of Michelangelo and the statue of David. Apparently, the original David was sculpted from a block of stone that had been discarded because a previous sculptor had damaged it beyond repair. One of the leaders in Florence at the time wanted to salvage the block of stone so he commissioned Michelangelo.
Michelangelo finished the work, but the Florentine leader insisted that David's nose was too large. So Michelangelo, instead of arguing with the leader and future benefactor, took some stone dust in one hand and his chisel in another, climbed the scaffold and started to move the chisel back and forth near the nose and let the stone dust drop from his hand. But Michelangelo was not chiseling the nose. He was only appearing to do so. After a couple of minutes of this in the presence of the leader-critic, Michelangelo announced -"much better". The leader-critic agreed that the nose was now perfect, even though nothing had been done physically to the nose or the statue.
Michelangelo knew that he would have never won an argument with the leader-critic-future benefactor. And even if he did, he would have lost a future supporter. So he convinced him with actions not words.
Now some are probably reading this and concluding, yes the leader-critic-benefactor was satisfied, but he was also deceived. But I would argue that the deception here was self-deception based on ego, and in this case art triumphed over ego.
Supplier diversity professionals are often reliant on the resources and decisions of others in order to successfully assist minority businesses. This lesson, that actions and not words, is a very important to remember and apply. Sometimes the action is a lost contract because the company did not have a robust response when it came to supplier diversity. Losing a multimillion dollar contract is a much more powerful action than anything a supplier diversity professional can say. Or, winning a contract because the company has a particularly strong supplier diversity solution is better than lecturing to internal decisions makers on why they should do something.
As a professional talker and writer, I know I am guilty of using words too often instead of actions, so this is a lesson I will need to apply more myself. I hope the action of including this note in the newsletter is more powerful than my expression of how sorry I am that I could not be with my friends in South Florida this past Friday, or my GNEMSDC colleagues at the Quarterly Meeting and HBCE in Connecticut. I was at Newark Airport.
In your service
Dr. Fred
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