NSBE - March/April 2009 - 35

NSBE Annual National Convention Las Vegas, Nev. March 25–29, 2009 Energizing Creativity to Achieve Exponential Growth Welcome from the National Chair NSBE Family, elcome to Las Vegas and Annual National Convention #35! This will be my final column as the 2008–2009 national chair for the National Society of Black Engineers. And if I were to keep with tradition, my message here would mostly be a recap of the program year, including highlights of our great accomplishments. But, in this instance — this “Uncommon Time,” as Dr. Calvin Mackie says elsewhere in this magazine — I want to focus on the road that lies ahead for NSBE and the journey that awaits us all. For NSBE, this year’s journey began on May 1, 2008, when your National Executive Board officially took office. We could not have imagined the nature and size of the challenges we soon would face. Our goals then, as now, were to increase NSBE’s positive impact through our programs. We looked forward to meeting our most critical challenge to mission fulfillment at its source, by reaching deeper into the K–12 pipeline with an expanded Summer Engineering Experience for Kids (SEEK) Camp. We moved boldly toward realization of NSBE’s international potential by pushing for more chapters outside of the U.S. and by picking up the pace of planning for our first International Convention in Toronto in 2010. Focused on building upon NSBE’s past achievements as we were, we could never have predicted that by the end of the year, we would find ourselves navigating the Society through the first shockwaves of our country’s worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. We learned a lot. We learned that as an international organization, our relevance will not be determined by the number of chapters we have beyond U.S. borders but by the quality of service provided to those chapters, as well as by the support of a global network of technical talent. We learned that although times are tough, students are still attracted to NSBE, not for what they can get from the organization but because of the opportunities NSBE offers to “give back.” For proof of that, we need only look at the thousands in attendance at this convention. Still, our greatest tasks and greatest lessons lie ahead. NSBE prides itself on the intensity of its leadership. But we witnessed a redefinition of that word on Nov. 4, 2008, when the American people chose an historic “change.” For NSBE, as for the rest of Black America, having Barack Obama in the White House means greater opportunity for “Exponential Growth” but also greater demands to energize our creativity to reach the new, higher standards of achievement. This moment in history is a call to action for all of us. After 34 years on the road toward greatness, we must now work like never before to reach the goals NSBE has in its sights. Stevenson A. Dunn Jr. NSBE National Chair www.nsbe.org • march/april 2009 • 35 • march/april 2009 W stevenson A. dunn Jr.

NSBE - March/April 2009

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