Happy New Year BDPA!

With profound gratitude, I am pleased to serve my second year as the president of this great association, along with other outstanding individuals on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee—Dr. Craig Brown (National Vice President) , Loraine Stewart-David (Vice President of Finance), Earl Pace (Founder) , Regional Vice Presidents and Director: Teresa Williams, Fred Smith, Eric Dortch and Coram Rimes; Pamela Sexton (Vice President of Strategy), Glenda Chappell (Secretary), Milt Haynes (CIO), and Outside Directors; William Flowers and Jessie Matthews. I would like to thank this dedicated core of volunteers and express my appreciation to you for once again serving this organization.

To our members, I am deeply appreciative of your continued support of BDPA. I personally am grateful to you for the honor you have bestowed on me and my fellow colleagues on the Board of Directors. We look forward to working with you in 2013.

As I sit back and think about the task before us, I am grateful for the trust bestowed while mindful of the sacrifices our founders, past presidents and long-time volunteers who have tirelessly worked to support this organization. I would also like to thank our corporate partners who respond to the call of duty by making sure this organization continues to exist.

The vision of BDPA, as set forth in our by-laws, can only be realized when we stand up to serve in whatever capacity – as committee members, speakers, volunteers, and so on. BDPA needs us. But, more importantly, our community – the one that we serve – needs us. To that end the vision is clear for this 2013; we will:

1. Expand our membership base, including reaching out to college students and building relationships with college administrations;

2. Collaborate with other organizations and associations to further our organizations mission and goals;

3. Engage our members with regular communication via social networks, BDPA Today and BDPA iRadio;

4. Listen to and involve our members by holding periodic national conference call meetings; and

5. Advance professional development by offering cutting edge seminars and panels during the annual conference.

I am certainly aware that because these are challenging times and our schedules are ever increasing that we may not achieve everything we set out to achieve this next year, but fellow colleagues – I am hopeful that we are poised for great things. In the spirit of service, I implore you to choose to serve BDPA and your local community who desperately need us. I humbly ask you to join us as we endeavor to take BDPA to the next level of distinction over the next twelve months. As our President Barak Obama once said, "The challenges we face will not be solve with one meeting in one night. Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are that change that we seek.”

I wish all of you the very best in 2013 and look forward to working to be the change that we seek.