Washington Post, 2/22/09 (John Eckenrode)

A Year After 'Tech Tax' Scare, Maryland Firms Follow Up With Lawmakers. A year ago, Maryland technology companies were holding rallies and pushing a last-minute lobbying campaign at the State House as they tried to persuade legislators not to impose a new tax on the industry. House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel), has told tech executives not to worry about another tax, said John Eckenrode, president of the Maryland Computer Services Association. "But anything's possible and it can happen very quickly in this environment," he said, referring to the ongoing economic downturn. "Next year is an election year, so it should be okay, but 2011 could be another story."

NOTE: John Eckenrode is on the BDPA Foundation board of directors.
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Computerworld, 2/16/2009 (Earl Pace)

BDPA's Earl Pace Talks About Racism in the IT Workplace. Early in his career, when he was working as a programming manager at a financial services firm, Earl A. Pace Jr. went to a computer conference in Arizona where there were 200 attendees -- 199 white people and him. Well aware of the opportunities in the exploding industry, he decided that ratio needed to change. That decision led to the founding, in 1975, of Black Data Processing Associates (BDPA), a national organization that now has more than 50 chapters and aims to provide what it calls "a pathway from the classroom to the boardroom."

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City of Kansas City, 2/12/2009 (Phillip Vann)

Black Family Technology Awareness Week (BFTAW) in Kansas City MO

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Petersburg People's News, 2/12/2009 (BDPA Richmond)

High School Computer Training and Competition. The Richmond VA chapter of the Black Data Processing Associates (BDPA) is pleased to announce the start of its Annual High School Computer Competition (HSCC) Program. The goal of this exciting training and competition is to increase youth interest in information technology.

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Black Star News, 2/7/2009 (BDPA New York)

Black Family Technology Awareness Week (February 16-21, 2009). In our ongoing tribute to Black History Month, we pay homage to Black Data Processing Associates (BDPA) who have created a conduit through which Black History meets Black progress via technology. As part of their Black Family Technology Awareness Week (BFTAW) 2009 program, the New York Chapter of BDPA is offering a series of family and business events, coming up in various locations throughout New York City. BFTAW is a collaborative public awareness campaign between the BDPA, the Community Network of SBC and the W.E.B. DuBois Learning Center, focusing on closing the digital divide by helping bridge the gap between Black families and technology by encouraging more African Americans to incorporate technology into their businesses and daily lives.

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CollectiveX Champions, 2/5/2009 (Perry Carter)

Harvesting and Sharing Data at BDPA. BDPA is a national organization. Introduced by their Northern Virginia Chapter, the CollectiveX service is now used by other chapters as well as BDPA Chapter Presidents. Chapter committees wanted to be successful with a user-friendly collaborative solution -- and, were required to tie it in directly to a top business objective. (For instance, BDPA's Washington, D.C. Chapter's goal was to publish a monthly newsletter while concurrently leveraging "ezine," or "electronic magazine" formats).

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