Leadership Conference

2010 Leadership Conference
The Difference Is You
Albuquerque, New Mexico
February 11-13, 2010

The 2010 AISES Leadership Conference, The Difference Is You, took place February 11-13, 2010 at the Hotel Albuquerque in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The conference was well attended by AISES college chapter officers and members, student representatives, chapter advisors, scholars, interns and event sponsors. AISES Council of Elder members Franklin and Mary Kahn, and Stan Lucero were in attendance as well.

The Conference kicked off on Thursday evening with welcomes from AISES Program Staff, AISES newest staff member, Dr. Maggie George, Program/Deputy Director and AISES Chief Executive Officer, Pamala Silas, AISES Board of Directors Chair, Anthony Kahn and AISES National Student Representatives, Harlan Greeley and Jenna Hall. Students participated in a “Getting to Know You Bingo” which was lead by the AISES Regional Student Representatives. Friday’s session content leaned toward personal leadership development. Session topics included the GRAD Lab Overview, presented by Dr. Marcus Huggans from the National GEM Consortium, and Dr. Carol Crouch, Natural Resources Conservation Service in Oklahoma, Public Speaking 101, by Dr. Robert Whitman, and Native American Entrepreneurship by David Melton. Mr. Melton, Principal of Sacred Power, a Native American owned small business, also shared his company’s initiatives in renewable energy. Students had an opportunity to view Sacred Power’s work with solar panels as they loaded busses and headed to the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center (IPCC). After a brief presentation of the solar panels by Mr. Melton, the students headed inside to tour the IPCC Museum.

Gregg Analla and Felipe Estudillo-Colon of IPCC served as our tour guides. They led our two groups on museum exhibit tours entitled, “Saints of the Pueblos” and “Celebrating Native Legacies Works in Clay”. The exhibits offered the students insight into the American Indian cultures of New Mexico. Although the day was packed full of activity, many students tried their luck at Bingo on Friday evening!

Saturday’s agenda focused on chapter development. The morning started with Best Practices: Recruitment and Retention presentation offered by the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology AISES Chapter, recipient of the AISES Stelvio J. Zanin Distinguished Chapter of the Year Award. Additional session topics included, Chapter Development, Event Planning, Fundraising, and Yoga. The day was packed full of information and resources that our chapters members will take back to their college and university chapters.

Olav Kjono, 2009 AISES Executive Excellence Award Recipient, served as our special guest and provided the keynote address during the Closing Banquet. Olav is a Program Manager for Lockheed Martin. His is from the Mohawk tribe in Kahnawake, Quebec, Canada. Olav’s address focused on finding and realizing his personal vision, the journey and perspectives he gained along the way. His journey included service in the U.S. Marine Corps, and was selected to the Marine Enlisted Commissioning & Education Program. He later served in the U.S. Navy and after his submarine tour entered the Naval Postgraduate School, where he earned a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering with an emphasis in Signal Processing. Last summer, Olav earned a second Masters Degree in Systems Engineering from George Washington University, and shortly thereafter, completed Lockheed’s Executive Development program. His next journey is his pursuit of his Ph.D. in Systems Engineering at the George Washington University.

Olav shared three obstacles he encountered while pursuing his personal vision. He shared his perspective of these obstacles and how he viewed and overcame each one. His remarkable journey enthused our student participants as they are also on the journey of their personal vision. You can read Olav’s speech on the AISES website at http://www.aises.org/Programs/Resources.

As the Closing Ceremony came to an end, the students lingered in the banquet hall gathering contact information, taking photographs, and saying farewell to their AISES family members they came to know over the three day event.

AISES would like to extend its sincere thanks to the following organizations for their sponsorships.

Excellence Sponsors:
3M Corporation
Central Intelligence Agency
Goldman Sachs
IBM
Lockheed Martin
U.S. Navy

Success Sponsor:
American Chemical Society
Cargill, Inc.
Chevron
Natural Resources Conservation Service

Other Sponsors
Booz Allen Hamilton (Program Sponsor)
General Electric
Sacred Power

Donation of Prizes:
Cargill, Inc.
Lockheed Martin

Thank you to the following individuals for their presentations:

Grad Lab Overview, Marcus Huggans, Ph.D. – National GEM Consortium and Carol Crouch, Ph.D. – Natural Resources Conservation Service in Oklahoma
GEM has created "GRAD Lab", Getting Ready for Advanced Degree Lab, a comprehensive, hands-on symposium designed to excite and encourage promising under-graduate and community college engineering and science students to consider master ‘s and PhD technical research programs.

Public Speaking 101, Robert Whitman, Ph.D.
In this short workshop, we reviewed some good practices for developing and honing your skills. By the conclusion of the workshop, participants acquired tools and ideas they can start applying toward improving their oral presentation skills.
Sacred Power’s Initiatives and Native American Entrepreneurship, David Melton
Sacred Power Corporation (Sacred Power), located in Albuquerque, NM, is a Native American owned and operated small business with a charter to provide renewable and distributive energy and telecommunications solutions. Its core partners have over 40 years of renewable and distributive energy experience in all facets of the technologies.

Best Practices: Recruitment and Retention, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology AISES Chapter
Appealing to perspective members can be difficult. The SDSM&T AISES chapter provided tips and tricks to help chapters recruit and retain members to make the chapter stronger. This workshop explored methods of marketing chapters, providing activities to keep members coming back, and using the chapter to address the AISES Mission. Methods of appealing to the local community were also explored.

Chapter Development, Tony Kahn, Chair of AISES Board of Directors
As a former AISES college chapter member and now as a professional chapter member; Tony is a great role model for our college chapter members. He covered what it takes to have a successful AISES Chapter. Some of the topics covered include: delegating responsibility, time management, running an effective meeting and chapter officer roles.

Event Planning, Heather Wade, AISES
Planning your next event is just around the corner. Whether it is a regional conference or graduation reception, knowing the steps to plan a successful event is a great skill to have. During this session participants had the opportunity to produce an event plan, step by step.

Fundraising, LaChelle Drayton, Cargill, Inc.
Cargill, Inc. presented on fundraising best practices. The session touched base on the following: creating a plan, understanding your membership, identifying different funding sources and fundraising toolkit.

Leadership Conference Awards
AISES would like to congratulate the recipients of the 2010 Leadership Conference Awards. The awardees are selected by the Conference participants.

Rising Leader Award (formerly “Teaching Award’)
Taija Revels-Garlock, Tlingit, Portland State University

Most Outgoing Award (formerly “Friendship Award”)
Becky Campbell, Blackfoot, University of California Los Angeles and
Ty Boyd, Cherokee, Purdue University

Leadership Award:
Adam Dell, Oglala Lakota, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology