posted on Friday, February 09, 2007 8:24 PM
by
Alberto Fonseca
My SHPE Election Decision ‘07
I am writing today to answer some frequently asked questions, clear the air so to speak, about my plans for this upcoming SHPE Board electoral race. Some of you have come up to me and asked what I plan on doing next year, am I running for the SHPE President position, etc. and it’s my hope to answer these questions with some insight regarding the thought process that went into my decision. Hopefully this will allow those of you who are looking to run for the board some time to think about what you want to do and map out a strategy for yourselves.
To get right to the point, I will not be running for SHPE office next year. I’ve thought about this long and hard even before the semester started. I was undecided for a while, having various goals and plans competing for my attention. It wasn’t until I really did some soul searching that I finally found the answers I was looking for.
First, I do want to say that I am confident in my qualifications should I have chosen to run for the position. Not only have I been President of a SHPE chapter before transferring to USC, these past two years as a board member of SHPE-USC both as Webmaster and as Vice President have allowed me to develop myself as a leader and learn so much about myself. It’s an experience I will always remember and highly recommend to anyone looking to grow and develop. Not running was a tough decision because I’ve developed great relationships with the board and will truly miss working with such a dedicated and talented group of friends.
My main reason for not running is that I am finally coming upon my last year at USC and have decided to focus my energies on two things, academics and starting my own business before I graduate. As you can imagine, building a business can be a full time job in itself and I really want to dedicate what time I have left towards this goal. I want to take advantage of the resources and connections while at USC to make this dream come true. This is something I am passionate about and a new area for me to explore where I can apply the leadership, engineering, and business skills I’ve gained thus far.
Now, I don’t want this to sound like I’m going anywhere because I’ll still be involved with SHPE as an active member, attending meetings, going to the SHPE Conference, and other events next year’s board puts on. Having worked with the board I have a lot of confidence in whoever decides to run for president and lead the organization.
I do want to give out a few bits of advice that may be helpful for the board next year. First, I want to use this space to express my opinions about leadership and what being SHPE President means to me. I strongly believe that anyone who makes the commitment to the organization and its members can do a great job as President. I’ve learned it isn’t so much experience or any one factor but more a selfless desire to drive the organization to greatness, to instill the SHPE vision in everyone they come across, and to set high expectations that the rest of the board and membership can rise to meet. This individual should be accountable to the board, the members, to the University, and to SHPE National. It is a lot of responsibility but one that can be met by someone sufficiently motivated and dedicated to work hard and reach higher despite any conflicting obligations or setbacks.
One point I do want to make is my opinion that this person should be an individual, not a group. What this means is I don’t believe in co-presidents or shared presidential responsibilities. If someone is going to run for this position they need to step up and stand tall alone, be accountable, and be a leader that is the face of the organization. I’d urge you to resist running with anyone else for this position, and I’d urge members to resist the voting for any such group. In my opinion this would lead to shirking of responsibilities as not one person would be held accountable, weak leadership if the communication between the two is not perfect (which his near impossible), and less motivation to excel since any rewards would be shared amongst the two. So the bottom line is, if you’re thinking of running, have the courage to stand alone and earn the admiration and respect of your peers. Good luck and Fight On!
