Manny Hernandez SHPE President 2009/2011

This year’s SHPE elections are a fork in the road for the future of SHPE.  There is no doubt that SHPE has come a long way the past six years.  Our professional membership has grown from approximately 800 to nearly 1,800 currently, we have almost 10,000 total members, and we have the largest group of corporate sponsors ever at 55 companies.  This is the result of the efforts of many dedicated and committed people.

Our student leaders, our professional leaders, and our staff make the difference yet, a lot remains to be done.  Who will set the agenda and direction for our progress?

As in any organization, business or government, this is the responsibility of the President, so this means that YOU, with your vote will decide the future of SHPE. There are 3 candidates, with 3 different platforms but I believe I am the only one with the vision, the energy, and the experience to keep the momentum going and move SHPE forward.

Please vote, and when you do, vote for Manny Hernandez. Together, we will build the Future of SHPE.

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By Manny  Hernandez

Why does SHPE’s new management structure matter to the chapters?  Why do I feel that our new management structure is important to SHPE’s future?

There are four important elements in governing and operating a Membership Organization, or any business for that matter: Strategy, Policy, Management, and Operations. The reality is that today the National Board of Directors (NBOD) spends most of it’s time on management and operations. All changes, big and small, require discussion and approval by the NBOD.

This is a slow process given that we are elected volunteers with limited free time and we only meet 6 or 7 times a year. What this means is that even small improvements requiring investment or changes in operational priorities take a long time to approve and implement.

So how does this affect the chapters? Let me describe one example: We have very talented members, and they have great ideas which they try to implement at the local level, and sometimes they need national support. This support is usually slow in coming by today’s standards.

That is one serious problem, but it does not end there.

These great ideas would benefit the other chapters as well, yet to transfer these great ideas and programs to the rest of SHPE would again require the intervention of the NBOD. A rapid change process requires the right strategy and policies that protect our mission and the nature of the organization but yet frees up our chapters and staff  to act on behalf of our members and our community.

To accomplish this, the National Board of Directors needs to spend it’s limited and therefore precious time defining strategies and setting these policies, and  delegate the management and operations to a skilled and experienced professional staff.

We are a great organization but we have the potential to be a National Force for the betterment of the Hispanic community. I believe that under this new structure SHPE can become a 100,000 plus members organization with 10 times the operating budget within the next 10 years. One can only imagine the benefits this could bring to our members and our community. This will mean that more of our children will become engineers and scientists and more Latinos will occupy the corner office, which then, will use their position to further SHPE’s mission, the Hispanic cause, and as President Obama recently stated, drive America’s future.

We began the journey towards this governance structure three years ago. We all believed we were on the right path and we started the transition, but we are not done yet, it will take the right leader to keep us on course and complete the transformation.  Someonewho does not understand this will end up hurting the organization, our community, and our country.

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I am exceedingly encouraged by the news that the 2009 SHPE Executive Leadership Institute (ELI) passed a major hurdle this past Friday when 20 SHPE Members holding advanced management positions were selected to attend.

I was concerned that with the current economic environment, where professional development funds are being cut and similar programs offered by sister organizations are being canceled, that the program would not attract enough interest within the short deadline we established.

Having more than enough qualified applicants sign up in record time shows that SHPE has done a greatjob in designing a program that meets the needs of future executives. We have hit the mark again!

Even better news, we can still accommodate 10 more members. If you have the courage to aspire to some day occupy the corner office, and you meet the criteria for ELI, I encourage you to apply. And please also pass the word that this fine program is still accepting applications.

To find out more about ELI go to the SHPE website, at SHPE.org and click on the Events tab and then on ELI.

Manny Hernandez

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By Rosemary Maguire

I have known Manny since 1984, with the good fortune to meet him while organizing a career fair for the Hispanic Engineering Organization at UNM. He was always very passionate about helping Latino engineering students get excellent job opportunities and continued to support them as they learned and grew into working professionals.  Of the many recruiting individuals I have met over the years, Manny consistently persevered in his quest to present excellent opportunities to the Latino student community and he remains steady in his perseverance today.

Much has taken place over the years, technologically speaking, and today Manny has raised the bar to new levels of achievement and aspirations to continue on his quest to further assist professionals and students alike to reach leadership levels within their companies and careers.  A veteran National Board Member (NBOD), Manny is very involved in plans to take SHPE to increased levels of excellence by providing tools to propel members to higher levels through the use of current technology.

Manny has always been an easy person to approach and speak with.  He has always entertained others ideas and continues to have a very open door policy in his current roles.  He realizes the importance of two minds being better than one and welcomes the opportunity to have dialogue and share ideas with other SHPE members.  I look forward to seeing the progress that SHPE will benefit from because of this passionate individual and his quest to provide excellent tools so that members can more easily network and grow.

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By Leonard Abeyta

Manny Hernandez for President

I was elated when Manny told me he was running for President!  This is a very natural step for someone that has been a key leader over the last 20 years in the organization and has been the innovator and driver for many of SHPE most successful programs.  As a lifetime member of SHPE and a fellow National Board of Director I have seen his commitment and dedication first hand.  This started when I first met Manny as an undergraduate student at the University of New Mexico and over the years working with him and the rest of the board on numerous projects.

Many of our most successful programs can be attributed to his leadership.

·         Championed the creation of the Industrial Partnership Council (IPC) – This is one of the most important programs for SHPE today as it funds many of the programs for SHPE.

·         Created and implemented the SHPE Executive Director role –this was the organizational lead outside of the National Board of Directors until the creation of the CEO role a few years ago.

·         SHPE Professional Development Series

·         SHPE National Conference

• Manny has chaired or co-chaired the last 6 of the last 16 National SHPE conferences, and actively championed the rest.  If you have attended one of the events in the last 10 years you know these events have been top notch.
• Manny chaired the committee that proposed moving the national conference out of Los Angeles in 1991, a very important and difficult task.
• As in 1991, when a mature leader was required for a difficult task, Manny again rose to the occasion again to spearhead moving the conference from the winter to the fall, facing strong opposition, and it was a resounding success resulting in unprecedented growth.
• Oversaw a special project that became the framework for strategic planning of the conference in terms of site selection, vendor selection and programs.

·         Launched the SHPE Magazine – drove the efforts to change the format from a newsletter to a magazine to put us on the same level as other minority organizations and serve as a new source for revenue.

I can spend hours talking about all the great things that Manny has done for the organization but there is more to him than just accomplishments.  We all go thru life changes and some of us drop out of SHPE…NOT Manny Hernandez…. He has truly made SHPE a part of his life and consistently served in key roles.  His dedication and willingness to take SHPE in new directions when others may not have is a testament to his leadership.  I invite you to join me in supporting Manny Hernandez for President.

Manny is the only one who can do the job.

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