In the Spring of 2002 several black professionals within the information technology industry came together as an interest group to brainstorm on starting a local chapter. There is currently no other organization within the state of Rhode Island that offers information sharing, education, networking opportunities and support primarily to the African American technology professional community. We recognized that starting this chapter would be challenging taking into account that BDPA is a member-focused organization. Mobilizing prospective members and having them see the need and the individual benefits that can be derived is not always an easy thing to do. However, we felt that our strength and determination would help us to achieve our goal.

Our Strategy
We began the search for Chapter support by targeting technology based individuals and companies in Rhode Island that we felt would serve as the basis for our stakeholder group. We are grateful to Bank of America who is presently our corporate supporter. Bank of America has provided, among other things financial and staff support to the organization. As a new and growing organization we are in need of a wide variety of resources. These include corporate and financial support. We are also looking for volunteers within the corporate industry to serve as advisors to the organization. Hopefully this article will help to generate interest and support from other companies who we hope will follow the path that Bank of America has taken.

Sponsorship
Sponsoring or supporting the Rhode Island BDPA offers many benefits. Companies should keep in mind that the organization offers a pool of human resource talent. Partnering with the Rhode Island BDPA allows sponsoring companies to meet their corporate diversity initiative by recruiting diverse talents and supporting programs in diverse communities. As a corporate supporter or sponsor, companies will be associated with many communities and philanthropic endeavors that the organization will conduct.
Our efforts were a remarkable success. August 6,2002 at the National BDPA 24th annual conference which convened in Orlando, Florida the Rhode Chapter with its seventeen members received the required votes to become a chartered chapter. For us this beginning was a giant step in moving the mission of the organization forward.

Services
We will provide professional development, support and careers opportunities for our entire member base. By establishing partnerships with existing Community Based organizations we will provide basic computer training to the African American community. We are in the process of reaching out to high schools in our state in order to recruit students who have an interest in Computer Science. We will provide intensive technical training and support to these students. The program once implemented will prepare students for the field of information technology. As an added bonus they will compete at the 25th annual BDPA conference to be convened in Philadelphia in 2003.