Explora Science Center and Childrens' Museum on NBC Today Show
Al Roker, NBC Today Show weatherman, and Today Show travel correspondent Peter Greenberg opened their segment, "Night at the Museum" (video link) on January 29, 2007, with a story describing the children's sleep-over camp at the Explora Science Center of Albuquerque. The sleep-over program emerses the young campers in the 250 interactive exhibits, including a robotics lab.Explora, a NMITSA partner, has been a phenomenal success in igniting human curiosity about the sciences – from the infant to the elderly – and is receiving top accolades among its peer science centers internationally for its interactive design and functionality.
Explora serves the entire state of New Mexico with traveling educational programs, reaching hundreds of thousands of school children. Explora has surpassed 700,000 visitors at the main Explora facility at 1701 Mountain Road NW in Albuquerque since opening in December 2003, now the most widely attended museum in New Mexico.
Randy Burge, NMITSA president, has served on the Explora Science Center board of directors since 2003.
For more information about how you or your company can support Explora's critical science education mission, contact:
Betsy Smith, Explora Development Director/External Relations, 505-224-8364
Adelante develops new four-legged "software" showcased on NBC Today Show
NMITSA member Adelante Development Center, is a non-profit social services organization in central New Mexico serving people with disabilities through employment, physical therapy, training, assisted living, assistive technologies, and other beneficial activities.In addition to Adelante's Assistive Technology/TechWorks program, Adelante recently partnered with the Assistance Dogs of the West (ADW) program in Santa Fe to train four-legged "software" in the form of Golden Labrador dogs to guide people with disabilities and help them live independently.
The magic of the Adelante Working Dogs program, in addition to the phenomenal works of ADW, is that the dog trainers themselves are disabled – the first such program in the world.
On December 27, 2006, the Working Dogs program was featured on the NBC Today Show's Real Heroes segment (link to video). The video clip is very impactful. As evidenced in the news segment, these special trainers are enabled far beyond their disabilities, in fact, they empower many others in function and spirit.
Melissa Winkle, an occupational therapist with Adelante, and Jill Felice, executive director of Assistance Dogs of the West, are the visionary leaders who developed the idea and implemented it through Adelante's entrepreneurial programming and the guidance of ADW's many year's of experience.
Congratulations on your great successes Melissa and Jill! Many people benefit, including all of us who share in the story.
For more information about the program contact:
Melissa Winkle
Adelante Development Center
3900 Osuna Road, NE
Albuquerque, NM
5405-341-2000
Jill Felice, Executive Director
Assistance Dogs of the West (link to ADW program video)
P. O. Box 31027
Santa Fe, NM 87594
505-986-9748
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Adelante was a 2005 award winner at the NMITSA Information Technology Excellence Awards for its impressive IT systems integration project in its new facilities at 3900 Osuna Road, NE, Albuquerque.
Jim Bullard, Adelante's director of information technology, is active in the NMITSA CIOnet executive peer group, and he often hosts the CIOnet meetings at Adelante headquarters. Jim can be reached at jbullard at goadelante.org
Randy Burge, NMITSA president, has served on the board of the Adelante Development Center since 2000.
ITAA President announces strategic partnership with CRITA and NMITSA
Phil Bond, CEO of the Information Technology Association of America, outlined ITAA's dynamic new partnership with the Council of Regional Information Technology Associations (CRITA) with CRITA executives meeting in New Orleans today. Phil is also the CEO of the World Information Technology and Services Association (WITSA).The new partnership with ITAA extends the grassroots connections of CRITA's collective regional memberships to ITAA's national corporate and governmental resources and globally via WITSA. NMITSA members are automatically included in this network via NMITSA's membership in CRITA.
NMITSA is a founding member of CRITA's board of directors and connects NMITSA members into this global network.
CRITA considers new national roles
Council of Regional Information Technology Associations member association executives met this afternoon in New Orleans to consider the strategic international advantages coming out of CRITA's unique association of IT associations and technology councils.Establishing a national office, expanding collective member benefit and affinity programs, a national technology award program, and other ideas are being considered to fully leverage the strengths of the regional associations.
NMITSA is a member of CRITA – the largest technology trade association in the world with 20,000+ member companies (through the combined memberships of CRITA's 50+ member associations).
Don't miss the March luncheon with Ed Bott
We're very fortunate to have Ed Bott joining us for the March luncheon on the 22nd. Ed and I have known each other virtually for years and have gotten to be good friends in the past couple since he and his wife Judy moved to Santa Fe. He has been a major voice in the PC industry for many years and is incredibly knowledgeable about the new Windows Vista and Office 2007 releases from Microsoft.Plus he's a charming and very funny guy. I'm really pleased he's agreed to join us for the March meeting and hope to see a great turnout.
Ed maintains two blogs.
His ZDNet blog is:
Ed Bott's Microsoft Report
(http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott)
His personal blog is:
Ed Bott's Windows Expertise
http://www.edbott.com/weblog/
