FAREWELL
NOTE FROM THE PRESIDENT
By Hoshi Printer, Immediate Past-President, Software Council
It is customary
for the outgoing President of an organization to trumpet the accomplishments
of the past year.
My perspective is a little different. It is more humility than
ego that propels me to share our triumphs and thank the people
that have participated in our achievements.
First, I want to thank each of our members and sponsors for your
continued support that is so vital to the success of the organization.
Thank you for helping us achieve our mission of making the region's
software and information technology companies more successful.
Behind the scenes, I want to thank the Executive Committee for
their hard work this past year, and it has been a pleasure serving
with you. I also want to thank our dedicated volunteers and our
board members for their valuable participation and active engagement
in keeping us on track. And we are all forever grateful to Catrina
Gruver, for her indefatigable energy and dedication to the success
of this organization.
One of the defining accomplishments of the year was our reorganization
to improve the financial stability of the Software Council and
better serve our membership. Soliciting the consulting services
of Sue Taylor, our 2003 Chair, we gathered input from our constituents,
and then refined our business plan to more effectively meet the
needs of our software and technology community. As part of that
plan, we have introduced a new fee structure for 2005 that rewards
our members with an even better value and promotes our growth
by attracting new members.
We also want to celebrate the success of our two signature events:
- Mark Goldston
of United OnLine was the featured speaker at our 10th Annual
Software Industry Awards in February. During this sold-out,
black-tie event, we were pleased to present our first Lifetime
Achievement Award to David Hanna.
- Our annual
fall VentureNet® technology capital conference held in Newport
Beach was a tremendous success with over 365 attendees and over
80 investors. Presented in our newly streamlined one-day conference
format, it showcased nine outstanding Southern California companies
seeking growth capital.
This year
we implemented three very important initiatives:
- A public
relations effort launched in early 2004 significantly enhanced
our media visibility both in print and television. For this
I have to thank our sponsors, Rose Maciejewski and her team
at Ruder-Finn and Rick Sharga of CJ Patrick Company. They help
us keep our name in lights and find opportunities for us to
be a voice on the issues facing the Southern California software
community.
- In March
2004, we re-launched SCribe as a bi-monthly newsletter focused
on providing valuable information for the executives of software
and information technology companies. Edited by Sue Taylor,
this new and improved resource is available to members and non-members
with distribution soaring to over 5,000 contacts.
The Executive
Committee appointed a technology task force to identify how we
can better use technology to manage our operations and provide
better services and resources to our membership. My thanks to
Sue Taylor, Tony Karrer, and Jon Kraft who have diligently pursued
this assignment and made their recommendations. The Executive
Committee is currently evaluating the proposal.
Please join me in extending a warm welcome and our best wishes
to Gavin Galimi, Chad Olson, and Ron Peeters, joining the board
on January 1st; and to the 2005 Executive Committee members-Richard
Koffler, Anne-Marie Vitale and Richard (Dick) Hansen.
I wish you all the very best for 2005.
