Chapter News

The San Francisco Chapter is back!  SF NABE relaunched, after a multi-year hiatus, with a February "State of the California Economy" event with speaker Howard Roth, the chief economist for the California Department of Finance. The well-attended meeting was the first of many to be held on the first Wednesday of each month at the new San Francisco Federal Building.  Amar Mann and Richard Holden, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, are the chapter's hosts in the Federal Building and both were instrumental in the relaunch of the chapter. In April, the San Francisco Chapter will host David Berson of PMI Mortgage Insurance Co., formerly of Fannie Mae, to speak on the state of the housing market.  The officers for the 2008 fiscal year are:  President Anne Ramstetter Wenzel, Econosystems; Vice President Shayna Olesiuk, FDIC; Secretary Michael Warner, Quantum4D, Inc., and interim Treasurer Amar Mann.
 

The Richmond Association for Business Economics, the Richmond, Va., chapter, has started a program to work with immigrant business owners in understanding how U.S businesses work, according to RABE President Richard B. “Rick” Chess.  My Lan Tran, the chapter’s former vice president for membership and now an adviser to the board, is the program manager of the Office of Minority Business Development for the City of Richmond.  She arranged for Chess to speak to the staff of workforce development agencies, which work with Hispanic and Asian employers and employees.  Once the service providers are comfortable with economics basics, the program will be expanded to the clients.

The first hour-long presentation on Feb. 5 to those who work in the Hispanic business community drew a standing room only crowd of 46.  RABE has been asked to return in 90 days to present a follow-up program.  A similar initial meeting with a group that works with the Asian business community is scheduled for Tuesday, March 18.

RABE acquired 501(c)(3) status in 2007 and is providing this service as part of the requirement to give back to the community, Chess said.  Local businesses have already expressed interest in sponsoring parts of this program.  Look for an update on this program later this year!

 
The DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth) Association for Business Economics is sponsoring a 2008 Economic Forecast competition to raise money for the Arthur A. Smith Memorial Award recognizing student excellence in economics. Participants forecast 20 items including: price of gold, price of oil, and value of the dollar. An average of the entries will be reported along with the winning entry in November.
Dr. Smith was a charter member of the Club in the early 1960s while he was chief economist of First National Bank of Dallas. In his memory, the Club established a student essay competition in which a number of North Texas universities with undergraduate economics, business or finance programs participate. The competition challenges local undergraduate students while providing an outlet to present their work to the esteemed members of the association. These early successes in a person’s young career provide an enormous sense of accomplishment and self worth.  For additional information please contact paulhedershot@dallaschamber.org.
DABE officers for 2008 are: President Jeanette Rice, vice president, market and investment research at Verde Realty; Vice President and Program Chair Jessica Heer, economic development manager at the Greater Dallas Chamber; Treasurer Fiona Sigalla, economist at the  Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas; and Secretary Paul Hendershot,  director of research at the Greater Dallas Chamber.