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Annual Dues
General membership deadline is March 1st.
* Renew Here
*Note: 1st year or returning member who join after above deadline, contact the PATCA office at admin@patca.org for your dues deadline.
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| PATCA Welcomes New Members! We would like to welcome our newest members.
Christopher Edington, Affiliate
Chris is a project manager with experience in managing projects for big data analysis, software development and product development. Adept at managing multiple projects, he has overseen staff and budgets from $400K to $11M. He holds a current and active TS/SCI security clearance and a CI polygraph.
James A. Gavney Jr, PhD, IGI and JAG Patent Services, Affiliate
James specializes in patent law. He has worked for clients in the fields of Computer Architecture, Communications, Web-enabled Interfaces and Systems, Semiconductor Processing and Devices, Sensor Technology, Material Science, Chemistry, Life-Sciences and Lighting Technologies. He provides technical support in litigation proceedings, performs prior art searches and researches technologies to develop comprehensive patent portfolios.
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| PATCA Lead Generation Pilot Project
Currently PATCA members receive new leads based on submissions to our, "Post-A-Project." page on the PATCA website, whenever they are submitted. Under the current dispensation, PATCA members scan these leads and if the request falls within the scope of their service offering, our members then decide whether to follow up on these leads or not.
With a desire to further enhance our lead generation service to our members, the PATCA board is launching a pilot project to generate high quality leads that are consultant specific. This Pilot Project will allow our members to share with us their ideal client/engagement profile. Based on this custom profile and some outbound calling, we will generate custom leads for our members.
We will start by working with a few PATCA members who are interested in this service. Under this program, we will generate qualified leads for PATCA member consultants free of charge. If you are interested in receiving free leads for your consulting practice, please send an email to Larry Polyak at
lpolyak@msdus.com with the subject "PATCA Lead Gen Pilot Project" indicating your interest. Once we receive your email we will send you an link to a brief online survey to learn about the leads/clients/projects you are seeking. We will review responses and depending on the completeness of the information will either proceed to generate leads or reach out to you if we need additional information.
While the quality of the leads generated is hard to predict at this point, our intention is to generate high quality leads.
Please respond if you are interested in availing of this free service.
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| Using a Free email Provider for Your Consulting Practice
Someone recently mentioned to me that he thought the use of a gmail email account for his business was perfectly acceptable, and even preferable. This got me thinking.. was this true?
In order to become a PATCA Certified Professional Consultant, one of the (optional) criteria is to "Maintain a business specific email address." Although this could be accomplished with something like smithandassociates@gmail.com, the intent was to have a business specific domain name. In the past, people could recognize an "amateur on line" by the use of an aol, hotmail, or yahoo email address. But has the business climate changed such that this is no longer valid? I don't think so.
1) It hurts your credibility as a legitimate business,and
2) It weakens your brand.
Anyone can get a free email address and start to call himself or herself a consultant, but having an email tied to your business shows another level of commitment and professionalism. The brand recognition that your own domain promotes
should be self-evident, but too many consultants who are experts in their field are NOT marketing experts and don't realize this fact.
PATCA members have another option - and it is free with membership! Just ask the webmaster for an email address like "
yourname@patca.org" and it will look infinitely more professional that something like mybiz@hotmail.com.
By: Larry Polyak
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Upcoming PATCA Events
Tuesday, May 26, 2015, 12:00 - 1:30 pm
Coco's Bakery & Restaurant, 1206 Oakmead Parkway, Sunnyvale
To register for events or get more information, visit our
website or
Meetup page.
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Upcoming Local Events - Networking, Mixers, Expos
Peninsula Chamber Mixers (Los Altos, Mountain View, Palo Alto) Los Altos Chamber of Commerce
Wednesday, May 27, 2015, 5:30 pm, Mixer
Wednesday, June 24, 2015, 5:30 pm, Mixer
400 Main St., Los Altos, CA 94022
Every Thursday 8:15am - 9:15am Business ConneXions
Chamber Leads groups meet weekly to exchange leads and referrals, and to build their network of business connections. Only one person from a particular type of business is allowed in each group. For more information, contact at 650-968-8378 or mannie@chambermv.org
San Francisco Events
Thursday, May 21, 2015, 6:00 pm, Registration Fees
Manor West, 750 Harrison St, San Francisco, CA 94107
Friday, May 22, 2015, 9:00 am, Complimentary
City College of SF, Chinatown Campus, 808 Kearny St., San Francisco, CA 94108
Wednesday, June 24, 2015, 6:00 pm, Registration Fees
The Drake, 508 4th St San Francisco CA 94107
Thursday, September 17, 2015, 9:30 am-5 pm, Free Admittance
Fort Mason, 2 Marina Blvd, San Francisco, CA 94123
South Bay Chamber Mixers (San Jose, Campbell, Santa Clara)
Wednesday, May 6, 2015, 6:00 pm, Mixer
San Jose Giants, 588 E. Alma Ave., San Jose, CA 95151
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Share Your Ideas
PATCA's Marketing team and Board of Directors invite you to share your ideas about:
- Speakers or topics for PATCA's monthly meetings and educational events
- Newsletter topics, including links to Internet sites or topics of interest to consultants and clients
- Articles for the newsletter, such as:
- Tips for success based on your area of expertise
- Learning points from a consulting or business book that you read recently
- How you've used ideas from a PATCA speaker to help grow your business
- Suggested topics for PATCA's blog
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PATCA
is Silicon Valley's longest operating non-profit professional association dedicated to serving independent consultants and the client companies that use them. We set the quality standard for the consulting industry by requiring that all members pass a rigorous qualification process and adhere to a strict code of ethics. PATCA offers a free referral service giving clients direct access to a network of the highest caliber management and technical consultants in the Bay Area. We represent a wide variety of expertise in a broad array of disciplines, from biotech to marketing, HR to engineering, hardware design to cloud computing.
Voice Mail: 1-800-74-PATCA (1-800-747-2822) Local: 408-971-5902
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© 2015 PATCA. All Rights Reserved.
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