SFBLC

Only 8 Days Left untill SFBLC!! How exciting!! We are going to have a lot of fun at UC Berkeley networking with all of CA PBL, meeting new people, and going to informative workshops! If you want more info contact us ASAP! Deadline to register is this Sunday (11/2/08)!! titans@csufpbl.org

Pay for Hotel and Transportation here:

$63.75 - CSUF 2 night Hotel + Transportation $42.75 - CSUF 2 nights Hotel Only $50.00 - UCI Transporation Only $42.75 - UCLA 2 night Hotel Only

SPARK Social!

Finally here are the pictures from our SPARK social on October 8th,2008!! We had a lot of fun planning and having this meeting! Thanks to all the officers that participated in everything from coming up with games ideas to cooking!! We accomplished a goal of SPARKing a Connection with Others!!

And our September MOM is…

Cheri Yuo!

Though a new member to the CSUF PBL family, she has already done more than what’s expected! She helped out at the PBL recruiting tables during Discoverfest and the first week of school. She was THE first member to turn in her application and she has participated in almost all of the recent PBL events. She has participated in eveything from Tech Rush to the new unofficial PBL activity, geocaching, and this is her 1st year at CSUF! For these reasons, Cheri indeed deserves to be our Member of the Month for September 2008!

Cheri says she was happy and surprised when she found out that she was the MOM! Her favorite PBL event so far has been Disney's Tech Rush. She said in her MOM interview, "I already liked Disney so it was cool to meet the employees and get a “Behind the Scenes” tour. For example, they showed how the employees actually draw animations for movies." She is looking forward to participating in the Fresh Start Program and going to the conferences!

Her plans for the future include majoring in Business Administration - Economics. She plans to graduate and continue to get her masters.

Some fun facts about Cheri:

• Her current favorite song is : "Young Love" by Chris Brown
  
• TV show she cant miss is: One Tree Hill
  
• She can't get sick of eating: Egg tart (an Asian pastry)
  
• Movie that she thinks you must see: The Pursuit of Happyness
  
• Her pet peeve: People who drive slowly

Her advice for members coveting the MOM title is that its better to be an active member, to go to the events and have fun!

Congratulations, Cheri! We're proud to have you as a member!

NTC October Challenge

NTC challenge of the month is Community Service! Our two community service events for this month are:

1. Fall Special Olympics - Saturday October 18,2008. 8am-12:30pm. We will be volunteering in the cycling event!
2. LDI South- Saturday October 25th, 2008. Volunteers are needed through out the day for this FBLA- high school event, but please sign up here: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pkEunLFG7gWUm4wo4jppUZg&hl=en and specify which hours you are available to volunteer! Fill out that form ASAP to make planning easier!

Both of these events qualify for both the Fresh Start, and I network- NTC programs!!

PBL Programs

Participating in PBL programs is the best way to get the full experience of PBL! Each program is designed to help you develop your personal, career, and academic skills. Bellow is a description of each of the programs we offer. Follow the link to sign up for each program. I encourage you to participate!

Member of the month (MOM): Monthly award given to a deserving member made a significant and positive contribution to the development of PBL. MOM will be announced at the 1^st meeting of each month, receive a certificate of recognition, featured on our blog, twitter, and receive a small gift.

Fresh Start: A program exclusively for new members where you accumulate points by attending and being involved in PBL activities. Once you accumulate 175 points you graduate from fresh start , and are recognized at our state conference. Experience college life the PBL way! Perks: Fresh start socials exclusively for Fresh starters.

Sign up here:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/a/csufpbl.org/viewformkey=p3BnP5Bc7IdLHPi_EZLwvNQ&hl=en

SPARK study groups: New program for academic development of PBLers. Give us your class schedule and we will match you with other students that have the same class so that you can have a study group. Once you set up your groups- you can use our PBL office #265 in the TSU for studying. Also, you will have access to the new PBL test bank. When you receive a test back from your professor - let us scan it into google docs ( we will white out your name and grade) - and you will have access to test questions for practice!

sign up here:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/a/csufpbl.org/viewform?key=p3BnP5Bc7IdLHuS73Qih9dg&hl=en

Market Trends: Learn how to manage stocks in a fun way! You will get fake money to invest in the stock market and get experience on how the market works. This is a state wide program- which means you will be competing against PBL'rs from UCLA, UCSD, UC Berkley. - but don't let that scare you!! CSUF won 1st place in market trends both semesters last year! It costs $5 to participate- but who ever wins 1st place gets a CASH price!!

sign up here:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/a/csufpbl.org/viewform?key=p3BnP5Bc7IdLnbrZ5rG7_Qw&hl=

Next Top Chapter (NTC): State wide program that recognizes the most active chapters! It honors the chapters that dedicate time and effort in planning activities for the members and community. We accumulate points as a chapter based on activities that meet the PBL crest- service , education, and progress.

Our ultimate goal: CSUF NTC 2008!!

iNetwork: This program is designed for PBL to share our knowledge with FBLA high school members by participating in different networking, social, and academic activities throughout the year with FBLA. Some of our PBL members today, came from FBLA! We have previously worked with Santa Fe High School, Kennedy High School and Troy High School.

Any questions? Contact Jorge Felix, VP of Programs at JorgeFelix@csufpbl.org

How to: Forwarding your gmail mail to one inbox

For all of you that use gmail but feel that you have way too many email accounts- watch the following video created by our own VP of Alumni Relations, Patrick Tomas! In the video he shows you how to easily change the settings in gmail to be able to forward all of your email to one single account. 

Thanks Patrick! you are awesome!!

PBL Inter- Chapter Bonfires

On Sept. 20,2008 CSUF PBL hosted the first So Cal inter chapter bonfire at Huntington Beach. This was a membership discount event for all CSUF PBL members that attended, but it was also a fun networking social in conjunction with CHC PBL. We so much fun with CHC PBL that they invited us to their own bonfire on October 10th at Corona Del Mar! Thanks CHC we had lots of fun with you at both bonfires!

Catchin' Up on the Green Conversation!

Conversation took a short breather as we began the new school year! Let's catch up!!!

#4: Not to be outdone in the freight game, Wal-Mart is providing funding to the biggest truck manufacturers -- ArvinMeritor, Eaton, International, and Peterbilt -- to develop the first heavy-duty diesel-hybrid 18-wheeler. Wal-Mart, which operates the second-largest truck fleet in the country, will test the prototypes next year.

#5: Austin-based concert promoter C3 Presents made news when it banned Styrofoam cups from the sixth annual Austin City Limits Music Festival this year. Beneath the quick-hit media pop was a deeper story: Following the model the company created for Lollapalooza, C3 took a holistic approach to greening nearly every aspect of ACL, from bamboo-based concert T-shirts to gel sanitizer in the bathrooms to bio-diesel power generators.

#6: It's not just hippies making the special-events world eco-friendly. The Philadelphia Eagles claim to be the greenest team in the NFL--and not just because of the color of its jerseys. Starting this season, the team's "Go Green" environmental campaign has its stadium cleaning crew making two full sweeps after each game--one to pick up recyclables and another for trash.

I probably said this before...but it takes small steps like the three listed above to help make a huge impact on this planet. All we have to do is change our habits just slightly to do our part on helping the environment. We're not asking you to go extreme and get all hippie on us...but let's just do our part. No more styrofoam products at chapter events!!! Carpooling as much as we possibly can!!! Recycling everything from paper to e-waste. And help make our friends and family aware of the small things we can do to make a difference. And hey, if you DO want to get big with this, get involved with the chapter's upcoming E-Waste project. Or give us more ideas on how we can contribute like getting the campus to also get rid of styrofoam at any of the food places on campus and more! Someone has to speak up and if we do it together, we can make it happen!

What are your thoughts and opinions? Keep the conversation going!


- Michelle Nakaji
Co-Internal Director of Leadership Development
michellenakaji@csufpbl.org


[from Fast Company: 50 Ways to Green Your Business http://www.fastcompany.com/multimedia/slideshows/content/50-ways-to-green.html?page=1 ]

Tech Rush 08

We have been invited to attend this year's Tech Rush hosted by the Walt Disney Company. For those of you interested in Disney technology, networking with Disney professionals , recruiters and other students, this event is for you!. If you want to attend you MUST RSVP by this Sunday. Contact me if you are interested!

Jackie Perez

President

jackieperez@csufpbl.org

Heal the Bay: Santa Monica Beach Clean Up

On Sunday September 14, 2008 - CSUF and UCR PBL participated in the Heal the Bay program Santa Monica Beach! Early in the morning we set out to clean the beach and help the environment. It was surprising to find so many cigarette butts , glass bottles and plastic! . In the 2 hrs that we volunteered, my team and I found over 65 cigarette butts, and 20+ glass pieces!! Other teams found more!

We were amazed that we found so much glass in the sand. In one instance, Michelle found a big piece of glass sticking out from the sand , and when we started digging further we kept finding more and more glass. We spent about 10 minutes in that spot digging up all the big and tiny pieces of glass. That glass could have cut someone on the beach!I was surprised by the severeness of the problem and saddened that all of that goes into the ocean and possibly hurt marine life.

Oher items that we found ranged from food wrappers to bottle caps and even clothes. I am happy that in a small way PBL was able to make a difference. Its satisfying to know that we might have saved a little kid from cutting his foot with glass in the sand, or toxic cigarettes going into the Ocean.

After the clean up- we all ate at Bucca Di Beppo and enjoyed the Santa Monica Pier. Michelle, Diana, Victor, Yari and myself even rode the Ferris wheel!

Thanks again to all the volunteers to came out and helped out to Heal The Bay.

Jackie Perez

President

PBL 101 a Success!

Hello Awesome PBL'ers!

Yesterday was PBL 101 - and we had a great turn-out! We filled up the room! I was excited to see so many people interested in our organization! We are definitely in for a great semester!

Remember that we have a couple of events coming up- The beach clean up with UCR PBL , and our bonfire! If you want more info about either of those events please let me know!

We also have an office position available for anyone that is interested. I encourage you to apply for our Executive Assistant position to get involved in all of the behind-the-scenes work that takes to run CSUF PBL and to make a difference in our chapter.

Next week we will be having a guest speaker!! He will be speaking about Sales Leadership!! We hope to see you all there!!

Jackie Perez

President

Tabling and Discoverfest!

For the past two weeks, the dedicated CSUF PBL officer team has been tabling outside of the new Mihaylo Hall and in the quad during Discoverfest to recruit new members!!   

We are all very excited to see so many new and interested people stop by our table to learn more about what PBL has to offer! 

Our first meeting - also known as PBL 101- will be next wednesday Sept 10 at 4pm in Gilman AB in the TSU! We are looking forward to seeing and meeting alot of new people!

The officer team is working hard in putting together a great year for everyone! Please take a look at our calendar on the right column for our upcoming events including: 

1. Santa Monica Beach clean up with UCR on Sept. 14th

2. PBL Bonfire! with Crafton Hills College, Fullerton College, and other PBL chapters from Southern California on Sept 20th @ Huntington Beach.

Also, make sure to join our facebook group so that you can get updates and invitations to our upcoming events! You can find our facebook link on the right column aswell. :D

If you have any questions or are interested in joining!  Please contact me! @ jackieperez@csufpbl.org!

Sorry y'all I haven'thad the time for writing the blog of officer summer retreat but I will do my best to finish it soon, but in the meantime here its an article about the new technology that Google is coming up with to compete with Microsoft! (Los Angeles Times September 2, 2008)

Google to launch browser to compete with Microsoft

Chrome intensifies the battle between the tech giants and continues Web software's drive to supersede the operating system.

By Jessica Guynn, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 2, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO -- Bidding to dominate not only what people do on the Web but how they get from site to site, Google Inc. plans to release a browser today to compete with the likes of Internet Explorer and Firefox.

It's yet another salvo in the company's intensifying battle with Microsoft Corp., which last week released a beta, or test, version of Internet Explorer 8 that makes it easier to block ads from Google and others.

"This is the first truly serious threat that Microsoft has faced from a well-funded platform," said technology analyst Rob Enderle, president of the Enderle Group.

A beta version of the Google browser, called Chrome, will be available for download by Windows computer users in more than 100 countries. Chrome will offer features that make it easier, faster and safer to browse the Web, the Mountain View, Calif., search giant said in a blog postMonday.

Google has long ruled how people search the Web. Now it is going after how they navigate it, analysts say.

"We like this move by Google and believe it can help to increase or at least maintain its leading search market share," Needham & Co. analyst Mark May said in an e-mail. "As the starting point for nearly every user's Internet experience, the browser is important online real estate. The market share gains by Firefox in a short period of time show to us that users are looking for better browser experiences."

One feature will allow consumers to run Web-based applications independently, which means that if one program crashes it won't take down the browser.

By improving the reliability of such online services, Chrome could mark another step in the browser's drive to supersede the computer operating system in importance, said Matt Rosoff, analyst with Directions on Microsoft, a research firm focused on Microsoft products and strategy.

Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft holds a virtual monopoly in operating systems, but their importance in the computing landscape is diminishing as Web-based programs become the starting point for many users.

Chrome will be an open-source product, meaning anyone can modify the software code and add features.

Internet Explorer General Manager Dean Hachamovitch called the browser market "highly competitive" and said he remained confident that consumers would stick with Microsoft's product.

Google executives have expressed concern over the years that Microsoft could use its dominant browser to route consumers to its own search engine, which has sputtered despite years of effort and billions of dollars in investment.

Explorer 8 enables a user to surf the Web without the sites he or she visits being tracked. Google and other Internet companies -- including Microsoft -- use such information to finely target the ads they display. People who use Chrome could give Google even more information about their online habits.

Launching a browser war with Microsoft is a bold move for Google because Microsoft controls nearly 75% of the market. It also could cause trouble for Firefox, a free browser that is gaining popularity but still trails far behind Explorer.

The nonprofit Mozilla Foundation, which manages Firefox, has benefited from engineering help and money from Google. In 2005, Google hired the lead engineer behind Firefox, who splits his time between Google and Mozilla. Just last week, the two extended their partnership, which makes Google the browser's default search engine, through 2011.

Also potentially vulnerable are Opera and Apple Inc.'s Safari, which have captured much smaller fractions of the user population.

News about Chrome broke Monday after the website Google Blogoscoped reported receiving a comic book from Google that outlined the details of the new browser. A Google blog post later explained that it had inadvertently released the news. "We believe we can add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the Web," the post said.

The browser, which Google says was built from scratch, has been in the works for two years. It is intended as a "modern platform for Web pages and applications" that can run faster and be more responsive, the post said.

Even coming from a universally known brand such as Google, the browser might not catch on. Google may encounter resistance from consumers, who typically switch browsers out of frustration, not for new features, Enderle said.

Rosoff said Google will attract its share of "curiosity seekers" and can rely on distribution deals to increase its market share.

"I think this could be a real contender," he said.

The Green Conversation: #3 Green Locomotives!

WELCOME BACK, TITANS!

Eek, we're at week 1 of the Fall 2008 semester! I cannot believe that our summer has finally ended. It was an amazing PBL-filled summer starting off with the National Leadership Conference in Atlanta, GA, satisfying our palates mid-summer with our Executive Retreat in Big Bear Lakes, CA, and ending with a nice, professional touch at the Summer Training Institute - South right down the street at Fullerton College! Even though I'd rather stay in bed tomorrow morning...it's really exciting to finally put all of our plans in motion --just like the topic of our green conversation today: locomotives!

Company #3: General Electric: Green Locomotives

Trains were already the cleanest way to move freight long distances, but in 2005 General Electric raised the game with its Evolution diesel locomotives, which cut fuel consumption by 5% and emissions by 40%. Up next: a hybrid diesel-electric locomotive that, just like your Prius, captures energy from braking and will improve mileage another 10%. According to GE, the energy dissipated in braking a 207-ton locomotive during the course of a year is enough to power 160 homes.

General Electric just shipped 300 Evolution locomotives to Beijing, China! Check it out! Check out how General Electric maintains its position as a leader in it's industry, branding themselves of innovation with their motto: imagination at work, in their innovation = imagination section of the website! See how they're becoming a water explorer for Google Earth, how they've helped China to harvest wind power, and how they provided over 2200 hours of live footage of the legendary 2008 summer Olympics! One more thing!!! Check out their whole entire website devoted to innovative, green technology and ideas called "ecomagination".

What are your thoughts and opinions? Keep the conversation going!


- Michelle Nakaji
Co-Internal Director of Leadership Development
michellenakaji@csufpbl.org


[from Fast Company: 50 Ways to Green Your Business http://www.fastcompany.com/multimedia/slideshows/content/50-ways-to-green.html?page=1 ]

What do you want to see in PBL this year?

Hello Titans!!

One of my goals this year as your president is to increase CSUF member participation in PBL. To do that - the officers and I would love to know what you want to see this year!!!
I have created a poll on the right column of the blog to get an idea of what you are looking forward to seeing this year. I encourage you to vote on the poll and share comments with us so that we can create an awesome year together!!!

Jackie Perez