Press Release: ITPAA Founded 06/16/2003 Wilmington DE
Press Release 01
Wednesday, June 18, 2003
I am happy to announce the founding of The Information Technology Professionals
Association of America (ITPAA) on June 16, 2003 in order to discuss, formulate
and pursue solutions for issues that are pertinent to Information Technology
professionals.
There are some organizations that attempt to represent American IT professionals,
but they tend to be regional, apolitical, or anti-capitalist. IT professionals
tend to be socially liberal but free-market oriented and have a visceral distrust
of unions. What was needed was a political advocacy organization that represented
the needs of American IT professionals yet reconciled them with the needs of
the companies that employ them.
IT professionals are entrepreneurial. Many own their own businesses - either
as "S" corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships. They view
themselves as part of the industry - not separate from it or antagonistic to
it as traditional unions do. Yet their needs are different at times from the
needs of IBM, Oracle and other employers.
The ITPAA is geared to making you aware of the IT professional's viewpoint
on the issues that are at the forefront of our industry. How do we plan to do
it? First we will educate you on the issues that we believe our important to
you. Second we will provide you with the resources that you need in order to
help you make up your own mind. Third we will work with you to craft legislation
that is best for our members, the companies that employ them, and America society
as a whole. Finally, we will inform our membership of your efforts and encourage
them to support you.
We hope to achieve these goals:
1. Encourage the employment of IT resources within the United States and its
territories.
2. Work with companies to enhance profits and strengthen corporate ties to the
United States by recognizing the efficiency, flexibility, intelligence and skills
of the American IT professional. The ITPAA educates companies on the problems
that can occur when foreign resources are used in place of American ones, and
helps them to avoid these pitfalls while keeping a firm rein on costs.
3. Educate Americans on how outsourcing and government involvement in immigration
through an "open door" policy undermines the invisible hand of the
market. By artificially manipulating the labor market, Americans are discouraged
from studying IT or forced them to leave IT altogether at the expense of the
corporations that benefit from employing them and American society as a whole.
4. Assist and educate you in our efforts to promote a vibrant and secure technology
sector in the United States.
5. Stop the turning of IT professionals into commodities. IT professionals are
people with intelligence and creative abilities that change with time. They
are not static. A bicycle built in China does not turn into a motorcycle after
a year in the USA. However an IT professional with a year of experience at a
company is completely different from the applicant a year before, having new
skills and perspectives that can be harnessed by an employer to benefit the
whole company. The ITPAA works with companies to show them how to leverage this
pool of creativity and experience to become stronger and more dominant in their
markets and industries.
What the ITPAA is not:
1. The ITPAA is not affiliated with the Information Technology Association of
America (ITAA), the Information Technology Professionals Association of the
United Kingdom (ITPA) or any other group outside of the United States. While
the ITPAA does become with global issues, it does so from a completely American
perspective.
2. The ITPAA is not anti-globalist and supports the power of the global markets.
However, as agricultural and security policies can soften the impact of a free
market on society, the ITPAA recognizes that corporate and governmental policies
can impact the labor market as well. Nevertheless, the ITPAA believes that open
markets are the best means for lifting people and societies out of poverty and
will continue to be so for the foreseeable future.
3. The ITPAA is not anti-corporate and does not recognize the class-warfare
model of unions. Instead the ITPAA serves to represent the needs of its members
- regardless of their class or corporate ranking.
4. The ITPAA is not anti-immigrant, xenophobic, racist or sexist. The ITPAA
welcomes membership from everyone within the United States who supports our
agenda.
I would welcome your feedback on our effort. Please email me at skirwin@itpaa.org.
For more information please visit our website at: www.ITPAA.org
Thank you for your time. I look forward to working with you in the future.
Regards,
Scott Kirwin
Chief Executive Officer,
Information Technology Professionals Association of America
http://www.itpaa.org | 
