Fra Noi Embrace Your Inner Italian
An open letter from the new president of the IAPC
Hello to all Italian Americans:
My name is Dominic M. Sergi, and I am the new president of the Italian American Political Coalition. For those of you who do not know why we exist, I would like to take this opportunity to provide you with a short history of our organization.
The IAPC was established in 1994 after two Italian-American congressmen were redistricted out of office. Community leaders like Leonard Amari, Anthony Fornelli, Fred Serpe, Len DeFranco and Jack LaBrasca, to name a few, have led the crusade to ensure our Italian voices were heard and to spread our Italian values and heritage throughout the political arena.
Fast-forward almost 20 years later and here we are, very well established and well entrenched in the political arena. But one thing I have always believed in is constant change, even if things are going well. Without change, there can be no progress, and if you do not change the way you do business you will be left behind or, worse yet, you will go out of business, and an organization is no different than a business. Being a businessman, this is the only way I know how to run the IAPC, and making changes is what we are all about and what we are constantly pursuing.
One of our goals over these next two years is to reach out to all of the Italian-American organizations in the Chicago area. There are some 200 organizations in our area, with more than 70 of them being under the umbrella of the JCCIA. On that topic, congratulations to Frank Cerrone, who is now the president of the JCCIA and also the first vice president of the IAPC.
I feel that we need to expand awareness of the IAPC, and we will start by inviting all the presidents of these Italian-American organizations to a cocktail reception hosted by the IAPC. I want all to know that we are here to support them in the political arena and to endorse their members in their political pursuits.
Another new objective is the development of a mentoring program. This program will be put in place to help mentor people looking to start a career in politics. We feel that there could be young business professionals or attorneys who show an interest in politics but do not know where to start. We now can help them develop a successful career path and guide them along their journey.
We have formed new committees within the IAPC to achieve our goals. These committees will now have the opportunity and authority to grow the values and ideals of our Italian heritage within our political arena. An organization cannot succeed by the president alone; you must have other people at your side that have the same passion and willpower. Then, you empower those people and allow them to make the changes.
The new officers of the IAPC are First Vice President Frank Cerrone, Second Vice President Rocco Biscoglio, Treasurer Lenny Cannata and Secretary Marilynn May. The committee chairmen are Michael Favia (Event and Fundraiser), Lenny Cannata (Communication and Marketing), Dominic A. Sergi (Membership) and Dominick Lanzito (Political). And we have our administrator, Judy Corvo, who ties this all together.
We have also developed another new committee — the Strategic Planning Committee — to clearly define, develop and implement our future foundation from which we will build the IAPC from “Good to Great.” This committee is chaired by myself and co-chaired by Frank Cerrone, and includes IAPC officers, committee chairs, and four very distinguished gentlemen and past presidents of the IAPC: Richard Pellegrino, Fred Serpe, Tom Battista and Leonard Amari.
The IAPC’s goals are to grow our membership, our awareness and our influence. That may seem like a rather broad statement to make, but that is why we have developed these new committees. Our committees along with our new officers have their work cut out for them over these next two years.
If you have any interest in the IAPC, please contact me at dsergi@rexelectric.com or Judy Corvo at judy.iapc@yahoo.com. I thank you for your attention and look forward to hearing from you.
— Dominic M. Sergi, President, IAPC
