PMI UK Chapter - A Past-Presidents Perspective.

Guilty Pleasures

Guilty yes, pleasure less so!  Boy the past couple of months have flown by.  In no particular order: went along to The Economist Innovation Awards in London thanks to a kind invitation from Mark Langley and the PMI US team.  Proved to be worthwhile as we have started discussions as to how to collaborate more closely.  Also attending the IT Industry Awards next week where I hope to be able to continue to explore collaboration with The APM Group - we hope to organise a joint event shortly that will help explain the minefield that is project management certification!

Putting a few, long overdue words together for the blog is a welcome distraction from trying to write something slightly more deep and meaningful for the PMI UK Chapter address at next weeks International Project Management Day - Stevenage, Wednesday 11th November.  The date has unfortunately had to move this year due a last minute change in venue which has confused a few folks, but we are still very much a part of the international celebrations!

The team are currently completing the UAT for our new web site which is exciting - launch planned in the next few weeks.  The site will have it's own forum - head's spinning from all these ways to stay in touch!  Chin Up!

Busy September!

Managed to grab 5 mins to plan September...it's gonna be a busy month!

Meeting with Alan Harpham of APM Group fame on 8th September, also hoping to meet up with the UK arm of the PR company PMI use in the US to see what they can do for us!

The PMI UK Chapter board meeting is then planned for 9th September...and there is a London Chapter meeting that same evening which I hope to hang around for.

Then...it's off to Basingstoke on 16th September to attend a Chapter event where Peter Taylor - The Lazy Project Manager will be speaking, introductions long over due!

Following week there is the offsite where the UK Chapter Board along with the Regional Chairs will be discussing the roadmap for the next 12-18months.  Week after that it's back up to Barnsley where we have an M&N event where Peter Taylor and David Buisson will be speaking - pie and pea supper thrown in as an added incentive!

Into October it looks like a trip up to Scotland is on the cards to attend the Scotland Chapter event with People Deliver Projects...an exciting new format for the Chapter.  Then Milan in early November to meet with the other PMI Chapter leaders from EMEA and discuss life, the Universe and Everything.

And this is a voluntary role! What about the Day Job ?!

Presidents Corner - August 09

Sneak preview of what I have to say in the forthcming newsletter:

OK let's see if you can guess the theme of this edition of the newsletter.  Here we go.........deep breath........25% reduction on all business texts from Gower publishing............free access to an extensive professional development aid exclusively available to PMI UK Chapter members..........15% reduction on all texts bought via the forthcoming PMI UK Chapter bookstore to be launched in the Autumn.........the opportunity to buy a signed copy of Peter Taylor's 'The Lazy Project Manager' at the reduced price of £8........an exciting array of exclusive offers from our long standing partner ESI........free entry to IPM Day which last year cost in excess of £200............ Yes - we have been working extremely hard over the last few months to negotiate some exclusive benefits for PMI UK Chapter members and I am pleased to say that we are now starting to see a number of these realised.  We have plans to continue to develop this list in the hope that each and every member is able to benefit from their membership of the Chapter and the success of the PMI brand.  If anyone has any thoughts as to specific benefits you would like to see please reach out and let us know.

 

You may recall that in the balanced scorecard published earlier this year one of the key areas for improvement was to promote the PMI brand more widely in the UK.  Well to that end I am pleased to be able to report that the UK Chapter is to be featured in a forthcoming Guardian supplement in which we will have both an article and a UK specific ad promoting the Chapter.  The supplement is expected to reach a readership of approx 600,000 a large number of whom we expect to show an interest in PMI.  The supplement is being published with the Guardian newspaper on 1st September and will also be available at Project Challenge for those who plan to attend.  On that note as in previous years we are on the look out for volunteers to help out at Project Challenge which will be held 30 September- 1 October at Olympia, London where we will be joined by our US PMI colleagues.  If you would like to come along and help out please let us know.

 

I would like to draw your attention to the roll of honour included with this edition of the newsletter.  It strikes me that in the past we have not given much recognition to our long standing members so with the help of Nicola Wadham, our Director of Membership we plan to recognise these members, not only in writing but in true PMI style we are also working on creating a pin badge that will be exclusively available to those who reach 10 years continuous membership.  Further information on this will be made available shortly.

 

Hopefully you will agree that we are continuing to make good progress, but the aim is to raise the bar even further and to that end I have invited the Regional Chairs and the Chapter Board to attend an off-site event during September at which we will focus on the future of the UK Chapter.  Specifically how we can move into new, exciting areas and nurture a fresh, vibrant community of Project Managers in the UK.  The event is a rare opportunity for the entire team to come together and I am optimistic that we will use this valuable time to develop a roadmap for the next 12-18 months.  If you have any specific views on areas we should explore then drop us a line - either via email, the LinkedIn Discussion Group or even via my new blog!

 

The blog is a direct response to the recent membership survey the results from which are featured in this newsletter.  It's all too clear that a number of members are thirsty for more information on what we do as a Chapter Board.  Hopefully the blog along with all the communication via the web site, newsletter and email go some way to achieving this.  If not, and you are keen to learn more then I would encourage you to contact one of the team such that we can discuss your thoughts - we may even try and convince you to contribute by volunteering in some way!  On that note I would like to sign out by thanking all those who have contributed to the development of the Chapter over the past few months for their hard work and encourage more of the same.

 

Until next time.....

Long Overdue

Yes, guilty as charged...the blog has somewhat dried up of late but I guess that's what is to be expected of a voluntary organising when there are so many other exciting things on the radar.  Here are but a few of the juicy activities in the pipeline....

1- We have negotiated a discount with Peter Taylor, author of the Lazy Project Manager so PMI UK Chapter members can buy his book at a reduced cost of £8 plus P&P - check out his web site for more information! www.thelazyprojectmanager.com

2 - We have been working with ESI - our long standing major supporter to come up with some exciting new offers for Chapter members - press release coming soon!

3 - We are working with a professional development company to offer members access to a number of personal development tools free of charge, yes, free gratis!  All we ask in return is that you participate in a major Project Management survey.  This will feature in the next newsletter.

4 - We have kicked off development of our shiny new web site which will raise the bar and present the PMI UK Chapter as the forward thinking professional body that we are - due to be launched later this year.  New web to hopefully include a bookstore with PM texts available at much reduced prices!

5 - We are piloting a new format of event up in Scotland in October with People Deliver Projects.  If successful this will form one of the cornerstones in next years events programme which is hoped to be bigger and bolder than ever before.  Check it out at http://www.pmi.org.uk/events/scotland.asp

And that's but a few.... if anyone fancys volunteering to help with some of this little lot please drop me a line - we could do with the help!

The Lazy Project Manager

Just bought a copy of The Lazy Project Manager to see what all the fuss is about!  Watch this space for a review!  

APM Chartered Status

I have been approached by a number of members enquiring as to the PMI's position with regards to the APMs application for Chartered status and whilst this isn't something being handled directly by the UK Chapter I can understand why members are keen to know more.  To that end I have been in touch with PMI HQ in the US and we have a further call planned for next week.  I hope to have an update that we can communicate therefafter.

Catch-Up

It's been a few days so thought I would catch up with recent events.  We had the monthly Board meeting on 1st July where we discussed a number of ideas - some exciting, some less so.  We spent a considerable amount of time discussing the fact that generating sponsorship for this years IPM Day is proving to be something of a struggle - a sign of the times I guess.

The first in a series of webinars that have been organised in conjunction with HP/EDS was of great interest.  Assuming this is a success we hope to run a number of other such events to allow people who are unable to come along to the regional events the opportunity to obtain PDUs towards retaining their PMP qualification.  Further information available at  http://www.pmi.org.uk/events/downloads2009/webinar_1_15072009.pdf

We are also currently discussing the prospect of twinning with other Chapters - a great opportunity to build an exchange programme, and working with some of the more well known UK universities exploring the possibility of awarding bursaries to support students studying towards Project Management qualifications but more on this later.

Forthcoming Events

Hey All.  Thought you may be interested to know there is a PMI UK Chapter event on Wednesday 1st July in London, IBM Southbank to be precise.  Plenty of PDU's up for grabs!  All the details are at http://www.pmi.org.uk/events/london.asp but suffice to says it's all about Talent Management and proving to be very popular.  This event is organised by our London Events Committee.  As we have a Board meeting in London that same day I hope to be able to make it along so perhaps I'll bump into a few of you there?!

Whilst not for a while yet - October in fact, I would also like to use this little corner of the web to promote an event we are running in Edinburgh on 5th October.  The event is being held at Standard Life offices and will be a very different format from past events the Chapter has held.  I expect places to be very limited given the exciting nature of the event.  You can find out more at http://www.pmi.org.uk/events/downloads2009/Scotland_Pilot_Stakeholders_5_Oct_09.pdf.  If anyone who reads this does attend the event I would be very interested in your feedback as if this format is a success (which I am sure it will be) we hope to roll it out more widely next year.

The Catherine Wheel School of Project Management

A personal thought so indulge me....The Catherine Wheel School of Project Management.....Yup, you got it spinning round in circles with your ass on fire, sound familiar?  Watch for a White Paper on this in the near future.

Great weather versus By-Laws!

Tough choice this one!  We have been looking to update the by-laws for quite a while, primarily to change the approach to the annual elections - we want to move from hard copy to a more professional, on-line secret ballot.  Guarav, our Director of Administration has put a draft together which Nick Lake (past President) and I have reviewed today.  Changes are looking good! Now we have to convince PMI of the changes before we can issue for agreement from the Chapter members - more bureaucracy!  Anyways at least it means we are one step closer to the revised election process we are hoping to implement in time for the annual elections at the end of this year.  We are hoping to implement a number of adminstrative changes over the course of this year to try and reduce the amount we spend on 'non-value add' activities...this is a great example.  More to come in future posts I'm sure...