Letter from the President
Hello Members!
Summer is upon us with vacations and holidays but your chapter leadership is busy at work.
In May, we reached over 1,000 chapter members! We have tripled in membership in just over four years. Our members range from north of Stafford to as far south as Williamsburg and Hopewell with a growing constituency in the Charlottesville area. A 1,000 Member Celebration is in the planning stages. If you would like to become involved with the planning of this celebration, please contact Andy Shulick at VP.Membership@pmicvc.org for volunteer opportunities.
With this growth comes opportunity and responsibility. We have the opportunity to fund more activities for our members. We have the responsibility to ensure that as many members as possible have access to a variety of activities. Our current leadership structure must be flexible to accommodate this growth. Our program offerings must expand outside of the Richmond area to reach other members.
As with all PMI components, the Central Virginia Chapter is lead by volunteers with a passion for promoting project management to its members and communities. To support the growing need for volunteers and to ensure a positive volunteer experience, the PMI CVC leadership is researching a new board position, VP-Volunteerism.
In 2004, the chapter had about 60 volunteers serving in over 70 volunteer positions (yes - some folks serve on multiple committees). As a board, we realize this requires more focus on the volunteers to ensure their personal and career objectives are met through volunteer efforts. This year, the elections will include the VP-Volunteerism position in addition to the existing openings. There will be more information for this position on the PMI CVC website. Please contact me at President@pmicvc.org or (804) 241-2591 if you are interested in becoming part of the Volunteerism Committee or serving in a chapter leadership role.
The Saturday Seminar on June 18th was a great success. Twenty-three attendees met at the Anthem Davis Center to participate in the Customer Relationship Marketing session lead by Jim Mercante. Jim provided a great perspective on using customer relationship marketing techniques to interact with key project stakeholders. This results in proactive stakeholder participation during the project and builds relationships for future projects. The Saturday Seminar would not have been a success without our volunteers from the Professional Development Committee. I want to thank Jan Beach, Renee Symons, Sylvia Flynn, Sherry Hillis and Kurt Wilson as well as the other committee members for putting on an excellent seminar.
Our K-12 effort is moving along. Timothy Golden has offered to lead that effort and is looking for volunteers. The focus of this effort is to partner with local businesses to sponsor project management learning in the local schools. If you are interested in learning more about this, please send me an email at President@pmicvc.org or call me at (804) 241-2591. I will get your information to Timothy and he will get you involved.
In addition to local activities, Region 5 is planning its first Region 5 Symposium scheduled for May 2006. The symposium will be hosted by the Metrolina Chapter in Charlotte, NC. Stay tuned to the PMI CVC website for details.
In closing, I encourage each of you to look at the various committees and the special activities going on with the chapter to see where you can participate. There are five board positions open this year as well as the committee opportunities. As we prepare for the nominations and for 2006 planning, I look forward to hearing from many of you as potential volunteers to support our ever-growing membership. I also encourage you to submit the names of others you believe would make good leaders by sending their names to me at President@pmicvc.org.
Have a wonderful summer!
Robert
T. Berlin, MBA, PMP
President - PMI Central Virginia Chapter