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President's Letter

January 2008 - Letter from the President

Letter from the President

Happy New Year, everyone.  Welcome to another great year for the Central Virginia Chapter of PMI. 

The Board of Directors has some exciting new services and events in store for the community and our membership in 2008 and, as in the past, we need volunteers to help us meet our aggressive goals.  We have a very dedicated and talented group of volunteers that are responsible for everything we have been able to accomplish thus far.  We look forward to our past volunteers continuing to serve the membership and we welcome new volunteers joining the ranks.  If you have any interest in volunteering with the chapter, please feel free to contact any member of the board including our VP of Volunteerism, Jennifer Perrin at vp.volunteerism@pmicvc.org.

Kicking Off 2008

We are starting off the year with a fantastic event!  Lee Lambert is a renowned speaker on many topics within the field of Project Management and was awarded PMI’s Registered Education Provider of the Year for 2007.  We look forward to welcoming him to our Annual Volunteer Recognition and Dinner Meeting on January 17, 2008.  Last January, our dinner meeting was a Sold Out event and we expect the same thing this year, so sign up early!

Coming in 2008

Here are some of the NEW services and events we have planned for 2008.  We are looking for volunteers to help us get these new events off the ground, so if you have an interest, please volunteer.

• Pilot a Breakfast Meeting (format and location are to be determined).
• Our Professional Development Committee will investigate hosting seminars during business hours.  We are looking for companies to partner with in order to bring more topics and speakers to our members.  If you have any ideas, please contact our VP of Professional Development, Marshall Shelton at vp.prodevelopment@pmicvc.org.
• Our Certification Committee is investigating workshop possibilities for the new PgPM certification.
• Distribute communications to our membership on the Region 5 Symposium.  (Details below.)
• Support exam prep study groups.  We have had some recent success in this area, but would love some help formalizing and replicating this idea.
• Market the chapter to the Project Managers in the Central Virginia area who are members of PMI, but not members of CVC.  Everyone can help out with this item by word-of-mouth advertisement!
• Investigate forming a Book Club to discuss business and project management topical books.
• Investigate hosting a Job Fair for the Central Virginia area.  We need lots of volunteers to help get this off the ground.  Your talents, elbow grease and ideas are much appreciated.
• Investigate creating a members-only section of the website to provide a format for job posting and other information.

We will continue providing the outstanding events as we have in the past.  Watch the website for details on our regular events in 2008.

• Monthly Chapter Dinner Meetings on the Southside of Richmond and in the Innsbrook area.
• PMO Local Interest Group (LIG) Meetings.
• 4th Annual Golf Tournament.
• Saturday Seminars.
• Spring and Fall Certification Workshops with Scholarships available.
• Newsletters, email reminders, other communications and a completely up-to-date website.

Introducing the 2008 Board of Directors

Every year, half of the board changes over as new volunteers take on elected roles with the chapter.  Join me in welcoming the 2008 Board of Directors.

• President-Elect – Luis Naranjo, PMP
• VP Certification – Kristen Baker, PMP
• VP Communications – Geoff Rollins, PMP
• VP Finance – Betty Jane Hughes, PMP
• VP Marketing – Ed Hellermann, PMP
• VP Membership – Bethany Bryans, PMP
• VP Professional Development – Marshall Shelton, PMP
• VP Programs – Paul Gilbo, PMP
• VP Volunteerism – Jennifer Perrin
• Past President – Sharon Robbins, PMP

An Old Reminder

Our communications to you are completely dependant on your personal information on file with PMI Global.  Our records are sent to us from PMI Global monthly and we use that information to update our database and send communications to you, the members.  Please login to the PMI.org website and update your personal information to stay informed on your local Project Management community!

Very Special Event Coming to the Area

As you may have heard, our chapter is a part of PMI’s Region 5.  We are a group of 13 chapters in VA, NC, WV, KY, MD and Washington DC.  The purpose of the region is to have collaboration among chapters in the same geographic area in an effort to bring better services and information to our members with, hopefully, less volunteer effort.  Many collaborative efforts continue between chapters in our region and in 2006, the Charlotte, NC chapter held the first Regional Symposium. 
The idea behind the symposium is to bring speakers and topics to the area that no one chapter can support alone.  Based on the success of the 2006 symposium, the region has been planning a symposium for 2008.  This year the event will be held in Baltimore, MD and promises to be well worth our efforts, as well as your time and money to attend. 
As you know, PMI chapters are non-profit professional organizations and, therefore, can provide training much more cost effectively than commercial providers.  If you want to broaden your professional development, need PDUs, would like to network on a larger scale or just want to learn something new, I strongly recommend you look into the Region 5 Symposium.  Details are on the region’s website: http://www.pmiregion5.org/.  The event will be held April 2-5, 2008.

Summary

It’s going to be a great year and we need your help to make 2008 a huge success for PMI CVC.  I look forward to working with all of you throughout the year.  Please feel free to email me anytime with your ideas, thoughts, suggestions, complaints, etc.

Best Regards,
Christina Morgan, PMP
president@pmicvc.org
2008 Chapter President, PMI CVC