Chapter president's update: First 90 days

 

My dear fellow Chapter Members,

It has been busy 90 days for me - Drinking from a fire hose is an understatement, here is summary of key happenings in your chapter:

Key activities and achievements in first 90 days 

 

  1. Securing 1 year lease for the new location for our Career and Leadership Workshops and board/team meetings. 

I am very proud of Agile PMISV Board of Directors team who responded quickly to abrupt change forced on us by lease cancelation by Innoworld due to circumstances beyond their control. In less than a month, we evaluated 3 competing alternatives and selected Mindrome colocation space located near Great America Amusement Park. We ensured balance in quality and cost to meet high standards which you all expect from PMISV. 

  1. Hit the ground running on new outreach initiatives for Student and Military community. Kudos to our past president Bhanu Viswanadha for volunteering his time and energy for this noble cause. Thank you, Hanu Malineni our workshop director and workshop team  for rising to the occasion and handling  logistics.
  1. Revamping our IT team with eye for long term success in building leadership and team. Once again, Bhanu stepped up to plate and guided other volunteers by defining backlog and coming up with time bound plan of execution. Kudos to Jeff Callen, IT Director for taking the lead and ensuring execution of program IT functions.
  1. Board members actively brain stormed and completed  Charter Renewal documents in last two weeks and submitted paper work to PMI,  4 days ahead of submit by date !  Stay tuned for the exciting initiatives and improvements . 

Highlights - Continued high-quality Execution  

  1. Membership Retention is at the highest level in last few years at 75%  - Kudos to Board members , Volunteer leaders and volunteers for ensuring we provide value to our members.
  1. Q1 Volunteer Leadership forum saw very high number of attendees (30+), exciting exchange of ideas and engaging presentation on Scrum at Scale  by guest speaker Brian Levi, Seasoned Agile Coach
  1. Active participation by your board and other chapter volunteer leaders in PMI Region-7 leadership meeting on March 14-15,2019 at Downtown San Francisco, theme being Building Relationships to support Diversity and Inclusion

Highlight of the R7 event was the engaging joint presentation by our own past presidents Terrie Mui and Bhanu Vishwanada – one of the most engaging and appreciated events. We have great opportunity to hear from Terrie and Bhanu in upcoming  PM Insight event at Foster City on April 23rd,2019, registration link here - https://pmisv.org/events/calendar/general-events/pm-in-sight-foster-city/pm-insights-foster-city-practical-tips-to-develop-team-members-to-succeed

We heard you !

In this section, I will note action taken by the board on your feedback, so keep sending that great  feedback, we are here for you. 

  1. Women in Project Management Forum – per your feedback, event found a new home in Santa Clara 
  1. We will change format of Quarterly Volunteer Leadership forum to facilitate two way communication – stay tuned for details.
  1. Expense reimbursement to Volunteers takes too long – VP of Finance Thiru has initiated first phase of changes where reimbursement will be done thru online payment platform Zellepay. 
  1. Symposium Theme selection – your feedback on theme selection was heard loud and clear in Q1 Volunteer forum -  stay tuned for more details in next month’s newsletter.
  1. PMISV Website improvements – your feedback on our website’s look and feel being outdated is clearly on top of our mind. Ursa Tang and team is diligently working on changes which intends to wow you all. Stay tuned!

Challenges ahead !

We obviously have many challenges which are handled with all hands on deck approach by your chapter leadership team:

  1. Use of state of the art Marketing tools – Per your feedback, we can do better with Marketing our events and chapter - social media,  sponsorship etc.
  1. Increase engagement of new members in Chapter activities
  1. In need of dedicated volunteers and leaders who want to make a difference to the chapter –Thanks to core group of volunteers, we are delivering close to 200 quality event to members – we can provide more value with added strength in number of core volunteers. If you are passionate about giving back to profession and community, look no further than PMI Silicon Valley – Become a Volunteer

Block your calendar for PMISV events!

  1. April 6-7,13-14 - PMP Boot Camp – Free for Students and Military – Due to high demand, registration is now closed. Stay tuned for future events
  1. Sat April 20th - Come with your family/guests to volunteer for Food bank - – PMISV Community Outreach Event at Second Harvest Food Sort

Register here- https://pmisv.org/events/calendar/miscellaneous-events/community-outreach-amazing-race-at-hellyer-county-park-2

  1. PM insight Foster City Event on  Tuesday April 23rd – Bhanu and Terrie’s presentation on Developing Next Gen Chapter leadership

          You can register to any of our quality events here - https://pmisv.org/events/calendar 

I hope to see you at a Chapter event soon! Volunteer with Passion. Happy Volunteering!!!

Sincerely,

 

Ajay Navaratna PMP, CSM

President

PMI Silicon Valley Chapter