by David Tennant, PMP, PE
As 2013 comes to a close, it is appropriate to provide a summary of the Chapter’s challenges and accomplishments over the last 12 months. As your chapter Chairman, I have been privileged to work with a talented Board and Leadership Team. Just for clarity, the Executive Board is concerned with the strategic direction and planning for the chapter, maintaining financial stability, and supporting the Leadership Team. The Leadership Team is responsible for implementing many of the programs and services that are provided each month. These include the chapter dinner meetings, lunch-and-learn sessions, continuing education courses, professional growth, forums, and the many other activities put on by the chapter. The Leadership Team also has many volunteers that assist every month to ensure our operations run smoothly. It is truly a strong partnership.
Your Atlanta chapter is the second largest PMI chapter in the USA (behind Washington DC) and the third largest chapter in the World (behind Ontario, Canada). Current Atlanta membership stands at just over 4,500.
The accomplishments for this year included a partnership with both Georgia Tech and Kennesaw State University (KSU). For Georgia Tech, we have formed an internship program for seniors near graduation and also graduate students. A number of Atlanta companies have been approached to participate in this effort and we anticipate significant growth moving into 2014. For KSU, the chapter will provide PM mentoring and guest speakers. PMI Atlanta has also had a long-standing relationship with DeVry- Keller, which continues to be active.
We have also been able to increase our university scholarship donations from $7,000 to $9,500 in 2013.