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.

The PMI Atlanta Elections Committee would like to announce the elections results:

Laura Davidson, PMP Vice Chair	Dana Murphy, PMP Secretary	Michelle Cercone, PMP Director at Large

We welcome them to their leadership roles. Please look for them at upcoming events!

Get ready to start volunteering -- Visit our Volunteer Relationship Management System (VRMS) to see what positions are available - https://vrms.pmi.org/

Can't find what you are looking for?   Update your area of interest and opt-in to receive email notifications when new opportunities are posted that match your selected interests.  

For additional questions or inquiries, reach out to Volunteers@pmiatlanta.org

By: Steven A. Shapiro, PMP, CSSGB

From L to R: John Salguero, David Tennant, Katie Dillard, Troy Woods  

History could look back on November 21, 2013 and see not just a date that the Athens community was first engaged by PMI Atlanta, but a date whereby the seeds of a vibrant and thriving PMI Chapter were first sowed.  That Thursday evening saw the PMI Atlanta Athens committee hold their first dinner meeting.  The event was held at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education and while the attendance was vastly different, the feel of the event was very similar to the Atlanta Chapter Dunwoody Dinner Meetings.

The event began with PMI Atlanta Athens Committee Chair John Salguero showing the PMI Atlanta Chapter video, ‘What is PMI Atlanta?’ and walking those in attendance through all the great work the Atlanta Chapter is doing and how Athens could benefit from similar efforts in their community, while adding in some unique and specific possibilities the committee can bring to the Athens Community. 

Salguero also took opportunities as they afforded themselves to introduce the members of both his team and the PMI Atlanta attendees.  This began with Salguero introducing Troy Woods.  Woods had been involved in the creation of a PMI Chapter in Alabama and will bring that experience to the Athens Committee.  He is also a highly respected business man in the Athens area and can serve to reach out to that community to help the committee grow. The next introduction John made was Katie Dillard.  Dillard works at Zaxbys in a Project Management role, and will serve the committee as its ‘Ambassador’.  She spoke about how she hopes to expand the Athens Committee to have the type of forums that PMI Atlanta currently has.  Finally, Salguero introduced Hajime Uchiyama, for whom the Athens Committee chair is very grateful as Uchiyama has been very helpful to John in creating the committee and bringing that vision to a reality.  In return, one could certainly sense that the gratitude was mutual, as Uchiyama thanked Salguero for his mentorship and leadership.