A time to celebrate, say thanks, and look forward to more successes in the coming year! - Nara Acharya, PMP, Chair, PMI Atlanta Chapter
As we wrap up another successful year for PMI Atlanta and I complete my term as Chair of the Chapter’s Executive Board, I want to say a few words to celebrate some of our accomplishments and successes this year.
For starters, we crossed the threshold of 5,000 in chapter membership for the first time this year, with 5,166 active members as of December 19th, 2018! This is a big milestone for our chapter and something all of us can take pride in, as it is a testament to the value PMI Atlanta provides to the project management community in the metro Atlanta area.
We continued with our mission to provide value to attendees of our dinner and networking meetings by bringing interesting speakers on popular and relevant topics at the events throughout the year. Our last networking event in October featured Dan Jourdan who gave some practical tips on “How to sell yourself into a great Project Management career” and Kendall Lott provided his insights on “Leadership lessons from an Appalachian Trail thru-hike” in the November dinner meeting!
Our various Special Interest Forums focused on speakers and topics in specific areas in Technology, Governance, Healthcare, Entertainment, Agile and Architecture, Engineering and Construction. Responding to an interest in our members, we started a brand new forum this year in Clinical Research that received a lot of positive feedback, and we will have another new Transportation and Automotive Forum coming in early 2019.
Aligning with PMI Global’s strategy shift that puts the individual chapter member at the center of how we serve the project management community, we worked on a data analytics initiative that will help us collect and better utilize information about our members and their preferences; expect to see new programs and new venues in 2019. In addition, we also created two new teams for Corporate Sponsorship and Chapter Branding to expand our current relationships in the corporate community and other professional organizations and promote the PMI brand in metro Atlanta.
Another first for the chapter this year was the Project Management Day of Service in April, an initiative that brought together 15 non-profits and over 50 project managers who brainstormed with these organizations and provided customized roadmaps to solve some of their current challenges. We plan to expand and take this to the next level in the coming year so please let us know if you would be interested in getting involved in this event.
Our popular Mentorship program, which gives experienced project managers and new professionals entering project management an opportunity to partner one on one and share their knowledge and experiences, just had our largest group yet in the session that started in November with 62 participants!
Huge thanks to our sponsors of our Special Interest Industry Forums, Career Month events and all our friends and well-wishers for their continued support in 2018.
I also want to take this opportunity to thank Bill Kay and Chiquetta West, who will be completing their term on the Executive Board in December, for their three years of volunteer service and leadership with the Chapter. We just concluded our annual elections and I am excited we will have three dynamic servant leaders in Kashif Choudhry, Andreas Burkart and Raghuvar Vadrevu joining the Board in 2019.
Finally, I want to congratulate Nagendra Roy as he takes over as the Executive Board Chair in 2019. As Project Management Institute celebrates its 50th anniversary next year, I and the Atlanta Chapter’s other volunteer leaders look forward to bringing events, programs and initiatives that will provide you more opportunities for personal and professional growth in 2019.
Season’s Greetings, Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!