President's Message & Press release

As I end my term as President of the PMI Buffalo, NY chapter, we are in what some people consider the most wonderful time of the year. The holidays are upon us, and I wish you and your families a happy and healthy holiday season!

I would like to say thank you to all of the volunteers who I have worked alongside these past few years. Because of you, we have been able to provide a variety of quality programs and services to our members and associates.

The tremendous effort you have put forth was recently recognized by the global PMI organization when we were presented the 2016 Chapter of the Year award for mid-sized chapters. Congratulations to all of you on this success!

To all of our chapter’s members – thank you for your loyalty to the chapter, demonstrated by your attendance at our Professional Development Days, Breakfast Roundtables, Dinner Meetings and Networking Events, as well as your high satisfaction scores on our annual surveys, and our high member retention rate.

For all of you who are studying for your PMP or other PMI certifications, I wish you the best of luck in passing your exams, and encourage you to reach out to other chapter members and volunteers for pointers and assistance. There is strength in numbers, and our chapter is 600+ members strong.

As I reflect upon the last three years, we have had many achievements – some large, some small - but all delivered with improving the chapter in mind. Below are just some of the many areas we worked on as your “all-volunteer” team:

• Educated our membership on the new PMI Talent Triangle and its impact on their PDU requirements, as well as adapted our programming to support the Talent Triangle.
• Enhanced our weekly communications through more creative and appealing formatting.
• Offered Exam Prep classes for the PMI-ACP (Agile Certified Professional) certification, and training for the Scrum Alliance’s Scrum Master and Scrum Product Owner certifications.
• Improved our PMP Exam Prep training by introducing Velociteach materials, and trained all instructors on these materials.
• Partnered with the International Institute for Learning (IIL) to provide discounts to our members for events such as International Project Management Days and Agile days.
• Established a CAPM education program at UB with their Engineering department through our Outreach team.
• Supported Future Cities, Wounded Warrior and Enactus community programs
• Introduced an annual Scholarship program to support worthy students in curriculums related to Project Management.
• Recognized new members, member certifications and anniversaries.
• Recognized our volunteers’ achievements through Volunteer of the Quarter and Year awards, and Annual Volunteer Recognition events.
• Continued to implement our Technology Roadmap to better support our internal and external stakeholders, including a website upgrade and new data analytics tool.
• Celebrated our 20^th anniversary with several past presidents at our 2015 Fall Professional Day.
• Hosted a Strategic Planning session with 3 other chapters in 2015.
• Made improvements in many internal practices:
  • Aligned our Board and Director leadership teams through joint, quarterly meetings to focus on chapter operations.
  • Executed annual orientation sessions for both Board members and Directors.
  • Defined and gave focus to 3 key strategies, and measured progress via a Balanced Scorecard.
  • Moved to a calendar year start for our Board member terms, to permit a 6-month orientation period for incoming Board members, which allows them to participate in the development of their first year’s operations plan and budget.
  • Introduced formal transition planning for Board member roles.
  • Updated our Operations Manual and began development of SOPs for all functional areas.
  • Spun off Certification Training from the Professional Development function in order to ensure sufficient focus is given to both areas.
  • Moved to electronic expense reimbursements.
  • Strengthened our financial sustainability to meet PMI Global’s requirements for chapters.
  • Delivered multiple presentations at PMI’s annual Leadership Institute Meetings.
  • Introduced an Annual Report that highlights not only our achievements, but also the many PDU earning opportunities and benefits provided by the chapter.

In addition to serving as Past President next year, I will be taking on the volunteer role of Region Mentor for the North Central Region. So, I will be working with 24 chapters across 6 states – sharing what I have learned while working with the Buffalo, NY chapter for close to 13 years. This is an exciting undertaking for me, and one that I am better prepared for due to the amazing people and work I’ve been involved with right here in Buffalo.

It has truly been an honour to serve all of you as President of this wonderful chapter! I wish you all the best of luck in your professional and personal lives.

JoAnn