A message from PMI CVC President Brett Sheffield
(October 7, 2023) They say it is never too late to send a ‘Thank You’ note, so while I still have time to respond to a few aunts and cousins (twice removed) with graduation thank you notes, I realized that I really should send one to my mentor.
I was chatting with my mentor the other day on the impact of Artificial Intelligence "AI" on project management and if she felt the new Generative AI overview class that PMI is offering was on par or better than some of the training symposiums she had attended. After chatting for a quick 30 minutes, she made the comment that “a lot has changed in project management over the years, but AI is going to very rapidly change it”. As I thought about how project management has changed since I got my PMP, I appreciated that she had been mentoring me for almost 14 years as she was one of the first members I had the pleasure of meeting when I joined the chapter back in 2010. While Gantt charts may not have changed much, the impact of Agile methodologies have been transforming, teams are more diverse and less co-located, and technology has been exponentially transforming the speed, scope, and cost of projects. One thing that hasn’t changed is that for 14 years, she has put up with my stupid questions, panic attacks, and the “Hey, I need your expertise…” needs as my “In case of emergency, break glass” Bat symbol person. She has made me a better project manager and I would not be where I am in my career without her help.
Ok, Brett, that’s great that you appreciate your mentor, but how does this apply to the Chapter?
Over the past weeks we have had several in person events and two questions/topics that I am always asked are “How can we have more engagement?” and “Can we have a mentoring program?” These are great questions.
The board has been working hard to make this a year of transformation with increased member engagement. To date, we have had six in-person meetings this year with more planned, including a new member appreciation event and a holiday event to close out the year. That would be over eight in-person events this year, exceeding the two in-person meetings that were held last year.
While the word ‘synergy’ is often overstated, when used in context about mentoring, it is very appropriate as having a strong mentoring program helps to increase chapter engagement. Keeping members involved, developing friendships that help with career development, professional (and personal) achievement, and knowledge transfer helps foster a healthy and growing chapter.
But as a project manager, I have learned that mutuality is a key component for success in any endeavor. Having an incredible mentor during my project manager journey has been fortuitous but before we can provide similar opportunities for our members with a mentoring program, we must start with having volunteers that are willing to learn and share their time, knowledge, and friendship to participate.
As a Chapter, we want to foment an environment that enables our members to pursue project management excellence. I believe having a mentorship program cultivates camaraderie, engagement, and achievement for all our members, and is a cornerstone for a more dynamic and thriving Chapter.
I know this is an ambitious ask, but one that I aspire to be rewarding across the breadth of our Chapter membership as we elevate our collective capabilities. Please email us at contact.us@pmicvc.org to volunteer as a mentor, and reciprocate your knowledge and experience. If you would like to have a mentor help you in your project management journey email us there, as well. We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Brett Sheffield, PMP, SMC, LSSGB, CES
President
Contact us at:
A message from PMI CVC President Brett Sheffield
(August 20, 2023) I was having an 80’s flashback the other day (no, not reminiscing about my hair line back then) when I noticed that one of my favorite mtovies, “Back to the Future”, was on cable. The sci-fi comedy was the biggest movie in 1985 and was based on an interesting premise about the ability to go back in time to change the future, and notwithstanding the ability to drive a DeLorean, I am sure many of us have waxed poetically about having the ability to do just that.
This year, we have had several networking and speaker events, and on September 12th, our Chapter is going “Back to the Future’ too, as we are honored to bring back Carl Prichard to speak at our first dinner meeting of the year. While we will not be able to return to monthly dinner meetings, we do plan on having them as part of part of our member engagement schedule in 2024.
For members who are unfamiliar with Carl, he was one of our most popular speakers not only for his incredible knowledge but also his presentation style. If you ask anyone that has had the pleasure of hearing him speak before are not surprised that he was awarded the PMI Global “Best of the Best” award in 2019 as a presenter. Regarding his knowledge, he is often cited as the premier subject matter professional on risk management by industry professionals. One could even say that he wrote the book on risk management, which he literally has. His book, Risk Management: Concepts and Guidance, is considered as the leading reference book on risk management and he was selected by PMI to author the official Risk Management Certification (PMI–RMP) study guidebook.
As project managers, we know all projects have risks and that risk is unbiased to industry and project management methodology. Whether you are new to project management or a veteran of the complexity of risk management on projects, Carl’s insight will be invaluable to providing a better understanding on how to deliver project success with improved risk orientation.
So, please join us on September 12th as we go “Back to the Future” as a chapter with our special keynote speaker Carl Pritchard and return to more regular in person meeting. An early bird registration until August 25 can be seen on the event registration page.
Sincerely,
Brett Sheffield, PMP, SMC, LSSGB, CES
President
Contact us at:
A message from PMI CVC President Brett Sheffield
(April 1, 2023)
Voice of the Customer – a Six Sigma tool used by businesses to identify and align their offerings with the needs, wants, and requirements of their customers to help define the quality and value of a product or service.
It sounds so simple – “just listen”, but we know as project managers that active listening and mindful listening are as much an art as it is a science. The adage that project management is 90% communication (along with 50% risk management and 50% scope management and 50% time management and….) has been stated many times in training courses and is often cited as one of the main reasons projects fail. The PMI CVC Board understands this, and want to hear your voice, the Voice of the Member. As this chapter's board we also want you to know that we do listen and are actively working to improve the quality and value of your membership.
To do that, we have taken on some initiatives that we want to implement this quarter that we believe will add value:
- Mentoring, job assistance, and certification resources – we are working on relaunching our mentoring and certification assistance programs as these were severely impacted by the pandemic. Within our membership, we have knowledgeable and experienced subject matter experts that can be tremendous resources to help our membership gain edification and grow professionally. We want to provide the framework to make these connections happen.
- Expanded in person networking events – As we exit the restrictions that the pandemic caused on in person events, we are looking to change our format. While we still have dinner meetings, we will also be having general networking events. Earlier this month we had an ‘Ask the Recruiter” event with Apex Systems. This month we having a networking event with a local nonprofit. While these events will still have PDU opportunities, our goal is to have less formal, more dynamic, and interactive events that allows for greater networking opportunities.
This month we have two great presentations that dovetail to these initiatives:
We are very honored to have Mindy Conklin, the Founder & Executive Director of Hitting Cancer Below the Belt (HCB2) share her breadth of knowledge and lessons learned over the past 10 years. Her journey has led her from a grass roots educational mission to being a nationally recognized nonprofit that has impact and saves lives. Her personal journey and message will be inspirational and insightful from both a project management and servant leadership perspective. Please register for this April 13th event at Three Notched Brewery. Our sponsor for this in-person event is International Consulting Services LLC.
The newest installment of our virtual speaker series will be about Disciplined Agile, the fastest growing PMI certification today. This April 19th event will be led by David Newman and Lisa Hammer, two elite instructors from PMI Training. This will be an insightful opportunity learn and ask questions, to see if this enterprise-level approach to Project Management is a methodology and certification that can help in your career.
These are just some of initiatives we are starting. While we have more planned, we know we could do more, and for that, we need to hear more of your voices. Please contact us with your ideas, wants and requirements. Together we can make project management excellence and improve your membership value. To paraphrase Frazier Crane, “Hello Central Virginia Chapter, we are listening.”
Sincerely,
Brett Sheffield, PMP, SMC, LSSGB, CES
President
Contact us at:
A message from PMI CVC President Brett Sheffield
[March 19, 2023]
As winter loses its hold on the weather and spring begins to bud and bloom; the PMI CVC chapter is also springing forward with new events after our first in person event of the year, the Volunteer Recognition dinner. We had a great time at the VMFA thanking all the volunteers that helped our chapter deliver programs over 2022 with an inspirational message from our keynote speaker, Aileen Ellis, sharing her expertise on how to overcome our internal hesitations to achieve personal goals.
This Wednesday, we have a joint networking event with Apex Systems at Richbrau Brewery (https://pmicvc.org/calendar?eventId=16267). This special event will include a recruiter panel from Apex to discuss how the hiring landscape has changed post Covid-19 and what we can do as project managers to better prepare and get hired for our next opportunity. So, whether you are in the market, thinking about being in the market, or just want to know how the market has changed, this is a great opportunity to connect and network directly recruiters. This is a free event and members are welcome to bring guests.
In our annual membership survey, the top two responses to member needs were a return to in-person events and increased PDU opportunities. I am happy to announce that we are finalizing details regarding upcoming events that will meet both these goals, so please look for upcoming news in our weekly newsletters
I look forward to seeing everyone Wednesday at Richbrau for the Apex recruiter panel networking event!
Sincerely,
Brett Sheffield, PMP, SMC, LSSGB, CES
President
Contact us at:
A message from PMI CVC President Brett Sheffield
Greetings and Happy New Year to our Central Virginia Chapter members and friends; we hope that the year has gotten off to a fantastic start for everyone!
First, I want to thank our membership for their effort, commitment, and involvement in supporting our Chapter over the past year and half as we move away from the pandemic to the ‘new normal” (or maybe just “a normal”); so, on behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to everyone who has contributed to supporting the Chapter.
As we look towards 2023, as a Chapter, we understand it will be a year of transition; moving and adjusting to new work/life balances – from remote to hybrid to back to the office, back to hybrid, to “wait, is today odd or even?”; - we as a Chapter are facing similar questions of balance.
While we will continue to offer professional development seminars and educational workshops to enhance your edification and knowledge skill set, along with networking events for volunteering and career growth opportunities; we have been asking ourselves: "Do we (can we) resume meeting again in person? Do we (should we) change our virtual meetings? How can we get back to networking like it's 2019?" These are but a small sample of the questions, from a strategic perspective, we have been asking as a Board when looking to how we plan out 2023.
One of our Objectives and Key Results for this year is increasing membership value – as American Express once touted, “Membership has it’s privileges”. For over 25 years, we have a dedicated and engaged membership that has propelled our organizational growth and outreach. Your ideas, participation, and volunteer assistance have been key synergetic components of the Chapter's success and we need your continued help and support to plan and develop the programs and events to fuel and propel both your professional and personal trajectory.
The old rules and playbook we once used to plan and germinate programs and events no longer apply in the post- pandemic era. The concept of “project management’ has had a morphosis, necessitating a need for new topics and professional development knowledge areas. An example of this is has been the shift to remote and hybrid work environments, which create unique challenges to communication management, one of the pillars of effective project management. We need to know about the new challenges that you are facing so we can develop and present programs that give you the disparate tools needed to be successful.
Another challenge we face as a Board is getting our in-person meetings restarted. Finding geographically functional locations that are economically feasible, while trying to realistically estimate attendance so we can properly budget, has been a formidable ask. While these are barriers, I believe that through your participation and with collective engagement, we can surmount these difficulties and we can make 2023 a year of achievement, accomplishment, and have the knowledge that; together, we made each other better.
I am honored to be your Chapter president and excited to share this trek with you. Please do not hesitate to contact me or the board with your ideas and suggestions, as it is only through this synergism that together we can build a thriving Chapter that provides Project Management Excellence.
Sincerely,
Brett Sheffield, PMP, SMC, LSSGB, CES
President
Contact us at:
