On Thursday, February 16, PMI Southwest Missouri will host a round table discussion on all aspects of career advancement for the project manager. Facilitated by Juanita Woods, Performance and Project Management Coach for Pro3 Solutions, this discussion will focus on three key areas of professional development to help you stand out in your career search:

• What do you need to do? Experience requirements for aspiring and advancing project managers
• What do you need to know? Benefits of certification and training to your career
• Who do you need to know? Leveraging social media to network and market yourself to hiring managers and recruiters

The meeting will be held at the Library Center in Springfield, MO. The address for the meeting location is:

The Library Center [MAP]
4653 South Campbell Avenue
Springfield, MO 65810-1723
(417) 883-5366

The meeting will start at 6:30 pm, but the doors will be open at 6:00 pm to give everyone a chance to network with the SW MO project management community.

Remember, this will be a PDU event and is FREE. Attendees will earn 1 PDU. You DO NOT have to be PMI certified or a PMI member to attend. Project Managers of all industries are welcome and encouraged to attend. Please register using the form below.

Event Registration for February 2012 Chapter Meeting - FEB2012

About the speaker:

Juanita Woods is the owner of Pro3 Solutions, a training and consulting company for all things project, program, and portfolio management. With nearly 15 years of managing projects, programs, and people, Juanita understands what it takes to be a successful project manager and coaches project managers at all stages of their career to be successful. Her passion to help others and promote the project/program management profession drove her to lead the formation of the PMI Southwest Missouri chapter and share her knowledge and experiences with others through coaching, training, and consulting engagements.

— Juanita

• 1/19/12
• 2/16/12
• 3/15/12
• 4/19/12
• 5/17/12
• 6/21/12
• 7/19/12
• 8/16/12
• 9/20/12
• 10/11/12
• 11/15/12

We are also looking for speakers for the chapter meetings. If you would like to speak, please contact programs@pmiswmo.org with your meeting topic and selected dates. Your topic can align with a specific knowledge area, consist of a project overview, or present just about any topic that would be of interest to the project management community.

— Juanita

The Library Center
4653 South Campbell Avenue
Springfield, MO 65810-1723
(417) 883-5366

The meeting will start at 6:30 pm, but the doors will be open at 6:00 pm to give everyone a chance to network with the SW MO project management community.  This month’s speaker will be Dr. Dianne Slattery, Associate Professor and Director, Center for Project Innovation and Management Education (C-PRIME), at Missouri State University.

Dr. Slattery will present an overview of the Associated Schools of Construction annual management competition and how the students at Missouri State approach the competition as a project. With assistance from selected students, she will discuss the competition format and lessons learned in forming the project team, planning, executing, and finalizing the project. 

The Chapter will also take this opportunity to discuss the new student association at Missouri State University. Dr. Neal Callahan, active chapter member and Professor at Missouri State University will serve as Director, Student Programs on the chapter board and act as the faculty advisor for the University program.

Remember, this will be a PDU event. Attendees will earn 1 PDU. You DO NOT have to be PMI certified or a PMI member to attend. Project Managers of all industries are welcome and encouraged to attend.

Event Registration for January 2012 Chapter Meeting - JAN2012

— Juanita

This prep class will not only educate participants to the exam material, but will provide valuable insight on both the material and exam from PMP certified project managers. Additionally, by the end of the class, all students will have the education hours necessary to sit for the exam.

The prep class will be held on Saturdays from 3/10/12 – 4/14/12 from 9 pm – 4 pm. Through a partnership with Missouri State University’s Center for Project Innovation and Mgmt Education, this class will meet in Kemper 205 on Missouri State’s campus.

PMI SWMO Membership has its benefits! We are offering the prep class at a discounted rate for chapter members.
• $725 – SWMO chapter members registered by 1/28/12 ($775 after 1/28/12).
• $875 – Non PMI SWMO chapter members register by 1/28/12 ($950 after 1/28/12).

The class fee will include a binder of all class materials, copy of the Project Management Body of Knowledge, access to an online PMP practice test bank as well as lunch and morning coffee/donuts.

Not sure if the PMP/CAPM Exam Review class is right for you? Check the PMI Website for PMP/CAPM exam pre-requisites. If you still have questions, please send us a message at profdev@pmiswmo.org.

Active Chapter Member? Contact Brad for the discount code to receive the member pricing before you register. Once your membership is confirmed, a discount code will be sent to you.

For questions or to volunteer, please contact Brad (brad@pmiswmo.org)

Important! Registration is a two-part process. Enter your contact information below and then when the page refreshes, enter your payment information.

Event Registration for 2012 PMP/CAPM Exam Prep Course - 2012ExamPrep

— Brad

This is a free PDU event. All participants can claim 1PDU for attending this webinar. You can find more details and register for the webinar at http://euniv-evm4sdlc.eventbrite.com/.

Enjoy and Happy Holidays from the Officers of PMI Southwest Missouri

— Juanita

The board for the 2012 calendar year is as follows:

• President – Pam Abdon
• Vice President Administration – Julie Clark
• Vice President Finance – Monte Smith
• Vice President Membership – Melba Throne
• Vice President Professional Development – Brad Tummons
• Vice President Marketing – NK Shrivastava
• Vice President Communications – Sean Masterson
• Vice President Programs – OPEN
• Founding/Past President – Juanita Woods

These board changes are effective January 1, 2012, and the board is meeting on December 17 for a 2012 strategy meeting and transfer of responsibility. If you have ideas for the chapter, please let a board member know. The chapter success is based on your involvement, and the board is hear to meet your needs.

Have a wonderful holiday season!

Juanita Woods, President, 2012

— Juanita

Our planned agenda includes:

1. Introduce the 2012 Board
2. Review the 2011 Accomplishments
3. Announce the 2012 Expectations
4. Recognize our Volunteers

We are extremely pleased to announce that our distinguished guest speaker will be Walter Viali, our PMI Region 6 Mentor.

Walter is a Project Management and Project Management Office (PMO) Management Consultant, Certified Project Management Professional (PMP) with a varied background in different industries, which has included several domestic and international assignments.  Walter was also a Certified Software Quality Analyst (CSQA) for many years and has extensive knowledge and experience in Strategic Business Planning, Business Reengineering, Information Systems Planning, Portfolio Management, Process and Project Management, Project Management Office (PMO) implementation and Joint Application Development (JAD) session leading (approximately 4,500 hours of facilitation in the U.S., Europe and Asia in all phases of planning, application development, process redesign and problem solving).  He has significant experience in Process and Project Management assessments based on the Software Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Model (SEI CMM) and PMI’s Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3).  Walter was an adjunct professor at the University of Houston College of Technology in the Project Management Faculty.  He has been quoted in several trade journals and books over the years and has published articles on Business Reengineering and Information Technology issues.  Walter has made numerous presentations on Strategic Planning, Application Development strategies and Business Reengineering at several conferences, seminars, colleges and universities from 1987 up to the present.   He has also delivered several presentations on
Project Management topics to numerous PMI Chapters in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Europe, as well as at the PMI North American Congresses in Houston and Anaheim.  Walter was a member of the PMI team that authored the first release of the PMI OPM3 assessment standard.  He was on the Board of the PMI Houston Chapter from 2002 until 2008 and its President in 2007.  He was also on the Board of the PMI Clear Lake-Galveston Chapter in 2009-2010.    As of 1/1/2011, Walter is the Region Mentor for PMI’s Region 6 (23 Chapters and over 21,000 PMI members in the South Central U.S.).

Please mark your calendars now and make plans to attend this year’s PMI SWMO Annual Business Meeting!

RSVP and payment in advance is greatly appreciated. Menu is available for your review here: November 2011 Dinner Menu.

Event Registration for November 2011 Annual Dinner Meeting - NOV2011

— Juanita

The Library Center
4653 South Campbell Avenue
Springfield, MO 65810-1723
(417) 883-5366

The meeting will start at 6:30 pm, but the doors will be open at 6:00 pm to give everyone a chance to network with the SW MO project management community.  This month’s speaker will be Paul Hauschen, PMP, CPCU, Director, PMO, Farm Family Insurance Company.

The meeting topic is about using a Balanced Scorecard approach to align projects to organizational strategy.

Prioritizing projects in a portfolio is a key challenge for the project management office.  While cost benefit analysis is “doing things right”, it is alignment to strategy that identifies the “right things to do”.   At Farm Family Insurance, once the project is cost justified, it is also prioritized by its fit to strategy.  The PMO took the corporate balanced scorecard and used it to create a prioritization model.  The prioritization model is weighted to the dimensions of the balanced scorecard.  Risk factors are also identified and given weight within the model.  The end result is a portfolio that clearly aligns projects to the strategic goals of the company.

Remember, this will be a PDU event. Attendees will earn 1 PDU. Individuals involved in project management in all industries are welcome and encouraged to attend. You DO NOT have to be PMI certified or a PMI member to attend. Project Managers of all industries are welcome and encouraged to attend.

A little more about this month’s speaker:

Paul Hauschen, PMP, CPCU, is the Director, Multiple Line PMO, ANPAC and Farm Family Insurance Companies.  Paul has over 25 years experience in information systems and business divisions spanning several industries.  He has worked in manufacturing with the Rayovac Corporation, catalog distribution with the Pleasant Company, financial services with the CUNA Mutual Group, and government in the New York State Comptroller’s Project Management Office.  He founded PMP Prep workshops in both Madison, Wisconsin, and Albany, New York, chapters of PMI.  Paul earned his Project Management Professional (PMP) in 1997, his Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) in 2007, and holds a Master of Science in Project Management from the University of Wisconsin.

Event Registration for October 2011 Chapter Meeting - OCT2011

— Juanita

The address for Mr. Yens is:
4117 South National Avenue
Springfield, MO 65807-5356

This month’s presentation will be structured in a forum format, where the panel of experts will answering and providing insight into various questions, issues, and situations that are facing project managers in SW Mo. If you’re interested in sitting on the panel for this month’s meeting, please let me know at vpprograms@pmiswmo.org (PDUs are available for your participation). Additionally if you have any questions, issues, situations, or scenario’s that you would like to have discussed/answered by the panel, please email them to me at vpprograms@pmiswmo.org.

Remember, this will be a PDU event. Attendees will earn 1 PDU. Individuals involved in project management in all industries are welcome and encouraged to attend. You DO NOT have to be PMI certified or a PMI member to attend. Project Managers of all industries are welcome and encouraged to attend.

Event Registration for September 2011 Meeting -

— Brad

We are looking for a project manager who can manage complete ecommerce project builds and long-term program relationships. We build ecommerce projects on Magento, the fastest growing ecommerce platform on the market. We’ve building sites on this platform since it came out in 2008, and are expanding our team to satisfy the ever-growing demand for quality companies who can build Magento ecommerce sites.

The Company:

Classy Llama Studios, according to its namesake, is a bit different. Our culture is a bit zany, our approach to business is a bit unconventional, and it seems to be working quite well. We have a team of highly committed llamas that care about each other and care about the clients we serve. We have each other’s backs, and what we do is more than a job; we are fulfilling a mission and pursuing a vision that we are passionate about. There’s meaning to what we do, and that’s the most important thing we have to offer new team members.

Click HERE for more information.

— Joe