WebConnect

19 December 2009

A warm welcome to the festive edition of the PMI UK Chapter newsletter! Firstly I would like to announce the successful launch of our new web site.  After a number of months of hard work by the team, including a number of volunteers I am delighted to be able to say the site has been launched successfully offering a number of additional features compared to the old site, in particular an interactive forum which I hope will help create a vibrant community of Project Managers online.  Special recognition goes to Ifeyani Nwabueze, the volunteer Project Manager responsible for the web site project.

This is the first newsletter since IPM Day 2009 which was held in November at GSK, Stevenage.  The event was a huge success attracting over 200 delegates all of whom were able to hear a number of prestigious speakers free of charge.  I believe this to be one of the few events in the UK where you can hear such impressive speakers free of charge.  This was made possible largely as a result of the fact GSK offered to host this years event for which we are extremely grateful.     In the future we hope to be able to keep IPM Day and other similar events free of charge by continuing to develop close working relations with such supportive organisations.  Thanks go to Nazia Soonasra, this years IPM Day volunteer Project Manager for her tireless efforts to make the event such a success.  In fact the feedback was such we believe this to be one of our best ever events!

Speaking of volunteers very many congratulations to Mike Bennewitz the PMI UK Chapter Volunteer of the Year.  Mike has contributed endless hour in organising a number of the South West regional events, effort that has not gone unnoticed by the rest of the team - well done!  Mike will be awarded his trophy at the PMI UK Chapter AGM early next year and is the lucky winner of an all expenses paid trip to the PMI Leadership Institute Meeting that will be held in Milan in May.

I have been working with the Board over the past few weeks to agree our priorities for the coming year.  In keeping with the Chapter's Mission we are ensuring a single-minded focus on our members for 2010 and hope to be able to announce some very exciting plans particularly concerning a number of opportunities made available though our partners in the UK.  These will be announced via the web site in the new members only section over the next few weeks.

Further I am delighted to welcome a number of new members to the Board who will be working with us on these initiatives.  The results of the elections held in late 2009 are now available and I am pleased to be able to share them with you.  Anne Boundford will be joining us as the new Director of Marketing, Manon Deguire as Director of Programmes and Nathan Gillies as the new Director of Volunteering.  My sincere thanks to both Darrel Rogan and Richard Carr who will be leaving the Board at the end of their full term at the end of 2009 - you will be missed.  Duncan Chappell our current Director of Communication and Gauarav Sethi, Director of Finance and Administration have also been reappointed to their current roles for a further two year term.

2009 has been an exciting year for the PMI UK Chapter and we have even more ambitious plans for 2010. If you would like to be a part of them I would invite you to contact one of the Board to discuss opportunities to get involved.  In the meantime I invite you to visit the new web site and take a look around - given the site is new we are particularly interested in everyone's feedback.  Finally I would like to take this opportunity to wish each and every Chapter member and family a very Merry Christmas and successful 2010.

With Best Wishes....