Presidents Message

Frank Pugh, PMI Tallahassee Chapter President

Hello PMT Tallahassee Chapter Members and Friends: 

This year is shaping up to be a dynamic and exciting time to be a member of the Project Management Institute global family.  PMI at large has fully rolled out the Project Management Body of Knowledge, 8th edition and as of this July, training partners are preparing prospective certification test takers for the content in this new edition.  PMI is also putting all new emphasis on forming student clubs to facilitate new membership, and to recruit a new set of prospective professionals for our multiple certifications.   We are also seeing the successful implementation of the new membership model in other parts of the world.  This new model puts a premium on chapter membership and involvement and will roll out in the United States in 2027.  

In addition to the excitement PMI has been sharing, your local chapter is keeping a brisk pace with roadmap and pop-up events.   We have hosted multiple lunch and learns on the topics of wellness and communication.  We have heard from the CTO of the Florida Technology Council, the CEO of Trulight Consulting, and an Airport Construction Project Manager at our Chapter meetings.  All of these speakers provided insights relevant to and useful for the profession of project management.     

Recently, we hosted a lunch and learn focusing on the new PMBOK edition (8).  In this session, we learned from Authorized Training Parters from Strategic Optimization and Research (SOAR) and the Mathis Group.  The discussion helped the attendees realize that PMBOK 8 refines project and balances principles, focus areas and performance domains.  The new edition also made beneficial changes to the definition of a project!  We encourage you to learn more about it. How about using the PMI Infinity to learn? 

PMI’s AI, known as Infinity, has the power to help you keep up with the changing landscape in project management.  PMI infinity is included in your membership and is available for you to use for this and other research topics.  If you are fuzzy about some PM concept, prompt infinity to address your learning needs on the topic at hand. Infinity will break down the concepts you need to understand better.  It really works, and as several speakers have emphasized in past chapter meetings and events, it becomes your thinking and learning partner.  

Regarding the PMI emphasis on student clubs, we have formed a task force comprised of board members, volunteers and local education professionals to bring the PMI model of student clubs to Tallahassee. They work by providing sponsorship from the chapter, as well as the participating academic institutions.  Clubs are self-organizing within this framework and will go through many of the same processes as the full chapter. For example, the clubs will elect their own officers, create and follow bylaws and policies and procedures.  They will use our highly successful Volunteer Engagement Platform to recruit officers and volunteers. They will also conduct professional development activities and partner with the chapter on the same.

While these new volunteers are engaging this fall, we will be busy doing the same.  You will see us reach out for volunteers and other forms of support for our top two causes this year, namely the Alzheimer's Walk and the GALF2 Diaper Drive.  We will report on our progress in the October Chapter meeting.  We also will be holding elections for key positions in our all-volunteer PMI Tallahassee board of directors.   These positions include the areas of Professional Development, Membership, Volunteers, and Finance. 

We have long emphasized that we use your survey feedback as a way of continually improving.  We have gathered from your feedback that you want to see more hybrid events.   We have the technology and know how to do this.  We will gladly resume this practice for our October Chapter meeting and continue this practice for lunch and learns and book clubs.  Hybrid is especially appropriate since our October meeting features our report to members and the kickoff of elections for chapter board positions. 

We hope to see you at our multiple events that are coming up.   We will be posting to our website social media upcoming events.  These events will include chapter meetings for August, October and December, as well as major professional development events in September and November. 

Hope to see you there!