Presidents Message

Frank Pugh, PMI Tallahassee Chapter President

Greetings PMI Tallahassee Chapter members and friends!

Fall is here and despite the effects of the Atlantic hurricane season, let’s resolve to get outside and enjoy the cooler and lower humidity weather. Tallahassee has nearly 100 parks and they call us to get outside and spend time with friends and family. Even if your schedule only permits backyard activities, get out there and enjoy what many call Tallahassee’s finest weather!

Fall also means election season and the chapter is no exception. We thank the members who voted this year and elected three new board members and re-elected one incumbent board member. We have new leadership in the Professional Development, Membership and Volunteers areas, and continuity of leadership in Financial area. We are grateful that these members, all volunteers, threw their hats in the ring and are embarking on new two-year terms that start on January 1st, 2025.

We also have a late breaking opportunity for a volunteer to assume the role of the Vice President of Programs for the remaining one year of the term. If you are interested in serving PMI at a higher level, please visit the board position descriptions document to learn more about the position. This position offers an excellent opportunity for in-person member contact and plays a central role in making our chapter meetings high value events.

In advance of the new year, PMI at large has unveiled a new program called PMI:Next. Our Board Liaison, Debbie Rivenburg, attended the PMI Leadership Institute Meeting earlier this fall and reports that PMI is bringing increased focus on core principles, offerings, and audience. Under PMI:Next, PMI is advocating clarity on our unique value proposition, our mission and values and how we engage members, both current and prospective. 

We will bring you more on PMI:Next as we engage in planning activities for the next year. Per PMI recommendations, we are starting this conversation and analysis earlier than in previous years. We all agree that our focus should remain on our members. That is nothing new. Still, we need to take a fresh look at how we show our value to our prospective members. We want to give everyone the accurate impression that what we do at PMI is unique and valuable. We want all members to enjoy elevated networking, professional development, access to knowledge, tools, techniques, and other forms of value. Being excellent project managers who bring more and more value to our projects is our goal. Learning these things from PMI and one another is a high calling indeed.

We want to hear more from you as we plan and execute next year’s chapter engagement plan. Last year we learned a great deal from you when we sent out focused surveys on matters such as the best time to conduct events and meet. We will be sending out short surveys from time to time as we assess your interest in various topics such as Disciplined Agile, a great way to fit the several ways of working to your project. We also want to know your opinion on how to reach people you might know who show project manager potential and interest. We will also enhance our website to provide you with more ways to interact with us. Of course, we are always reachable by email at our board position email (mine is president@pmitlh.org) and group email address (pmiboard@pmitlh.org).

Since this is our last newsletter of the year, the PMI TLH Board members want thank you for your participation in what this chapter has to offer. In addition to choosing us as your home chapter, we love when you participate. Whether it was volunteering for a chapter project, mentoring a new member, attending an event, answering a survey, or something as small as opening and reading our newsletter, we appreciate your involvement!