NJPMI Volunteer of the Quarter

Volunteer of the Quarter

Volunteer of the Quarter 1Q08:

Kelly Rasmussen

For years, she has been a great asset to the PMI NJ Chapter successfully supporting the monthly meetings, the Annual Symposium, PMP training class, International Project Management day, and more. Kelly started volunteering as the Project Manager – On-Line Registration in 2004. At that time, there was a project manager responsible for manual registration and one for on-line registration. Due to her diligence and willingness to please, this volunteer position has expanded. Starting this year, registration is only available through the on-line registration and therefore the entire registration process is her responsibility.
She works behind the scenes to ensure that the online registration system runs smoothly and the resulting list of registrants is correct. She is the one who you contact if you encounter such issues as your password for the on-line registration system is suddenly no longer valid or if you never received an e-mail message indicating that your registration was accepted by the system. In addition, she maintains the list of those individuals who decided to take advantage of registering for the 8 meetings to be held during the program year in September and checks that the final registration list is accurate. She also creates the formatted registration list used by the On-Site Registration Team and Career Networking Program Group as well as the one for generating the name tags for each evening meeting. She trained someone to print the name tags and serves as the backup to this position.
In addition, Kelly has become in many cases the first point of contact for not only questions related to Programs registration but also the other events sponsored by our chapter. She takes the time to find the appropriate individual to respond directly to each member’s inquiries. Given all of Kelly's efforts to support the chapter, Kelly is well deserving of this PMI/NJ "Volunteer of the Quarter” recognition.

Volunteer of the Quarter 4Q07:

Harry Chiovarou

Being “The A/V Guy” is one of those jobs that if done well, is in fact invisible! So, many of you may not know Harry the way the PMI NJ Symposium Planning Team does! But join us in recognizing Harry as our first "Volunteer of the Quarter”. We are starting this form of recognition to show our appreciation for some invaluable team players, without whom our events would not be successful.
Harry joined our Facilities Team as the point person for audio-visual needs in 2004. He has now successfully supported 5 major events at four different locations! Every space has different challenges in terms of ensuring that the speaker can be seen and heard by everyone in the audience. He is responsible to solicit, select, manage, and work with subcontractors. There are the technology unknowns! And there is the holding your breath phenomenon on the day of the event, in between responding to calls to fix a microphone that has suddenly stopped working or other glitch. In all of this, Harry has shown leadership, patience, perseverance, adherence to the highest standards of quality, and, yes, good cheer! For this we honor him!
Harry can only recall “one time when there was a potential for problems. It was before the 2006 Symposium, when the in-house A/V contractor could not get the dual projectors working in the General Session room. He was up until about 1:00 AM trying to fix it. Luckily the technician who came at 6:00 AM was able to fix the problem.” And no one except the planning team knew about it!!
Harry recommends volunteering to chapter members: “Volunteering is not only a good way to get PDUs, it is also good for getting noticed and for networking. I’m glad the chapter has given me the opportunity to do something I enjoy.”
Stop by at the upcoming IPM Day Event November 1 or at next May’s Symposium to let Harry know what a great contribution he is making!
If you would like to volunteer for the chapter, please contact volunteers(:@:)pminj.org. If you would like to nominate a Volunteer member for this recognition, send a note explaining who and why to recognition(:@:)pminj.org.

New Jersey: