Volunteer of the Quarter
1Q10:
Dave Case
Dave has been a member of the New Jersey Chapter
since 1999 and received his PMP certification in 2002. From 2000
through 2006, Dave was the chapter’s newsletter editor. He continued to
generate the newsletter even while he was working at the Kennedy Space
Center in Florida. Once he returned to NJ to work at Telcordia Technologies
as a Senior Project Manager, he became the chapter’s lead photographer.
For the past three years, all the pictures
taken at the monthly meetings and at the May/November Symposia have been
the responsibility of Dave Case. During this time, he has taken over 1,800
pictures for the monthly meetings while he and his photo team have shot
over 3,500 pictures for both the May and November events. A portion of
these pictures appear on the chapter’s website. All of the pictures can
be previewed at www.damaca.smugmug.com/pmi/.
Volunteer
of the Quarter 4Q09:
Sandy Sandlin
Sandy Sandlin has been named our Volunteer
of the Quarter. Sandy works with the Programs' Evaluation Team to streamline
the process and to make it easier for everyone to review the results.
The team that he is leading tabulates survey results from each of the eight
monthly meetings held each year:
-
Around 175 - 200 people at the main site
-
10 - 25 people at each of the satellite locations
There are currently satellite sites in Camden,
Fairfield, Iselin, Princeton, and Roseland. While the amount of work is
steadily increasing, the team is looking for ways to provide the results
quickly. Through Sandy's efforts, the Evaluation Team is a strong
team which always remains positive and willing to help.
Volunteer
of the Quarter 3Q09:
Barbara Fuller
Volunteer extraordinaire would best describe
Barbara Fuller. Barbara has been a member of the New Jersey Chapter
since 2001. Barbara has been a PMP for over 10 years.
She has been actively involved in leading
the Career Networking Group since 2006. Under Barbara’s direction,
she has transformed the Career Networking Group from chapter members in
transition searching for a job to a true networking forum. In addition
to providing a venue for chapter members to network with each other, Barbara
has been very instrumental in bringing in speakers to educate and motivate.
Speakers have coached Career Networking Group members in the art of communication,
as well as boosting confidence. Group members and participants have
truly mastered the art of networking that goes well beyond job search.
The group meets at 5:30 prior to regularly scheduled chapter meetings each
month. By attending these meetings and sessions, members have learned
how to create a resume that gets a second look, honed interviewing skills
and perfected the effective 30 second elevator pitch.
Barbara was the program manger for the
Seminar @ Sea event in 2008. It was the first time such an event
was offered by the New Jersey Chapter and Barbara accepted and rose to
the challenge! She worked tirelessly to negotiate contracts with
suppliers, including the cruise ship, attract sponsors to participate in
the event, secure dynamic speakers, and provide a venue of overall fun.
Barbara successfully achieved a mix of fun and learning to all participants’
satisfaction.
Most recently Barbara program managed the
successful Career Workshop held at Rutgers University this past June. The
theme of the workshop was getting your career in shape for summer. In addition
to securing Rutgers School of Business as a host/sponsor and inviting career
coaches, Barbara also taught an elevator pitch session herself.
After completing her undergraduate and
graduate education in Ohio, she relocated to Dallas, Texas and soon connected
with AT&T where she worked for 21 years. To take on additional challenges
as an in-house consultant, AT&T relocated her to New Jersey. While
at AT&T, Barbara held various positions of increasing responsibility
focused on program and project delivery. Her final assignment at
AT&T was establishing and running a PMO. Her work there caused a transformation
in the information technology organization; the people, the processes and
the client perception.
Barbara left AT&T to pursue her own
business within the project management consulting arena. Her company
is called Process and Project Solutions, Inc.. She has successfully
built her client base utilizing project management skills to manage large
scale initiatives for customers or to provide process or project consulting
expertise. Recently she formed a professional and personal coaching business
for individuals, entrepreneurs and companies called “Focus on You, Now”.
It embraces her passion of developing people and teams using her many years
of coaching experience.
When asked about her successes whether
in her corporate life, as an entrepreneur or a leader of volunteers, she
recognizes the talent, and excellence of the people on the teams she has
led.
Volunteer
of the Quarter 2Q09:
Maureen Sammis
Maureen Sammis has been a member of the
New Jersey Chapter since 1992, when she achieved her PMP status. She has
been a role model of a volunteer for more than 7 years, mainly supporting
the Symposium and the International Project Management Day events with
communications. She has also contributed two poster presentations
to chapter symposia.
The Symposium Communications Team that
Maureen leads is our connection to the world. The role has grown through
the years. Currently, Maureen’s team develops content and writes articles
for the chapter web site, for specific e-mail notifications, for chapter
newsletters, and for PMI News articles. These pieces of journalism involve
pre-event and post-event objectives, and rely on input from the entire
Symposium Team. Maureen’s team takes feedback gracefully, while meeting
the deadlines. You know what is going on with upcoming symposium and International
Project Management Day events, thanks to Maureen and her team members.
Maureen spent 35 years of her career with
AT&T. For her last 5 years, she was the Vice President of Customer
Service, serving large business customers with worldwide networks.
She was one of the first executives on the AT&T Project Management
Organization board. After retiring from AT&T in 2004, Maureen has taken
on new challenges. She currently consults for Creative Resources, interfacing
with customers in the gourmet food industry to design, develop, and deliver
custom packaging, which is created in China. Her extensive project
management skills, as well as her communication and diplomacy skills, are
used daily.
Volunteer
of the Quarter 1Q09:
Steve Gould
While many students who have taken PMINJ
Chapter’s PMP Exam Prep class are familiar with our talented instructor
team, the class would not be possible without the tremendous dedication
of Steve Gould, a less visible volunteer who works behind the scenes to
ensure the course runs smoothly and professionally. And although
the instructor team has varied from class to class, Steve has remained
a constant - supporting this class quietly and relentlessly since 2001.
Steve has multiple responsibilities. All
students receive a large binder of materials that include a variety of
formats. Steve is responsible for coordinating the printing and distribution
of these materials, using his excellent negotiation skills to find the
lowest price and resolve various problems with printing facilities. His
dedication and flexibility has enabled smooth transitions over the years
as our materials grew from 500 to 800 pages, from overhead transparencies
to computer-based slides, from hotel sites to formal training facilities.
And on 3 Saturdays of each year for the past 8 years, no matter the location,
no matter the weather, while the rest of the world is sleeping, Steve is
up at the crack of dawn delivering the handouts to the class.
But Steve is not the kind of person to
let his responsibilities end at the delivery. He always takes the extra
step to distribute materials during class and follow-up with diverse student
requests, whether to adjust a thermostat, or replace a light bulb in the
LCD projector; he's even moved walls in training rooms. No matter
the situation, Steve always embodies the PMP Code of Conduct by treating
everyone with courtesy and respect. While tensions may rise, he remains
a cool and calming presence, and always gets the job done.
Probably the most difficult of his responsibilities
is maintaining version control of the materials. Because different instructors
customize their sections, or the PMBOK undergoes revisions, or updates
are made in the spirit of continuous improvement, there are always changes
being made. Therefore managing the version control is an absolute essential
element. It is a very difficult task, and like everything else, Steve
handles it with aplomb and good humor. Steve's relentless dedication makes
the chapter’s PMP Prep Course a best in class offering.
Volunteer
of the Quarter 4Q08:
Jane Banfield
Countless contributions were made by volunteers
on the 2007-2008 PMI/NJ Programs team.
While everyone worked hard to make these
meetings successful, Jane Banfield efforts have been instrumental in the
success of the programs.
Besides working with the caterers and the
audiovisual contacts, she has also interacted closely with the satellite
sites to ensure that the people in these locations are able to hear what
is going on at the meetings as well having the ability to ask questions.
This has resulted in her visiting the main meeting locations and arriving
at the main location the day of the meeting anywhere from mid afternoon
to a couple of hours before the start of the meeting. She has spent hours
working with the audiovisual contact at the main meeting location adjusting
the equipment to improve the sound quality. Due to her patience and attention
to detail, the attendees at the satellite locations have had very good
experiences. In fact, the contact for the Marlton location sent a note
to the Board thanking us for our efforts.
Volunteer of the
Quarter 3Q08:
Eileen Szperka
Eileen Szperka brings more than 30 years
of experience in health care, financial, clinical and management information
systems to her PMI NJ chapter volunteering. She also brings a can-do attitude
and terrific people skills, which are needed on the Symposium Facilities
Team. Eileen has been the Team Lead for Facilities for the past 3 symposium
events, including new locations with record-setting attendance. Before
that, Eileen was a proactive member of the Symposium Facilities Team for
over a year.
The Symposium Facilities Team is where
the rubber hits the road. There are significant planning as well as execution
and closing activities, and tremendous amounts of interdependencies to
be managed. Eileen is responsible for selecting the symposium locations,
negotiating the facilities, A/V, and hotel contracts, addressing the changing
needs of speakers and vendors, providing the essential layout diagrams
that help attendees navigate the events easily, ensuring that the A/V is
perfect and has back-ups, and most importantly, that the food part of the
experience is excellent both in terms of quality and service. As we have
more events and events get longer and more complicated in terms of programs,
the challenges of the Facilities Team increase, but Eileen has built a
strong team and mentored a co-lead, which will help us continue in this
area with excellence.
Eileen’s thoughts on her PMI NJ volunteering
experience:
“After passing
my PMP Certification in July, 2005, I decided that I didn’t want to belong
to an organization and not be active. Then I went to the PMI NJ November
Symposium and was so impressed with the group that I signed-up to be on
a committee. Since then I have been active on the Facilities Team
for the Symposium, first as a team member and in 2007 as Team Lead.
Although working
on the Facilities Team can be challenging at times, it is very rewarding
when things come together and you hear from the attendees that it is the
best event they have attended. Volunteering has broadened my understanding
of how project management impacts other industries. It allows you
to network with people you might otherwise not have met. I have had
the chance to be mentored by some individuals that I see as role models
and I have developed friendships that I know will last.”
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!
Updated: 26Jan10 |
