PMI InsightsA publication for members of the PMI Chicagoland Chapter

PMI Chicagoland Chapter • P.O. Box 1183 • La Grange Park, IL 60526 • www.pmi-chicagoland.org

Mentoring Opportunity Knocks, PMI Chicagoland Members AnswerMembers of PMI Chicagoland team opened the door on opportunities to mentor oth-ers and grow by learning from more experienced mentors during last month’s work-shop titled “The Agile Mentor” on January 17 at DePaul University. The workshop was held in support of the January 2015 National Mentoring Month and it drew about 60 project management professionals.

The continuing-education session adopted the scrum team's self-organizing prin-ciples to “lead without the title” and look for mentors in their own practice. It was part of a long-running PMI Chicagoland program to match senior project managers with less experienced project management professionals.

"Everybody has some type of genius," said Mark J. Carter, Corporate Event Planner, who opened the Saturday session. "You can learn from a 20 year old, and people with no experience in project management may know someone with an answer”. According to Carter, mentoring provides a simple framework: As a mentor you provide advice, support and connections. The mentee (or person being mentored) typically is seeking to solve problems to create opportunities.

The six (6) hour workshop session included several teams that were designed to bring mentoring principals to work in an interactive development exercise. Each work team brainstormed an aviation system that could integrate college campuses and major cities. The teams had 90 minutes to identify a project manager, and their team's two biggest issues and the solutions.

After completing the assignment, in the simulation teams had to face unexpected disruptions. Without warning, two random members from each team were transferred to other teams. Then, the newly formulated teams were tasked with developing a contingency emergency plan for their previous conclusion. Success required quickly bringing the new team members up to speed on the team’s plan and listening to any improvements the new team members might suggest.

FEBRUARY 2015

"We wanted to go beyond

mentoring in the corporate world

and in organizations like PMI.

We wanted to include an outreach

to the community. Challenging

attendees to mentorship, person

by person, we can create a huge

impact in the community."

Program Lead Bettina Davey, PMP

continued next page

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FEBRUARY 2015PMI Insights

MENTORING – continued from page 1

“What a great listener my mentor was,” said participant Sana Mahmood. “It’s a level of attention we just don’t get anymore.” According to Bettina Davey, PMP, Program Lead, the National Mentoring Month workshop concept was to get people involved with one another and participate. "Mentoring is something you have to experience, when it works everyone benefits, mentoring builds better communities," said Davey.

“We wanted to go beyond mentoring in the corporate world and in organizations like PMI,” said Davey. “We wanted to include an outreach to the community. Challenging attend-ees to mentorship, person by person, we can create a huge impact in the community."

According to Louisa Kim, Vice President of Membership, and Group Lead for PMI Chicagoland Mentoring Program, each year the Chicagoland’s Mentoring Program pairs approximately twenty (20) Mentors with students and early career professionals in a six-month formal program. They work together two to four hours a month and craft a development plan, with group meetings at the start, midpoint and end of the program.

Participants who complete the requirements of the Chapter’s Mentoring Program, and are PMI credential holders, receive 5 PDUs (Professional Development Units). Learn more about Carter’s Mentoring Guidelines and Framework at: http://www.markjcarter.com/mentoring.

Successful project management in today’s business environment requires

a combination of sound methodology and strong communication, team

building and analytical skills. Professionals in Northwestern’s Project

Management program emerge thoroughly prepared for these challenges

and new career opportunities. Tracks are offered for those just starting

in project management and for experienced project managers who wish

to prepare for PMP, CAPM or PMI-ACP certification. Sessions are held in

the Chicago Loop or online.

Project ManagementC E R T I F I C A T E P R O G R A M

REGISTER TODAYsps.northwestern.edu/project

312-503-0714

SPS is a registered provider for the Project Management Institute (PMI), the world’s foremost advocate for the project management profession.

GET CONNECTED | LEARN MORE | EXPAND YOUR NETWORKGood things happen when you stay involved with PMI

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FEBRUARY 2015PMI Insights

PMI InsightsBuilding the First Steamship Based on the book STEAM COFFIN, Captain Moses Rogers and The Steamship Savannah Break the Barrier

Presenter: John Laurence Busch, Author and Independent Historian

Presentation Abstract:Building something that has never been accomplished before requires utilizing

new technology to replace the existing established and proven technology. But how do you put together the right team to make it successful?

Author and historian John Laurence Busch will dare to re-calibrate your mind and show why the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean on a "steamship" was met with skepticism and fear. Steam-powered vessels represent a historical technologi-cal advance, and the Savannah – the first steam-powered vessel to accomplish it – served as the globalizing trailblazer of this extraordinary innovation.

John’s research has been described as “exhaustive” in search of new informa-tion on the life and career of Moses Rogers, one of the first steamboat captains in history. His study of the events leading to the formation of the Savannah Steam Ship Company and construction of the steamship Savannah, resulted in the book STEAM COFFIN, considered one of the most descriptive accounts of the saga of Captain Moses Rogers and the steamship Savannah.

Attendees will learn:• Why putting together the right team is essential to the creation of new technology,• The role passionate leadership of Captain Moses played in breaking paradigms and making the impossible possible, • How the same principles of project management we follow today led to a successful project more than 100 years

before the PMBOK.

FEBRUARY 2015 CHAPTER DINNER MEETING

Wednesday, February 11, 2015Holiday Inn CountrysideWilliam Tell Conference Center6201 Joliet Road Countryside, IL 60525

5:30 pm - 9:00 pm Price:Members: $40Non-members: $55

Speaker Bio:John Laurence Busch is an independent historian who focuses

on the interaction between humanity and technology, special-izing in the first generation of steam-powered vessels. He has devoted years of research to discovering the true story of Captain Moses Rogers and the steamship Savannah.

John’s careful weaving together of many disparate sources results in a narrative that recalls both the fabric and style used in storytelling of old. This led him to scour archives and librar-ies from Portland, Maine to Savannah, Georgia, and across the Atlantic Ocean to the far reaches of Europe, in search of new information on the life and career of Moses Rogers, one of the first steamboat captains in history, as well as the actors and events that resulted in the formation of the Savannah Steam Ship Company, and the construction of the steamship Savannah.

The result is STEAM COFFIN, the most descriptive account of

the saga of Captain Moses Rogers and the steamship Savannah ever written. The foundation for such a story rests upon the contents of never-before-published manuscripts and newspaper articles, which provide an abundance of new details illuminat-ing the actions and attitudes of those who participated in, and witnessed, the creation and voyage of the Savannah.

STEAM COFFIN has received widespread praise and acclaim, as evidenced by over twenty positive reviews in periodicals from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.

John’s book tour for STEAM COFFIN has taken him from Maine to Georgia to Montana, where he has given well over 100 presentations to date before a wide variety of audiences.

Please go to www.steamcoffin.com to see all book reviews, additional background, and a complete list of past and upcoming events. John is available for interviews; he can be contacted at press@steamcoffin.com.

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FEBRUARY 2015PMI Insights

The PMI Chicagoland Chapter would like to congratulate W. Stephen Sawle, PMP, PgMP on his extraordinary achievement in being elected to the PMI Global Board of Directors. Steve is proceeded only by Helen Cooke and Ron Waller in the history of the Chicagoland/Midwest Chapters to be elected to this position. Steve is the first Program Management Professional (PgMP) ever to be elected to the Board.

Steve began his career as an engineer for industrial con-struction and quickly recognized that project management was his passion. He accepted roles of increasing complexity and responsibility in a broad range of industries including healthcare, information systems, utilities, government and legal. He led cross-cultural global projects as a consultant with an interna-tional consultancy.

In 1990, Steve founded a Chicago, USA-based project man-agement consultancy. He has since influenced the delivery of billions of dollars of capital investment through project, program and program management office consulting. He sets the firm’s strategic direction, oversees the delivery of services and special-izes in rescuing struggling projects.

Joining PMI in 1983, he volunteered for local, regional and international PMI roles. He participated for the last few years on the Executive Council of the PMI Chicagoland Chapter 4,000+ membership and served as the chapter’s president in 1996. “I can remember when we were the Midwest Chapter” said Steve, “before splitting in 1999, our members traveled from Chicago to Milwaukee for monthly meetings with alternating meet-ings”. Steve contends that when the organization split, providing Milwaukee its own chapter and forming the PMI Chicagoland Chapter, membership for both organizations grew dramatically

spurring positive competi-tive growth in PMI’s Midwest region.

Steve was the first regional representative for the PMI Chicagoland Chapter. And, during this period, he also volunteered for four years as a final judge in the PMI Project of the Year competition. In his new role as Director of the PMI Global Board of Directors, Steve joins 14 other elected Directors who govern the Institute as it carries out the organization’s strategic plan and objectives, and will serve a three year term.

He is a Program Management Professional (PgMP), a Project Management Professional (PMP - #067) certification holder, and a contributor to the 1996 (first) edition of the PMBOK® Guide. He is credited with over 30 published papers, articles and presen-tations, and has served as speaker at four PMI global congresses. He is a Registered Professional Engineer and was awarded the Certified Management Consultant distinction by the Institute of Management Consultants. He holds BS and MS degrees in engineering from Cornell University, and an MBA degree from the University of Pittsburgh. Steve enjoys global travel, SCUBA div-ing, canoeing, hiking, fishing and skiing.

On behalf of PMI Chicagoland, Past President, Mr. Greg Jones, PMP, and Mr. Jim Karthan, President, PMP and its members, we’d like to congratulate Steve on his remarkable and exceptional accomplishments.

Director, 2015 PMI Board of Directors

ABOUT PROJECT MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE (PMI®)

PMI is the world's largest project management member association, representing more than half a million practitioners in over 185 countries. As a global thought leader and knowledge resource, PMI advances the profession through its global standards and credentials, collaborative chapters and virtual communities and academic research. When organizations invest in project management, supported by PMI, executives have confidence their important initiatives deliver expected results, greater business value and competitive advantage. Learn more at www.pmi.org.

W. Stephen Sawle, PMP, PgMP

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FEBRUARY 2015PMI Insights

Community Outreach Corner

communityoutreach@pmi-chicagoland.org

Key Event this month: Ladies of Virtue

On behalf of the PMI Chicagoland Chapter, please join us in

congratulating the Ladies of Virtue’s Team of the Year 2014 who presented a

spectacular presentation titled “Barbie Me Not” at the January Chapter Dinner Meeting in downtown Chicago. These youth were remarkable in their presentation as the organization seeks to tackle social issues such as body image and low self-esteem among youth in their adolescence years, said Aisleigh McGann, Vice President of Community Outreach, PMI Chicagoland Chapter.

Sixteen (16) year old Treazure Owens discussed the effects of media on self-esteem. “This project has allowed me to step outside of my comfort zone by speaking to such a diverse audience at the PMI dinner, said Owens, “this is an experience that I’ve never had before”.

“Everyone did an excellent job”, said McGann, and we congratulate the Ladies of Virtue team on their performance.

McGann added that the “Professional Association Outreach” program advocates and promotes project management to other professional asso-ciations and provides PMI Chicagoland members with knowledge of other professional associations and their events.

The goals of the program are:

• To continuously establish relationships with the leadership of new professional associations

• To establish a foundation of infrastructure and processes which helps grow the number of organizations we can support while still maintaining a quality experience for all

• To host a Professional Association fair, so our members can meet and connect directly with associations and build their network and broaden their expertise

Anyone interested in speaking at the association events, please contact the Director of Professional Association Outreach, Maria Astudillo at assocor@pmi-chicagoland.org, if you’re interested in volunteering in the program, please email volunteers@pmi-chicagoland.org.

The Community Outreach team would like to wish Black Diamond Charities the best of luck with their new veteran project management training program starting in early February. For volunteering opportunities, contact volunteers@pmi-chicagoland.org.

For all who may be interested in building their self-confidence and public speaking skills, the PMI Chicagoland Toastmasters club will be at the February 11 Chapter Dinner Meeting and would enjoy speaking to interested members!

Treazure Owens

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FEBRUARY 2015PMI Insights

PMI Chicagoland Volunteer Services Volunteering is the backbone of the PMI organization. The PMI Chicagoland Chapter values and appreciates each volunteer for their time, efforts and expertise. The Chapter Volunteer team will be running a series of Volunteer Spotlights to acknowledge and share indi-vidual’s perspective on volunteering with the Chapter and giving back to the profession. This month’s Spotlight is on Jim Karthan (Chapter President) who has been a member since 1995 and served for 9 years across several leadership roles for the chapter.

The team had the opportunity to interview Jim on his many years of volunteer service, and here are the highlights of the conversation… Ura: Why do you choose to volunteer?Jim: I have had the privileged to see first-hand the progression of project management from “just another task” to a fully-fledged professional career. As a volunteer, I have had the opportunity to be a part of that journey to establish project management as a profession, and really enjoy being part of such a successful and growing organization.

Ura: Why is it so important to you to be a volunteer leader? Jim: In the first half of my career, I was in learning-mode and took advantage of the offerings of the chapter to grow my skills. I was a ‘taker’, but now I am in a position to ‘give back’ and really enjoy helping our members leverage the Chapter for their career pursuits. In turn, I hope to motivate others to volunteer and give back to the Chapter and our profession.

Ura: What is your most rewarding volunteer experience?Jim: In my role, as Chapter President, I have the privilege to speak about our Chapter, PMI and the Project Management profession at organizations and events around our community. Recently, I was invited to speak at “YearUp”, an organization that trains low-income adults to position them for college and internships. It is a high expecta-tion environment that molds these students for their next steps in life. It was one of the high-points in my volunteering to share our profession of Project Management with them, and help them in their journey.

Ura: What suggestions would you offer volunteers new to the Chapter?Jim: Don’t over think it, just jump in. The rewards are endless in this organization, which is one of the largest professional associations in the world.

Ura: If you had one volunteer wish; what would it be?Jim: I am a big fan of trying new things and bringing innovative opportunities to our members. And all of our new services and events were due to volunteers that made them happen. So, my wish, would be to have more ideas with passionate people to drive them.

To find out more about the PMI Chicagoland Chapter volunteer opportunities, please contact Ura Puranda, the Director of Volunteers at volunteers@pmi-chicagoland.org.

Volunteer Today! Good things happen when you get involved with PMI!

Jim Karthan, PMP, President

Make the Most of Your Membership

• Take advantage of local face-to-face networking with other project professionals

• Gain knowledge from our exciting programs and services to advance your career

• Access excusive “members only” benefits and valuable resources

• Collaborate and practice project management skills through volunteer opportunities

LEARN MORE Explore PMI Chicagoland Chapter:

www.pmi-chicagoland.org

Upcoming Events

Chapter Dinner Meeting

Wednesday, February 11 PMP/CAPM Exam Prep Course

February 21 - March 14

MS Project Best Practices

February 24-25

10th Annual Leadership Forum

May 8

More information about these and other events can be found at the Chapter website:

www.pmi-chicagoland.org

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FEBRUARY 2015PMI Insights

Guiding Organizations Through Change

• Interactive! • Apply tools to real project

challenges!• Best practices!• All you need to successfully

implement change!

Call 513-354-9503 to register or go to www.changeguidesllc.com

Organizational Change Management Certification

Learn to Manage the People Aspects of Change

May 12-14th, 2015Chicago, Illinois

$1,895 (before April 13th)

$2,095 (after April 13th)

Earn 24 PMI PDUs

» Learn cutting-edge project management methods for successful projects

» Build highly effective communication and leadership skills

» Identify and apply best practices» Prepare for PMP® and CAPM® certification

CLASSES BEGIN IN FEBRUARY AT DEPAUL’S LOOP, NAPERVILLE AND O’HARE CAMPUSES.To register, call (312) 362-5295 or visit cpe.depaul.edu/pm.

PROJECTMANAGEMENTCERTIFICATE

Member News

Congratulations to Our New PMPs

Welcome New Chapter MembersChristopher AdamsRuben AgostoMohammed AhmedAbraham AlemuAllyson AlstonKavitha AmudhanKatherine AssellDana Barnett-OwensMichael BenderHanna BuchanJennifer BuehrerKimberly Butler-BrooksJeffrey ButzowMark J. CarterPavan ChalamalaStuart ClarkMichael CostantiniRobert CramerRobert CraneParis DavisErica DiniQiang FitzgeraldNick FosterNirmalya GhoshAnand GirapSanda HadzisabicMaria HallMegan HansenElizabeth HoffmanLinda IerardiFahad JafriKristine KittsSheila KozinHubert LubowiczMike MaginityJoseph MahoneyKenya MartinDavid MartinDebora Martins

David MasonAmanda MazzolaLaura MerriganJoya MillerDiane MoranSheryl MottonNeil NelsonBob ParrMichael PetrellaSenthil RajarathinamEric RogersEdith RomanRobert RonayneCassaundra RouseIgnacio SaldivarEric SchmidtMargot SchwambLinda SlomaScott SmithJohn StephensHeather SternbergAnne StirparoRandy StruzikKristin SudholzShaheda TajiJamila TrimuelKimberly Tucker-RomeroMichelle VangMandy WarfordCarolyn WoodSherrie WrightMatt Zulkowski

Mark Ackerman, PMPMichelle Beckemeier, PMPPuneet Gupta, PMPJessica Hartman, PMP

Nicholas McWilliams, PMPRita Popovich, PMPVivek Varma, PMP

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FEBRUARY 2015PMI Insights

Chapter Leadership

The Leadership Team consists of two groups. There is an elected Executive Board made up of the President, Past President and Vice Presidents. The primary function of this board is to set the strategic plan for the chapter and to oversee the execution of that plan by the Directors and their volunteers. The Directors are appointed by the Executive Board and are responsible for the execution of the strategic plan through the tactical day to day operation of the chapter. The Directors coordinate the efforts of chapter member volunteers to accomplish the activities of the chapter. If you are interested in serving your PMI Chicagoland Chapter, contact our Director of Volunteers for more information.

President James Karthan, PMP

Past President Gregory Jones, PMP

VP Technology Malcom Culbertson

Director, Advertising Donna R. Liotta, PMP

Director, Technology - Website, Christopher Nieves, CAPM

Director, Social Media R. L. JELE

VP Community Outreach Aisleigh McGann

Director, Academic Outreach Tasharia Gardner

Director, Professional Association Outreach Maria E. Astudillo

Director, Social OutreachTjuan Smith

VP Business Outreach Stefan Lorincz, PMP

Director, Corporate Outreach Jose Matuk

Director, Executive Outreach Robert Chakrabarty

Director, Public Relations and Marketing Erik Jensen

VP Operations Lawrence Witham, PMP

Director, Logistics Lucyna Jewulski

Director, RegistrationGwendolyn Nichols-White, PMP

VP Membership Louisa Kim, PMP

Director, Member Analysis Michelle Vant

Director, Member Communications Annette Harris

Director, Member Relations Sameer Khaja

Director, Mentoring Louisa J. Kim, PMP

Director, VolunteersUra Puranda, PMP

VP Education Ravikumar Avasarala, PMP

Director, Programs Wilfred Hegg

Director, Certification Jerome Rowley

Director, Knowledge Sharing Cynthia Anderson

Director, Professional DevelopmentPeter Novicki

VP Finance Michael Malinowski

Director, ProcurementMichael Malinowski

Attorney at Law Certified Public Accountant Mary Alice C. Strzalka

Board Administrator Anne W. Clark

Publications Carolyn Schiffner

The PMI Chicagoland Leadership Team is made up of dedicated volunteers who constantly strive to add value to the

membership and to forward the best interests of the chapter. Please feel free to contact any member of the Board or

Directors with any questions, concerns, or suggestions you may have.