A message from the President: PMI MN Chapter Members!
Hello PMI Minnesota Chapter Members Ready or not Fall is here. In Minnesota, the end of the State Fair marks the end of summer for us and the beginning of fall. You start to feel the coldness in the air early in the mornings and late in the evening. Of course, some of us do everything to fight the change; pretending it is still summer by refusing to pull out the jackets, sweaters, and coats 😊 hilarious. The smart ones embrace it and start looking forward to visiting the apple orchards, getting ready for the school year, drinking hot cocoa, heading up north to enjoy the changing Fall leaves, oh! what a sight to behold. In all honesty, I enjoy the different seasons we are blessed with here in Minnesota. It gives you an opportunity to look forward to the next season knowing it will be truly different. We will miss the colorful flowers, the long warm summer days of course. 2023 Professional Development Days (PDD) was a resounding success. A heartfelt thank you to the participants, volunteers, sponsors, and speakers for making this a memorable event. Special thank you to St. Paul college and their venue staff for hosting us this year. Our keynote speaker did a fantastic job engaging the audience and the topic was very relevant, thank you Scott Savor. I would like to share one of the testimonials we received from a participant at this year’s PDD event: “I had the pleasure of attending PDD for the first time in 2023. The high-quality speakers and relevant topic selections exceeded expectations. I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in developing their project management skills” Luke Rice, MPM, PMP. We are looking for volunteers to help plan the 2024 PDD event, if interested in volunteering please send us an email to PDDChair@pmi-MN.org. PMI MN chapter has a lot to offer as we transition into the later part of the year, such as: - Project Management warrior next adventure on September 14th
- PMI MN DE&I Training on September 19th.
- 2023-2024 PMI MN Scholarship Application
September is Military Appreciation Month at PMI-MN. In recognition and support of our veterans, we were excited to partner with Warriors Next Adventure as we feel that PMI-MN support veterans in different ways, networking and providing resources and assistance in getting careers and salaries that they deserve, using their military experience to the fullest. Speaker at the event Nicholas Rahn, is the founder and CEO of Warriors Next Adventure. He focuses on how project managers can understand and create opportunities for our military and veteran work force. If you are pursuing a degree in project management or know someone, we encourage you to apply for our scholarship awards. We will be giving two (2) $2,000 scholarship awards again this year. The deadline to apply is November 30, and the tentative scholarship award date is January 31st, 2024. Please click on the link for more details. PMI-MN Scholarship | PMI Minnesota
Best,
Geraldine Marks, MBA, PMP®, CSM® CSPO® PMI MN President, CEO
September Board Member Spotlight This month, we spotlight our President Geraldine Marks
Geraldine Marks, has a master’s degree in Business and PMP as well as Scrum certifications and Agile training (MBA, PMP, CSM, CSPO). She has been a member of PMI-MN Chapter since 2015. In 2020 she finished serving her second term as the Director of Governance/Board Secretary for PMI-MN Chapter. She started out as a volunteer with the IT committee then went on to take the role of IT Chair then onto the board. She also served as the Board Liaison for the Volunteer Committee. As the Director of Governance, Geraldine invested a lot of time and effort updating PMI-MN Chapter policies to meet the changing needs of the chapter and to gain back the trust of its members. Today she is the DE&I Chair for PM-MN Chapter focusing on supporting PMI MN chapter goal in being an organization of choice, a diverse and inclusive organization.
Professionally, Geraldine had been working as a program/project Manager in the Twin Cities in various industries: CPG, Ag, Health, and Insurance companies. She is currently a principal/program manager at Optum supporting the Architecture team’s strategic efforts, bringing deep experience in delivering projects and programs at scale. Outside of work, she enjoys mentoring young professionals and volunteering within her community. Geraldine lives in Minnesota with her husband and 5-year-old son.
Geraldine’s approach to leadership is to empower her team by:
1. Building a culture of transparency, trust and inclusion.
2. Ensuring their voices are heard and they know that they matter
3. Providing opportunity to grow, building relationships and truly being there for the team
Thank you Geraldine for all your contribution and hard work for PMI MN! Volunteer of the Month: Eric Sit
The PMI MN Chapter is honored to present Eric Sit as our September 2023 Volunteer of the Month. Eric is being nominated for his stellar coordination with our PDD Venue contacts throughout the evaluation, planning, and execution process for the PDD conference event. Eric has stepped up in every possible to make sure that all of the bases have been covered within the Facilities Committee, but has also been a conduit into the event venue for the other primary PDD committees as well, including the speaker team, IT, Operations, and Sponsorship. He has gone above and beyond at every turn, coordinating and being present at several walkthroughs onsite to make sure each committee feels comfortable with the space hosting the event, and has been a great connecting resource for us all.
Thank you, Eric, for all of your enthusiasm, time and energy for this role and project! OUR UPCOMING FALL EVENTS
Sep 18 Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills (PSFS™) Certification Sep 19 DE&I Training Oct 04 Professional Scrum Master (PSM) Certification Class Oct 07 Six Sigma Tools for Program Management Oct 28 Project Management Skills for Life - Basics Nov 04 Conflict Resolution for Project Managers Nov 07 Prosci: Change Management Certification Program Nov 27 Certified Scrum Master (CSM®) Certification Class Nov 29 Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO®) Certification Class PMI ® Global Statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion PMI, as a global organization, has established a position about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. This statement is posted on the PMI website:
As a global leader enabling individuals to create a positive impact through projects, PMI champions a diverse, inclusive, and equitable community – one that serves our millions of stakeholders, including staff, volunteers, members, credential holders, and the profession at large. We embrace and celebrate our differences, and work to create an environment of respect, trust, integrity and fairness in our words and actions. We commit ourselves to empower individuals to do their best work. We aspire to act as a catalyst to bridge cultures, geographies, and differences, and to enable people and organizations to positively impact society.
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