Reaching out about Outreach
by Greg Spehar, VP of Outreach
As we start a new PMI Portland Chapter Season, we find ourselves in a great place where the chapter has grown substantially in the past several years in both numbers and in leadership. With that growth we are now in a place to be able to invest in our Outreach efforts. To help the membership understand the overall goals of Outreach, this article will address those important points.
As a Portfolio for the Portland PMI Chapter, the purpose of the Outreach Portfolio is to get the word out about Project Management as a Profession as well as the resources we provide to the community as a whole. With the hope that people will find interest and join our community in any number of ways. In short the Outreach Portfolio for the PMI Chapter of Portland Oregon has the responsibility to further the profession of Project Management by serving and building relationships with entities and organizations outside of the immediate PMI Membership and close relationships. With this effort, the goal would be to recruit and retain new members by supporting the organizations that support our membership.
To achieve this objective we have split the Portfolio into different working groups that perform separate roles for our outreach efforts. Those include the following:
- Corporate Outreach – Reaching out to Corporations and Non-profits where the PMI Membership serves to obtain feedback and to grow the PM Value over time.
- Academic Outreach – Reaching out to Academic Institutions that teach to the prospective PMI Membership to obtain feedback and to provide resources to the Academic Institutions.
- Community Outreach – Reaching out to the Community to provide volunteer opportunities for the Membership and to provide volunteer services to help the community.
- Association Outreach – Reaching out to Associations in the Portland Community to help promote the PMI Membership and the Project Management Profession.
- Jobs – Provide opportunities for companies and recruiting companies a place to post jobs.
- Toastmasters – Opportunity to provide PMI Membership the opportunity to improve their speaking skills.
- Assistant VP of Outreach – This position supports the VP of Outreach by supporting the overall portfolio by assisting Directors when needed and doing special projects if required.
There is also the additional Outreach Component that we currently help support with the Marketing Team, that is the Veterans group where we help to support the training and integration of our Veterans into the Project Management Industry through the PMI approach.
Additionally, we have implemented a number of supporting roles that help shore up and support all of these different initiatives. These new roles are intended to provide the context and determination we have a good fit with the volunteer and the position. We are excited for this new approach that provides a clear path to success for this group.
As you can see, there is much on our plate this year, please consider helping so that we can really get the word out about our industry and about Portland PMI specifically. Your interest and efforts will forever leave a lasting impact on the operations and efforts of this chapter.