asapm Member Services Section
Membership News
by John McHugh Contact John
I guess right off the bat, I should introduce myself. I am the recently
appointed Membership Director for ASAPM to serve out the term for Joel
Saren. Fortunately my background provides a few qualifications for this
position. As the senior partner and owner of StaSys, Inc. an IT project
management firm, I have been involved project management for much of
my career. For over 10 years I was involved with the 30,000 member Boston
Computer Society, serving on several boards and acting as a director
of the IBM PC users group, a 17,000 member contingent of the BCS. I believe
in what the asapm is doing and last but not least, I am willing to do
the job.
The membership has a good base and we are looking to make that grow
over the next year. We are now in the process of putting forth several
initiatives that will involve the membership itself in helping us grow.
So let’s get started!
Introducing PMCoP
The first of our initiatives in building a grass roots organization
is the formation of the PMCoP (Project Management Community of Practice).
This provides a mechanism for local groups to come together and invite
others to part of ASAPM. Essentially a PMCoP is a small group of people,
with a common interest, that get together and discuss best practices
regarding Project Management in any of its guises. These groups of 5 – 10
people would pick topics to discuss and share their experiences and thoughts
on the subjects. One of the core reasons why ASAPM exists is to further
the practice of our profession and creating a grass roots forum for people
to share their knowledge and experience seems like a good place to start.
The main thing that separates a PMCoP from being just a gab session
about work is that the community of practice isn’t a “gripe” session.
You are there to discuss project related problems, solutions and experiences
that can be shared with others. The focus of the discussion is on determining
what has worked in practice in the past and why it would work again in
the future given similar circumstances.
There’s a quote I read somewhere that epitomizes the intention
of a PMCoP
“
life is too short to make all your own mistakes. Save time and learn
from others.”
To support this effort, I am working with the Education Director to
build a support package for creating these PMCoPs. It is not finalized,
but the package will provide guidelines on how to create your PMCoP,
topics and supporting materials for the meetings and of course several
membership forms.
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