PMI Eastern Iowa Chapter

Our Second Annual PDD event planning is well underway.  We have an exciting line-up to share!

Title:  Leadership In Troubled Times

PDUs:   8 PDUs

Date:     October 29^th, 2009

Place:    Kirkwood Center for Continuing Education, Cedar Rapids

Costs:    Early Bird: $99 (PMI Member), After Oct 1st - $129 (PMI Member)
               Early Bird $129 (Non PMI Member), After Oct 1st - $159 (Non-PMI Member)

Speakers:  Timothy L. Johnson, the Chief Accomplishment Officer of Carpe Factum, Inc

                   Debra Salz, an experienced trainer, facilitator, presenter and inspirational speaker

                   Lynn Manternach, Ph.D., the president and co-owner of MindFire Communications Inc

                   Dave Sheffield, a motivational speaker whose website is: http://www.theshef.com/

Registration will be opened in mid July.  

communications

The Eastern Iowa Board of Directors would like to welcome all members and guests to attend the monthly chapter meeting. 

  Our Next Chapter Meeting - July 14th     

The July chapter meeting will be held on Tuesday, July 14th, 7:15 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. at the Clarion Hotel and Convention Center at 525 33rd Ave SW in Cedar Rapids. The Clarion Hotel and Convention Center phone number is (319) 366-8671.

 Program: The program for the July 14th meeting is a presentation entitled “ Communication & Networking Skills for Success”, presented by Rose Slaymaker.

 About the Program:    Learn four key steps to developing your communication skills and building confidence while communicating in a variety of business and personal situations. Networking techniques and discussion of the abundant networking opportunities in the area will also be shared.

 About the Speaker:   Rose Slaymaker, Vice President, of Nemec Marketing Group educates clients on cost-effective marketing techniques to reach their target audiences. She takes pride in helping clients make the best use of their marketing dollars by creating marketing recommendations reports filled with many low cost and no cost actionable items businesses can use to acquire and retain more customers. Nemec Marketing Group produces award-winning marketing material from business cards to brochures to web sites.

Prior to starting Nemec, Rose worked as a manager at CMF&Z Marketing Communications. She has also worked at Rockwell Collins and Gazette Communications. Rose received a Bachelor of Science from Mount Mercy in Computer Science and Business Administration.

Program Schedule:

7:15 - 7:45 Registration, breakfast, and social time

7:45 - 7:50 Opening by chapter president / chapter officers

7:50 - 8:40 Presentation / Discussion

8:40 - 9:00 Final announcements, wrap-up, and social time

 The menu consists of a light breakfast with coffee.   

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Chapter members please welcome Geri Stivers, PMP as our new Director of Membership.

Geri has over 9 years of experience in Project Management and consumer software introductions, specializing in helping organizations focus on their customers.  She is currently a Project Manager for Infinite Computing Systems, where she works with blended onsite and offshore software project development teams.  Geri received her PMP certification in March, 2009.
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Geri has worked with a number of industries including insurance and healthcare, a start-up HD radio manufacturer, and spent seven years at Gateway.  Her project experience is varied, from internal mainframe billing applications and proprietary web systems, to consumer software and desktop hardware introductions.  Geri has been a PMI and Eastern Iowa Chapter member since 2007.

communications

Have you updated your resume recently? We all think of certain things when it comes to updating our resume. When we acquire a new position, we typically go out and add information to our work history and contact information. Perhaps we update our business references. However do we give our resume a good review? Think of your resume as a marketing tool that shows your skills and strengths. This may help you get a fresh perspective on the importance of this document and how it will make you stand out to perspective employers.

Rather then looking at your resume as a list of job duties and responsibilities that you have performed, it should contain your career highlights and accomplishments. Typically we all think of our job description and tend to enter that type of information into our resume. In today’s job market it is results that counts, not necessarily that you have performed certain duties.

Think about difficult projects and programs you have managed. Are there things that you did that were out of the ordinary to turn around a project that was in desperate need of being rescued? Were you able to take a dysfunctional team and turn them around to perform as a team, and to agree on the goals and objectives of the project? These are important skills that are not listed in any job description. Innovative skills that show you are able to come up with unique solutions to resolve project and program issues are invaluable to add to your resume.

Rather then list your job responsibilities think about listing those skills that helped your team achieve success and meet project goals and objectives. This might just be the key to getting an organization excited about meeting you!

Sue Prymek VP of Education

Chapter members please welcome Jennifer James as our new Director of Marketing. Jennifer relocated to Iowa from Illinois last fall and is currently working as a Senior Project Manager in the Strategy Deployment Office at Pearson.  Previously she was the Manager of Sampling and Panel Administration at Synovate in Chicago, IL. Jennifer joined PMI in January 2009 and obtained the PMP Credential in April 2009.
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She received bachelor’s degrees in Management and Marketing along with a minor in Mathematics from Loras College in Dubuque, IA.  She obtained an MBA from DePaul University in Chicago, IL with an emphasis in Marketing.
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Jennifer currently serves as a professional mentor for students at DePaul University.  Previously, she volunteered on the Market Research Committee of the Chicago Chapter of the American Marketing Association.

Thank you Jennifer for volunteering!

communications

Chapter members please welcome Srikanth Kamineni as our new Director of Programs. Srikanth is a Senior Software Engineer at Rockwell Collins, and has been employed there since 2001. From last 3.5 years, Srikanth has been leading various global teams on assigned programs and projects. During 2005 to 2008, he led a team of 14 people in China for verification efforts. Currently Srikanth is leading a team of 25 people in India for verification efforts of different applications. Over the last three years, he has been involved in various project management activities that involve initiation, planning, scheduling, execution, monitoring and controlling. He is planning to take PMP Certification and is also actively looking for group study.

Srikanth completed his Master’s in Computer Science at Maharishi University of Management, Fairfield, Iowa and Bachelor’s in Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Sri Venkateswara University, India. He is currently pursuing Master’s degree in Systems Engineering at Iowa State University.

Thank you Srikanth for volunteering!

Sue Prymek Vice President of Education