Since 2019, this team has grown and expanded offerings in education, thought leadership, mentorship of the next generation of life science project managers and more, now serving not only PMINJ members, but also expanding PMINJ’s outreach to the greater life sciences project management community in New Jersey and beyond.

Team of the Year
Kimberly Azzinaro, Hemant Bobde, Yung Chan, David Dalessandro, Bhakti Kundu, Olajompo Moloye-olabisi, Archana Narasanna, Tejesh Patel, Reza Tehrani, Arun Venkataraman, Patricia Young

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Vanessa Gomez is a true cornerstone of the PMINJ Survey Team, demonstrating an unwavering commitment to excellence, collaboration, and innovation. Over the past year, the volunteer team has experienced remarkable growth, expanding by over 100% in both size and scope. Vanessa has been the engine driving this success, ensuring that the team's growth is not only sustainable but also impactful. From her work standardizing documentation to transforming ad-hoc requests into structured surveys with clear results, Vanessa has tirelessly devoted herself to the Survey Team’s success. Her contributions have played an essential role in making the vision for the team a reality.

Vanessa’s leadership shines in her efforts to onboard new team members, a crucial area where she excels. She has developed a thorough and thoughtful process to ensure new members feel supported and empowered to create and distribute surveys independently. Her patience, dedication, and mentorship have been invaluable in fostering a positive and productive team environment.

In addition to onboarding, Vanessa has been instrumental in the creation of several key surveys this year. She works closely with stakeholders to ensure each survey is tailored to collect the necessary data for informed decision-making. Her ability to accurately capture and deliver meaningful results has had a significant impact on the chapter.

Vanessa is also known for her willingness to help others, whether that’s training new team members or assisting peers with issues they encounter. She is the go-to person on the team, always ready to lend her expertise and provide solutions. Her positive attitude and strong work ethic make her a pleasure to work with, and she continuously goes above and beyond in everything she does.

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Jay recently joined the Special Programs team and has contributed to many of the team's initiatives since joining. Jay's consistent willingness to assist his colleagues and his embodiment of the values of kindness, helpfulness, and professionalism make him an indispensable member of the Special Programs Team. His efforts in crafting engaging content and articles have not only enhanced the team's output but also enriched the experience for all participants. His energy and commitment shine in every project, bringing a sense of excitement and purpose that truly engages everyone around him.

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Carol willingly assumed the Symposium Speaker Team Lead role when the original leaders were unavailable and worked tirelessly to implement a process to develop a funnel of speaker candidates and evaluate their proposals. She led the Speaker Team members in selecting and negotiating agreements with the speakers, and supported the Team in working closely with the speakers to ensure they met their deliverable commitments.

Carol organized and led the Speaker Team volunteers in fulfilling their responsibilities as speaker “angels” and successfully recruited new members to the team. She ensured each speaker received the support and personal attention to make their presentation a success. She was the go-to person for any questions regarding the speakers, and provided clear communications regarding Speaker Team assignments and expectations.

Carol’s poise and professionalism set the standard for the entire Symposium team, and her leadership was a key ingredient to making the 2024 Sunday Seminar and Symposium successful events.

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Evelyn has been heavily involved in the Chapter the past year.

As the Project Manager for the Corporate Advisory Board (CAB), she is a positive presence and in Q1 greatly grew the Corporate Advisory Board with several strong leaders. Evelyn displays highly efficient organizational skills by effectively and timely managing the CAB's agendas, Google Drive and meeting schedule. She is showing confidence and bringing this group together with great promise for success.

As an Account Manager, Evelyn proactively engages with the prospective sponsors.

Evelyn has a real zest for volunteering and professional capabilities when it comes to handling her various volunteer roles. Evelyn is full of energy and enthusiasm.

Evelyn was recently nominated to be the PMI Construction Ambassador and is diligently studying for the related PMI-CP exam.

Evelyn displays a commitment to the mission and vision of the PMINJ.

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Michelle has revolutionized our social media footprint as a Chapter in a way that nobody has been able to before. She is publishing a large variety of material about events past and present, the Chapter itself, developments in PMI, and the profession. The content is high quality, creative, and eye catching, and often fun. It is increasing our visibility and positive reputation as a Chapter.

Michelle has also actively participated on Board meetings as a volunteer, and was a part of the ACS Breast Cancer Walk in October. She has energized the Marketing team, Board, and current and potential members.

Michelle is very impressive, and she is acting as a leader in the Chapter.

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In under 1 year of membership with PMINJ, Sebastian has been able to claim numerous responsibilities ranging from editing Mark’s Monthly Messages, processing archived Agile Discussion Group videos, managing internal marketing relations through recurring team meetings, brainstorming, and taking initiative regarding PMINJ’s creative direction.

Through attending team meetings, it became evident that the marketing team needed a breath of fresh air when it came to PMINJ's outward appearance and marketing strategy. Tapping into his personal experience and up-to-date understanding of technological innovations, he researched, proposed, and got approval for the implementation of a PMINJ Canva account to streamline our content creation processes. Not only will access to a Pro Canva account elevate our marketing capabilities, but also provides many AI tools that could unlock previously untapped creative potential of the PMINJ marketing team.

He is grateful to be a part of the PMINJ community and looks forward to all that’s to come in 2024.

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Marlon is our current, and first, Community Team Manager. His role is to take the lead in establishing, socializing, and expanding virtual communities within our chapter. Marlon has single-handedly taken this new volunteer position from just an idea to a reality. He recently launched our Slack channel and has been diligent and proactive in working with chapter membership to get our teams set on the platform. Marlon will continue to grow in this role as we expand the use of Slack, and explore other platforms which will create and grow online communities for the benefit of our members.

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Gurpreet has been a PMINJ member for 3 years. He accepted the role of COI coordinator a year ago.

In this role, he is responsible to obtain Certificates of Insurance for all of our in-person events. Working with PMI, he has been able to obtained COIs with very short notices, such as some of the meetups that are held to accomodate member schedules.

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Sunil Dubey has been a member of PMINJ for 14 years and a volunteer for 10+ years. Sunil has volunteered in several areas in Infrastructure, Marketing and Recognition.

Sunil is always willing to step up and take additional responsibilities in his volunteer role. He looks for opportunities to improve the volunteer experience with new, innovative and exciting ideas for our Annual Volunteer Celebration. Sunil is a well-rounded individual and can volunteer in various capacities in the Recognition group, whether it being the entertainment, soliciting entertainers for the event, enhancing and working the slide show for the evening or supporting in any way needed.

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Sunil Dubey has been an email author since 2015. He shares this responsibility with Sara Fisher Poppe. Sara and Sunil are responsible to gather the content for events and promotional material then create the email that will be sent to our Members and Guests. They assure that the message we deliver will satisfy the need for recipients to make decisions regarding our events and offerings. They are continually critiquing the material and process for improvements. Sunil has played an integral part of the email delivery team for many years and deserves to be part of this team award.

Sara Fisher Poppe has been an email author since 2021. She shares this responsibility with Sunil Dubey. Sara and Sunil are responsible to gather the content for events and promotional material then create the email that will be sent to our Members and Guests. They assure that the message we deliver will satisfy the need for recipients to make decisions regarding our events and offerings. They are continually critiquing the material and process for improvements. Sara has played an integral part of the email delivery team and deserves to be part of this team award.

Anu Khandelwal has been the Web Email Manager since 2016. She is the delivery manager for the emails that are sent by PMINJ to all Members and Guests. She is the last point of contact before the email is delivered and plays the critical role of final edit before the email is sent. Last year, she sent a total of 164 emails to the members (4700) and Guests (40,000). This is almost double the number of emails sent since she joined the team. Anu has managed these responsibilities in addition to work and family schedules. Anu has played an integral part of the email delivery team and deserves to be part of this team award.

Claudia was inspired to launch the Life Sciences LCI, and while she was instrumental in its formation and initial success, her leadership and dedication during 2021 have ensured its continued success. When launching the LCI, she made sure to recruit a volunteer core team, organizing them into functional teams focusing on core capabilities, including marketing, LCI sustainability, member services and programs. Her leadership and organization helped solidify this structure during 2021, which has significantly contributed to the group’s active program schedule and high member participation in the past year.

In addition to her formation and committee leadership, she has continually leveraged her network to solicit speakers and panel participants during the last year. This contribution has served to keep the LCI relevant and engaging, as is evidenced by the LCI participation and engagement metrics. Under Claudia's leadership, the Life Sciences LCI was inventive with both it's current events and finding new activities (all using virtual format's) while the pandemic slowed-down many of the other groups.

Claudia’s contribution to the Life Sciences LCI have made PMINJ more relevant to the life sciences industry and project management community. Her participation in other corporate outreach teams, such as the Corporate Advisory Board (CAB), has demonstrated that she's also a willing volunteer even when she's not the lead.

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Over the past two years, the Programs Team has gone above and beyond the scope of their normal volunteer roles by using an innovative approach to deliver all-virtual monthly programs meetings. When Covid struck, the team quickly pivoted from presenting the traditional excellent monthly dinner meetings broadcast to satellite locations across the state to an all-virtual meeting format using Zoom. They have worked tirelessly over the past year to improve the process, to continue providing members with easily accessed high quality programs, and to expand PMINJ’s reach to virtually anywhere in the world.

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As a team, they have:

• Completely changed the A/V platforms and technology to support all-virtual meetings
• Developed a new programs delivery process that now includes
  • Adding a Programs 'dry run'
  • Offering an optional post-meeting Networking Zoom session for attendees
  • Holding post-meeting Team debrief to review and improve process
• Increased meeting attendance by 300%
• Improved audience engagement by using Zoom’s Chat and Q&A features to create backchannel communications among the attendees
• Expanded the remote satellite meetings reach from multiple counties in the NJ/NY/PA region to countries around the world, as far away as Australia!
• Enhanced opportunities for members to interact with a Networking Zoom call immediately after the regular meeting

Steve Ossi has been a member of the PMINJ Programs speakers team since 2019. Steve has been a collaborative contributor and has been active in identifying speakers, working as a speaker angel behind the scenes to ensure that the programs run smoothly, and introducing several of the speakers at the Chapter meetings.

Going above and beyond the call of duty, Steve graciously volunteered to be a panelist in the "Anatomy of an Iceberg - Beneath the Surface of Diversity in Leadership" discussion led by Vanessa Phipps in Mar 2021, and contributed openly and honestly to make this a memorable session.

In addition to his role as an outstanding Programs Team volunteer, he has also gone the extra mile by stepping up to support the Symposium Speaker Team, filling a critical Speaker Angel vacancy and working closely with his speaker to ensure a smooth, successful presentation.

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Kristin has been a member of PMINJ for 8 years and volunteering for 7 years. Kristin has been volunteering with the Scholarship Program and leading the program for several years as well as managing the scholarship renewals. Kristin was instrumental in testing the new online process and providing feedback. In addition, she has some ideas to improve and further streamline the process for the candidates.

Kristin pivoted to using the new process compiling the various documentation for 35+ submissions. She also coordinated and led the review with the evaluators.

Kristin also had to field questions, concerns and frustrations from the candidates and members on the submissions and awards. As a representation of PMINJ she handle each situation delicately and professionally.

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Cathy is a founding member of the new Veterans LCI within PMINJ. During her time in the development of this LCI, Cathy has provided valuable input and feedback to the LCI's mission and charter. Cathy continues to lead initiatives within the LCI as they refine their scope and identify outreach opportunities with the Veterans community.

Through the Veterans LCI, Cathy was a volunteer at the April Career Fair and worked with other volunteers to ensure elements of the Career Fair connected to Veterans seeking job advice and opportunities.

Military Liaison to National PMI - Cathy is representing PMINJ with respect to all military/Veteran activities that are happening at the national PMI level, ensuring that national initiatives are also implemented at the PMINJ chapter level.

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Elaine is a key member of the Outreach leadership. She leads the Special Interests team for Outreach which includes the Career Fairs, several LCI's, and the TourdeFranklin event. Elaine has always been very active in the PMINJ Chapter, including several years as the VP of Outreach. Even with the 2020 COVID constraints for large events, Elaine's team conducted two highly successful 'virtual' Career Fairs - April & October.

This year Elaine led an effort to add a new LCI - Women in Leadership to the Chapter. It launched early in the year and was active and conducting very successful events by mid-year. Elaine also stepped-up to the leadership role for the Career Networking LCI (CN) when Joan Galay stepped away from that role. The CN leadership transition was smooth and the LCI continues to be very active and successful.

Recently, Elaine fostered the idea of creating a Career Buddy Initiative where people in transition will be matched-up to help each other successfully find their next career opportunity. The group has formed their team, been chartered, and will begin a pilot in early 2021. I expect that as it goes into full-implementation it will be viewed as an additional LCI within Special Interests giving Elaine responsibility for 4 LCIs (3 active) - Career Networking, Women in Leadership, Career Buddy, and the Business Analysis (currently dormant).

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Ever since Mary came on board with the Symposium Group she brought an energy that lit up the way we operated. This energy centered around her core competency of being a change agent. Her opportunity came when she volunteered to be a Speaker Angel at our November 2020 Symposium.

She challenged us and her assigned speaker, to become one of the top rated speakers with a 98% approval rating, while simultaneusly helping us better understand how to improve our odds of success so our projects outcomes can be more rewarding. Being grounded in the PMI Body of Knowledge she was able to use those principles of planning, delivering, executing, monitoring and controlling to methodically work with the assigned speaker and eventually closeout the speaker agreement. The preparatory work for her recommendation started months before and amped up in the period of interest (October to December, 2020). This resulted in the delivery of a world class presentation.

Her commitment to the success of our programs did not end there; Mary continues to attend our meetings (which resumed 2-3 weeks) after the November IPM Symposium and fully participates in leading our efforts for the upcoming symposium in September, 2021, this time as a presenter. Without a doubt she leads by example and her unflinching commitment to PMINJ’s success, coupled with her empathy for those around her are stand out behaviors worthy of the high commendation by our leadership.

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Thirumurthy (Thiru) Rajagopal has been a dedicated and valuable member of the Mentors Support team for many years.  In all that time, he has faithfully served under two VPs of Professional Development and three Directors of Mentors.  His long involvement has meant that Thiru possesses deep experience and knowledge on all the operational aspects of the Mentors program.

In 2019, Thiru also became a member of the Renovations program team.  The mission of the Renovations program is to improve the operations and offerings of the Mentors program to enable it to grow to meet the increasing needs of PMINJ’s members.  Thiru was a major contributor to this program’s first project which was to automate the mentor and mentee application processes.  This project was successfully implemented on June 17, 2020.

Thiru spent many hours – including evenings and weekends – working on the applications automation project which was in addition to his regular responsibilities on the Mentors Support team.  Thiru’s contributions in diagramming the process flows of the entire Mentors program, solution identification, and solution development were critical to helping this project to achieve its objectives.

The expected benefits of this project are:

• Streamlined application process – using forms to reduce back-and-forth e-mails with applicants
• Improved application quality – logic added to ensure application completeness – i.e. all required information is submitted, including resume and picture
• Faster on-boarding time of mentors and mentees – shorten time between application and start of engagement
• Simplified administration – data is now automatically collected onto a spreadsheet removing the need for manual data entry

Thiru’s commitment, self-sacrificing service, and positive attitude makes him an extremely important member of the Mentors Support team and a pleasure to work with.  In short, Thiru is the apotheosis of the type of volunteer that the PMINJ needs.

Dan Ackerman and Marc Matrulli have partnered for a number of years as members of the program’s team to select negotiate and finalize the chapters arrangements with our monthly meeting venues. In the first quarter of this year with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic they took decisive action to renegotiate our arrangements as meetings were canceled. As a result of their work and the relationships that they have built with our suppliers over the years the chapter was able to avoid any financial penalties and move deposits into the future with no losses.

Both Dan and Mark have worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure that every meeting is a success. They take care of the smallest arrangements and guarantee that monthly meetings run seamlessly, that the food is of high quality and sufficient quantity, and that both members and officers don’t have to give preparations or operation a second thought.

Dan Ackerman and Marc Matrulli truly represent the highest values of the Project management Institute New Jersey chapter by demonstrating teamwork, commitment to quality, and a dedication to service.

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Stephen assumed the Editor responsibilities in December 2018.  He has been the catalist to maintain monthly communications with our 40,000 members and guests.

To produce timely, actionable information, Stephen has identified content by contacting board and volunteers to identify what the readers need for a Call To Action.  He is also searching and identifying materials that the readers can use to enhance their knowledge and skills.  Stephen has been very creative identifying areas of growth.  This has included reaching to experts in the field; reviewing content on ProjectManagement.com, the Great IT Pro, and others.  Stephen has also reviewed articles that were submitted by members or other professionals and been able to accept or reject based on content and or quality.

He is aware of all the PMINJ Events for members and those where the chapter benefits the Community.

Stephen is very project oriented.  The Pulse newsletter is scheduled to be delivered the first Friday of every month.  He maintains a tight schedule to assure that the content is available for the email production crew to accomplish the creation and processing of the email.

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Bob Phillips and Nitin Khanna have, for the last several years, been major contributors in bringing awareness and knowledge about the growing field of agile project practices to PMINJ.

In 2019, Bob and Nitin identified a need to create and deliver monthly virtual Agile Discussion Group meetings.  These meetings have now made participation in a live, interactive program easily accessible to all PMINJ members regardless of their geographic location.

Bob and Nitin are also co-leaders in the Outreach team’s Agile Local Community Interest (LCI) group that regularly holds their meetings prior to the monthly dinner meetings.  Furthermore, they were co-presenters on the topic “Philosophy of Agile” at the PMINJ April 2019 dinner meeting.

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As long-time leader of our NOKIA New Providence Satellite site - Stacy has unswervingly shown her dedication to both PMINJ and to our members month-after-month - by her consistent preparation for each monthly program event, her timeliness and concern for all attending, and her evangelization of the PMINJ Chapter. She has also offered her talent and expertise to trial additional video capabilities at her satellite location, which is defining an enhanced experience for the satellite locations in the future.

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Sudhir Jangam has been on our Finance PMINJ committee as a volunteer since Nov 2017. He is responsible for reviewing chapter contracts.

This role is critical to ensure that our contracts are lawful, accurate, and fair.

Sudhir has been diligent and reliable in this role and has given quick turnarounds (24 hours) when necessary. He contributes to the smooth functioning of our chapter, that we neither are held up in consumating agreements nor sign contracts that are not in our interests.

Congratulations to Sudhir Jangam, Volunteer of the 3rd quarter 2019.

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Like many of you, Rima began her Project Management career after an opportunity surfaced at work. Colleagues said, "now you need to join PMINJ!". This next step led her to become an active member in 2009 while working towards her PMP in 2012. She began serving as a volunteer as the PMINJ Board Minutes Taker for the past 2 years. She attended the Board's monthly and quarterly meetings and organized the minutes which assisted the Board members in keeping focused on key goals and objectives. The opportunity to serve the PMINJ members has been extremely valuable and rewarding to Rima.

Congratulations to Rima.

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Beth has been an active member of the PMINJ Chapter. She has been a Volunteer with the Event Registration Team for more than 10 years. Beth can always be counted on to do a great job with her specific area of responsibility (Co-Lead) but she also regularly helps with any of the tasks that are necessary to make the overall Event process a success. Although Beth does not live in the States, she is involved with all of our Team calls as well as the weekly Event Leaderhip call and when her travel schedule permits she is on site with the rest of the Team at one of our annual events.

Beth does not wait to be asked to help, she jumps in when ever there is a need and provides suggestions for improvements to our Team as well as suggestions to improve processes for the overall Chapter Event Team. The success of the annual IPM Day and the annual Symposium is due to having volunteers like Beth.

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Dennis Ryan is an indispensable member of the chapter. No matter what the venue, topic, or calamity, this Dennis always has a smile and an even attitude. Time and time again, Dennis has come up with creative solutions to unexpected problems. Dennis has been a member of the PMINJ Chapter and a volunteer for many years.

PMINJ recognizes Dennis for his dedication, consistency at every event and outstanding support of the chapter.

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Lydia Tse has been on the Finance team since Nov of 2017. She has been very responsive, responsible and diligent in obtaining and pursuing COIs for our chapter events at the many venues including satellite locations. She has overcome many rush situations to accomodate events that have materialized overnight. Recently she was able to overcome many schedule and contract constraints to resolve the COI for our satellite and Board meeting at Devry. She managed the implemention for this new process of having COIs for every event.

Congratulations to Lydia Tse, Volunteer of the 4th quarter 2018.

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As a volunteer on the Symposium Team since January 2018, Patricia Young has demonstrated outstanding initiative working with Symposium VPs and team members to develop and manage detailed project work plans for both the 2018 Symposium events. She helped develop new project schedules, and used them most recently to organize and run efficient weekly meetings, monitor progress, and report status to ensure successful delivery of the 2018 IPM Day program.

In addition to managing the work plans, scheduling meetings, notifying participants, leading team calls, taking minutes and following up on deliverables and action items, Patricia showed exceptional initiative in helping to streamline the meeting process by restructuring the calls, sending update requests prior to the meeting, and having each team provide focused status summaries for their group’s pending deliverables.

Patricia assumed additional responsibility for supporting the Symposium Speaker team in speaker funnel management and upates, and made a significant contribution to finalizing the IPM Day meeting agenda by identifying a key speaker candidate, and then qualifying, negotiating, and shepherding the speaker through the Symposium Speaker Agreement process.

Congratulations to Patricia Young, Volunteer of the 3rd quarter 2018.

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Sunil has been a PMI member since 2004 and joined the PMINJ Chapter in 2013. He has been a chapter volunteer since 2015. During the past 3 years, he has supported the chapter activities in many roles.

As an Email Author with the Marketing team, Sunil is responsible for authoring emails that are distributed to the PMINJ members and guests. Often, these emails are created with a very tight deadline. The data for the emails comes from the content on the website or other sources. Sunil brings his own brand of creativity to make the emails more interesting to the target audience. Over the past 3 years, he has introduced many improvements to the email templates to help make the look and feel more contemporary. In this effort, he is helped by his keen eye for detail and good understanding of the tools at his disposal.

Sunil is associated with the Professional Development team as a Mentor since January 2016. Sunil uses his 20+ years of project management experience in the IT field to impart project management insights to up-and-coming project managers and help them succeed in their careers.

In addition, Sunil has been a member of the Annual Volunteer Recognition Dinner team, contributing to success of 2016 and 2018 events.

When Sunil is not volunteering for PMINJ events, he is an IT Project Manager with IEEE in Piscataway. He is deeply involved with local youth development programs as an Advisor to the Edison Visionary Leo Club, guiding the youth club members to manage community service projects through application of project management principles and tools. As a volunteer, he also helps manage HindiUSA's Edison Hindi School branch, which has over 500 students.

Kathy has been volunteering as part of the Membership Retention Initiative since March 2014. Every month she faithfully makes calls to members to encourage them to renew their PMI memberships. That's over 50 months of making the calls. Recently Kathy has also been volunteering as a leader with the New Member Orientation Program. When our new members attend a monthly chapter meeting, Kathy is one of the volunteers who present an overview of the Chapter. Her enthusiasm about the Chapter is contagious. Kathy's previous volunteering experience with the Chapter was in another area dear to her heart, working with Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts from 2012 to 2015 to recognize Gold and Eagle Scouts and to introduce them to PMINJ.

Kathy joined PMINJ in June 2011, shortly after receiving her PMP certification. She is currently a Director with RSM Consulting. Please join me in congratulating Kathy as our latest Volunteer of the Quarter.

Cyndi Wilson has been a volunteer with our chapter since the beginning !

She is one of the founding members of the Member Services team when we launched in 2014.    Prior to joining Member Services, Cyndi was a consistent and regular presence at on site registration ensuring members received a warm greeting and received timely responses to any questions.    Cyndi excels at customer service and continues to volunteer for  both Member Services  as well as Onsite Registration.  This presents a seamless experience for our members.   Cyndi is reliable, customer oriented and dedicated to making PMINJ the organization of choice for PMs in NJ !

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Mani has been a solid member of the pre-registration team.    

He is the volunteer who produces the various lists for the onsite registration teams in advance of the chapter meetings.      He is diligent and incredibly reliable. Our team has never failed to deliver the registration sheets to the on site registration team with Mani as the facilitator of this process.  Thanks to Mani, the on site registration team is fully ready to serve the members who attend the monthly chapter meetings.    His dedication and reliablity is greatly appreciated.

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Yosra Badr’s key contribution to PMINJ in 2016: She completed the update of PMINJ’s Operations Manual (also known as the VP Handbook). The Operations Manual is the linchpin of PMINJ’s documentation portfolio, because it contains the information required to run PMINJ (Administration, Programs, Finance, Membership, Marketing, Professional Development, Business Relationships, Outreach, Symposium, Recognition, and President/Past President). It documents roles, responsibilities, and scope of work decomposed to the detailed work breakdown structures. It is intended to be used by the VPs and Directors to help them manage their teams, and as a transition guide for volunteers.

This was a very challenging project for Yosra because it was incomplete as of the beginning of 2016, with only two areas updated in 2015. Yosra brought great enthusiasm and energy to revitalize this project, along with high degree of persistence and attention to detail. The project plan required Yosra to frequently reach out to the VPs and their Directors to obtain from them the rough draft of their specific area’s manual. She then edited the manual to insure it conformed with pre-determined PMINJ Board-approved standards and template. On behalf of PMINJ, please join me in congratulating Yosra on doing such a excellent job, and thank her for being a PMINJ volunteer on the Administration team!

Suzanne has been a committed volunteer with PMINJ more than 10 years.  While juggling serious family obligations over the years, with her leadership, the registration team has organized its processes and prodedures so well that the team work looks effortless. Though the responsibility is a  large one, Suzannes team does not fail. Regisration runs smoothly.

Any issues that arise are handled seamlessly within the registration team, so that you would never know there was ever an issue. Suzanne and her team routinely takes ownership and handls issues that arise on site during events.

Suzanne is always ready to give input and is available regularly to the Symposium Team. When it comes to reviewing materials and giving solid / sage / knowledgable feedback on Symposium issues, Suzanne can be depended on.  Suzanne’s demeanor also makes her very easy to work with.

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Claudia has forged new relationships between PMINJ and both the BioPharma Research Council (BRC) and BioNJ.  The BRC held an event in November that was attended by several chapter members.  Our Outreach Speaker – Michael Sarachman was provided a platform to evangelize for the Chapter in both a Training Session and as part of a Panel discussion that Claudia moderated.  The Chapter was also provided free table space at the exhibitors area where we were positioned right next to Mercer County Community College which has indicated interest in an alliance with PMINJ.  Claudia spoke before employees of Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation in Edison on Dec 14th.  She is a volunteer who’s active in the monthly calls and can be relied upon to get things done for the Outreach team.

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Max has provided a pivotal role as Speaker Angel and now has moved up to Speaker Team Lead. He has gone above and beyond in all phases of soliticing, researching, negotiating and working closely with the speakers for the symposium as needed. He has volunteered to substitute for other angels on last minute cancelation and ensure the success of the symposium. He works well with the speakers and symposium team to ensure strong communications which has led to our successful planning and execution of our biannual symposium events. His leadership and commitment have had a strong impact on the success of our speaker and symposium team.

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Kristin Hopp took over scholarship renewals two years ago and she has kept participation up through her diligent follow-up and answering the students and parents questions. Recognizing right away that students have a lot on their plates, she implemented a process that gently reminds students before applications are due in February / March by sending a link to the new application and including deadlines.  When it is time to send grades, she sends a reminder and copies the parents.  This has increased renewal participation significantly. Kristin has stepped up to a difficult challenge of declining renewal numbers.  Please congratulate her for a job well done.

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Laura has been an active volunteer of the Symposium Registration Team for more than 10 years.  Laura can be counted on not only to do a great job with her specific area of responsibility (preparing the certificates for the attendees, vendors, & speakers) but she regularly offers her time to help make the overall event registration process more efficient.

With a smile on her face, Laura works at the registration table for the symposium and makes registration experience pleasant for the attendees. Laura is always willing to pitch in and help to coordinate the registration activities when needed.  On multiple occasions, she came to the rescue for the registration team, when a team member could not attend the event due to a personal emergency. Laura regularly provides suggestions for improvements for the registration process and shares her ideas during the Symposium Lessons Learned session.  Laura always goes the extra mile to help our chapter members and other volunteers. The success of PMINJ's symposium and other chapter events is attributed to the volunteers like Laura.

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For over 12 years, Harry has been the A/V professional for PMINJ, working tirelessly to ensure high quality technical support for every presentation at each event.  He has managed the Chapter’s capability to present at each monthly meeting, Seminar, Symposium, and IPM day.  Initially the responsibilities ‘only’ included working with the vendors at each of the venues for our events.  He has been responsible for the quality of the speaker audio and the presentation of the speaker materials.  Harry will test all of the speaker presentations prior to each event to assure that there are no technical issues that might occur during the presentation.  Just think, for the Symposium alone, that is at least 13 presentations.

Then in 2007, the Chapter broadened the scope of our events.  We introduced satellite meeting locations and increased the A/V requirements exponentially.  Now Harry was extending the A/V capabilities of the events to locatiions via phone and internet so that members could participate remotely in real time.  A secondary benefit for this arrangement was the capability to create Webinars that could be viewed after the event.

Over the years, the A/V technology has changed, and  Harry has been the guiding force to ensure PMINJ has been able to maintain our capabiilities to provide members the ability to participate in our events.  He has identified new equipment to increase quality and has investigated and implemented new processes to improve efficiency.  Harry has assisted with vendor changes in webinar technology, and is constantly investigating new technology that would make the events better for the participants and the future viewers of the webinars.  He has mentored new A/V team volunteers and has even collaborated with other Chapters to help them setup similar satellite webcasts for their meetings.

In all of this, Harry has been the perfect example of a PMINJ Volunteer.  He is always available and willing to help.  A dedicated professional, Harry always demonstrates the highest standards of quality and leadership!  PMINJ deeply appreciates Harry’s commitment, and is pleased to present him the 2015 Barbara Ann Fuller Volunteer of the Year award,

When you attend PMINJ’s monthly programs or symposium, you will almost always find Dennis Ryan at the audio/visual (A/V) table, testing A/V equipment before the event, monitoring activities, or going around the audience with a microphone so everybody can hear questions attendees are asking the speaker.  PMINJ would like to recognize Dennis as Volunteer of the Quarter for his years of dedicated service, strong leadership, teamwork, and attention to details to ensure that chapter events are successful.

Dennis joined the Chapter A/V team as a volunteer in 2009. He has now successfully supported more than 10 major symposiums and more than 50 monthly meetings. Every facility has different challenges in terms of ensuring that the speaker can be seen and heard by everyone in the audience. As part of the A/V team, Dennis is responsible for soliciting, selecting, managing, and working with the A/V subcontractors for the monthly meetings, annual symposium and IPM day events. Dennis helps set up A/V equipment on the day of the monthly meetings or a day before the big symposiums. He works with speakers to make sure they are comfortable with the microphone, video screen, moving presentation on the chapter laptop and music for the event. Dennis can always be relied on to keep his cool during emergencies like equipment malfunctions or unforeseen speaker requests. Over the years, Dennis has shown leadership, patience, perseverance, adherence to the highest standards of quality, and, yes Dennis brings good music and cheer for the event!

Dennis began his project management career while working for a contract manufacturing firm in the mid-1980's.  He was responsible for a number of projects relating to new product launches and seasonal promotions for the personal care industry.  He was eventually hired by one of his customers to become the internal manager for similar activities.  In 1998 he jumped to the pharmaceutical industry and has been with Bristol-Myers Squibb for the last 10 years.  He works in R&D on different medicines going through the development and clinical trial processes.  If a medicine doesn't get eliminated along the way (and most do), it takes upwards of 10 years to bring a new product to market and that is a long, complex and expensive project.

Dennis earned his PMP in 2006 and joined PMINJ immediately to enhance his expertise, get the most out his certification and begin networking with other project management professionals.

Dennis' AV experience goes back many decades to when he was the student AV leader for his high school and continues today through his volunteer work for several organizations.  His interest has been encouraged over the years by having the opportunity to volunteer to work side-by-side with one of the most successful rock bands in history (and a member of the R&R Hall of Fame Class of 2016).  

After admiring Harry Chiovarou's sole handling of the chapter's AV services from a distance for a few months, Dennis offered his assistance - which was warmly and gratefully received.  Dennis is very pleased to work with Harry and serve PMINJ at the monthly meetings, Seminar / Symposiums and IPM Days for many years now and looks forward to doing what he can to support and help the organization grow. PMINJ's success is attributed to volunteers like Dennis, who work tirelessly to provide quality programs for the chapter members and we thank him for that. Please stop-by at A/V table at monthly meetings or at symposium and thank Dennis for his years of contribution to successfully managing A/V for the chapter events!

Alvin joined the Marketing team in March 2015 focusing on improving our social media presence.  Over the last few months, Alvin has made significant contributions to our social media sites including postings on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.  These postings have helped increase attendance at various chapter meetings and workshops.  Over the summer, he led an initiative with students at Montclair State University to create a social media strategy and calendar of postings for our new chapter year.  With very limited supervision, he managed three student teams to create a social media strategy and identify content for these sites in six weeks.  He is now managing two volunteers to coordinate regular content updates.

Alvin was also instrumental in updating our chapter brochure.  He took the lead in facilitiating the necessary meetings to collect content from our board members and redesigned the brochure with a new format and graphics.  Alvin is a Project Manager / Office Manager for NBP Holdings Group and an academic tutor at DeVry University Paramus Campus.

He is completing his MBA with concentration in Project Management at DeVry’s Keller Graduate School of Management.

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Jerry Meier has been volunteering as a member of PMINJ Programs On-Site Registration activities since November, 2011, when he joined the team led by Dennis Komsa.  As a dedicated team member with detailed knowledge of the On-Site Registration process, Jerry agreed to take the Team Leader role when Dennis stepped down in June, 2013.  Since then, Jerry has worked tirelessly to recruit, train, organize and manage a team of  volunteers who welcome members and guests at PMINJ Programs’ Monthly Chapter Meetings.

Each month, Jerry coordinates with his team members to develop a schedule to ensure full coverage of the registration table; obtains and copies meeting handouts; manages attendance tracking and reporting at the Main Meeting location; and verifies accurate headcount numbers for the dinner meeting bill. He also helps facilitate sponsor and outreach activity logistics.  Always ready and willing to tackle new challenges to improve the registration process, Jerry worked with John Bufe to pilot and deploy automated walk-in registrations via smartphone and has helped streamline attendance tracking using Google docs.

An efficient, organized Team Leader, Jerry can be relied on to ensure On-Site Registration runs smoothly, and should be recognized for his longstanding support of PMINJ as a volunteer and Programs On-Site Registration Team Leader.

Tod has been the “bedrock” volunteer for the Corporate Outreach Team. He has been PMINJ's ambassador and a project management evangelist at many of our Outreach events- handing out brochures, giving advice and (when available) candy to the people who stop by our PMINJ information tables.

Tod’s smiling face and easy manner of speaking with people have been key elements in spreading the word about the importance of project management as a profession and about the benefits and opportunities that PMINJ provides to members. As we have continued to reach out to project manager communities  in corporations, universities, state and local governments, and other professional organizations, we’ve always been able to count on Tod to volunteer and be present to represent PMINJ.

When Tod is not volunteering for PMINJ events,  he is a Business Development Manager for Analysts International Corporation (AIC) in Edison, NJ.

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Diane Dugan PMP, LEED AP, was awarded the most prestigious award of the PMINJ chapter, the Barbara Ann Fuller Volunteer of the Year award, at the Volunteer Recognition Dinner on 06 February, 2015.

Diane is the consummate professional, photographer and volunteer. Diane was even working her own celebratory event as PMINJ’s photographer! Diane attends most if not all PMINJ events; from monthly Program meetings, mid-size workshops to the large Symposium events. Diane uses her talent to memorialize these chapter events.

Diane leads the Photography Team for the events, organizing photography activities, assuring coverage of speakers and vendors, and the post event gathering and finalizing of all photos for media and website release, with finesse. The Symposium events are especially demanding with multiple breakout rooms, 100’s of photos captured and subsequently sorted and edited. In this way Diane shares her talents and further reveals her commitment and her art to the PMINJ chapter.

Diane is a joy to work with and the PMINJ chapter is grateful for her continued commitment to our chapter; thank you Diane!

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Adrienne Walcott joined the Volunteer Recognition team in March 31, 2014. In this very short time of volunteering, Adrienne has gone above and beyond the expectation for her role as Volunteer Coordinator. After training, Adrienne learned the VRMS system and efficiently manages it as coordinator for the PMINJ chapter. In this role she manages volunteer engagements, tracks volunteer opportunities and application, updates VRMS database and Master Volunteer list, sends communication to new members of Volunteer teams, trains applicants in VRMS database and responds to any email questions received to volunteers@pminj.org.

She thoroughly enjoys her role as Volunteer Coordinator. When she made a list of reasons to stay in New Jersey or move to Arizona, this was one of the top reason why she chose to stay in New Jersey. When she is not volunteering, she takes violin lessons and plays in an orchestra.

Her dedication is unmatched and she is very pleasant to work with.

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Anand is one of the founding members of the newly formed Member Service Center. He joined in April to help develop the initial launch of the Member Services Team. He was a strong contributor in the development and organization of our Member Service page on the chapter website. He assumed responsibility for Member Services during our peak period of new program year colliding with website challenges. He escalated issues quickly and stayed on the task through to resolution. He demonstrated and continues to demonstrate a commitment to our members to provide exceptional customer service.

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Pamela Kunz assumed the position of project manager for the 2014 Chapter Excellence Awards initiative with a minimal knowledge about the program, but she hit the ground running. Pam quickly reviewed all the available documentation, reached out to the Board members and was able to fully grasp the project requirements.

When global PMI published the Chapter Excellence application, Pam conducted a gap analysis, collaborated with many people, and was able to quickly gather information supporting PMINJ’s 2013 accomplishments. This was a big challenge since the categories being measured and the requirements for submitting documentation had changed dramatically from the prior year.

Pam went above and beyond to ensure requirements were understood and adhered to by the PMINJ Board members and she provided the insight and detailed work involved in demonstrating the quantifiable and measurable results. Under strict time constraints, Pam spent countless hours completing the new requirements. “Her dedication is inspirational,” one board member noted. “She even fills in at the registration desk at monthly meetings … she takes her work at PMINJ very seriously.”

We look forward to keeping Pam on in a new role—PM-Chapter Excellence, which she initiated by carefully identifying lessons learned and ways we can act upon them to continue to provide excellent service to our members!

Mike Vitale volunteered in February 2013. Mike immediately adopted the vision of bringing PM knowledge into schools [k-12]. He started researching PMIEF [PMI Education Foundation] to see what other chapters were doing and what materials were available. He developed a small team and begin putting together a PMINJ custom presentation. They adopted the concept of working with students that were tasked to lead a project. This led to the connection with the Scouts in particular; the Gold and Eagle scout program and to schools involved in FIRST Robotics competition. They presented to a Boy Scout troop in November 2013, shortly followed up with a presentation in December 2013 to the Piscataway High School Robotics Team. To assist after the PM presentation Mike’s team designated a mentor to work with the team. The team is also working with the Hillsborough High School Robotics team.

Steve is one of two people on the Marketing team that distributes all email blast communications to the chapter. All email blasts are required to go out in a timely fashion. One added duty that the two volunteers have is to respond to all email inquiries about the email blasts. The questions they receive are quite varied.

Before taking this role, any questions from our membership regarding the email blasts went unanswered which lead to member dissatisfaction. Steve has answered questions from our membership on a variety of subjects. To answer the questions, many times he would have to find the correct person in the chapter to provide insight or figure out on his own how a process worked and give the member an answer. He responds to questions in a timely manner because many are time-sensitive when they relate to registration. His role has provided a great insight into the obstacles our members encounter. Another important part of this role is to transmit the feedback to specific VP areas so that they can respond to the issue. Steve’s role has provided an effective feedback loop from our members into the chapter.

Steve completed the Penn State Certification Program in March 2009. He joined PMINJ on 10/10/2007and became a volunteer for the Marketing team on 2/29/2012.

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Gary is one of two people that distribute all email blast communications to the chapter. The email blasts are required to go out in a timely fashion. One added duty that the two volunteers have is to respond to all emails from anyone that receives these email blasts. The questions they receive are quite varied.

Gary earned his PMP in November 2006. He joined PMINJ in May of 2011 and became a volunteer for the Marketing team in February of 2012. Before taking this role any questions from our members responding to the email blasts were not answered which would lead to member dissatisfaction. Gary has answered questions from our membership on a variety of subjects. To answer the questions many times he would have to find the correct person within the chapter to answer the question or figure out on his own how a process worked and give the member an answer. He responds to questions in a timely manner because many are time sensitive when they relate to registration. His role has provided a great insight into the obstacles our members encounter. Another important part of this role is to get the feedback to specific VP areas so that they can respond to the issue at hand. Basically this role has provided an effective feedback loop from our members to the chapter.

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Marc Matrulli is one of our most dedicated volunteers on the PMINJ Programs Team, and is the Team Co-Leader for the Programs Venue Management Team. Marc, along with his Co-Leader Dan Ackerman, is responsible for identifying venues for our monthly chapter meetings, negotiating contracts, and managing the relationships with each facility to ensure they deliver the best service to PMINJ attendees.

A project manager for over 15 years, Marc joined PMINJ in 2006 when his role at Johnson & Johnson included training on PM practices. Marc earned his PMP in 2007, knowing the credential would help give him the credibility his role required. The strategy worked, and Marc is currently responsible for IT Portfolio Strategy and Process at Johnson & Johnson.

Marc has been a volunteer on the Programs Venue Management team since 2010. He is a gracious host and the Programs Team relies on Marc to work with the meeting facilities staff. A recent example of Marc’s dedication and initiative was his work with the staff at the Pines Manor after Hurricane Sandy to make sure all systems were “Go” for the November Chapter meeting. Like many other businesses, the Pines had lost power and suffered some damage due to the storm, and Marc stayed in close contact with the facility to ensure they’d be back in service in time for the meeting.

Marc plays a vital role as a volunteer and Team Co-Leader for PMINJ’s Programs Monthly Chapter meetings. When asked why he volunteers and what he enjoys about his role, Marc said, “It allows me to leverage my Project Management skills and to interact with all the other Program Team volunteers that work so hard to make each Chapter meeting such a success.”

PMINJ Programs relies on the help of dedicated, talented volunteers like Marc to deliver successful Program Chapter meetings and provide valuable professional development opportunities to the members. We appreciate Marc’s commitment, energy, and professionalism and thank him sincerely for his valued contribution to the PMINJ community.

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Dan is one of the exceptional PMINJ volunteers on the Programs Team, and currently the Team Co-Leader for Venue Management. Dan, along with his Co-Leader Marc Matrulli, is responsible for the great facilities and excellent meals PMINJ members enjoy at the Monthly Meetings. Dan started volunteering for Programs with the On-Site Registration team in 2009, and is still one of the many faces you may see behind the registration desk at the Main Location.

As Venue Management Co-Lead, even before the Program year begins, Dan is hard at work evaluating facilities and negotiating the contracts with venues to host the Main Location monthly chapter meetings. Venues must be able to meet not only PMINJ’s requirements for space and technical specifications (presentation delivery and broadcast to satellite locations); they must also provide excellent dinners at competitive rates.

In the weeks before each Monthly Meeting, Dan starts coordinating with the other Programs Teams and with the Venue to make sure the facilities and accommodations are in order. He makes sure the Audio team has the connectivity in place and all is functioning or are getting the necessary support. He also makes sure that the PMO and Networking LCI teams have what they need to run their respective pre-meeting events.

On the day of the meeting, Dan works with the venue's event manager to make sure tables are set as expected, food is correct and plentiful, and everything operates according to plan. He is the gracious host throughout the evening, making sure that last-minute logistics are addressed, and all the guests are enjoying themselves. At the end of the meeting, he obtains the final count from the On-Site Registration team and works with the venue contact to review the invoice, making sure the Chapter is billed correctly and sometimes negotiating further discounts before providing approval for the Chapter to make payment.

The smooth execution each month is just another example of Dan’s skill as a PM. When not playing the role of Programs Meeting Venue-Meister, he works at Morgan Stanley supporting Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, where he recently completed work on a three year effort to integrate Smith Barney's suite of Corporate Equity business applications into the Morgan Stanley environment. As Program Manager, Dan managed the Program Office and his team's linkage with the rest of the firm's integration efforts.

A PMI, PMINJ member and PMP since 2005, Dan plays a critical role as a volunteer and Co-Team Leader for PMINJ’s Monthly Chapter Meetings. When asked what he liked about volunteering for PMINJ, Dan said, “I like all of it. It is great to be able to interact with so many people across PMINJ and be part of the success of our monthly chapter meetings.”

To run successfully and give the best service to its members, PMINJ relies on the help of dedicated, hard-working volunteers like Dan. We appreciate Dan’s commitment and energy, and extend sincere thanks to him for his valued contribution to the PM community.

Beth is a veteran volunteer for the Symposium Registration Team. The PMINJ Community relies on the Registration team to handle on-line registration; send confirmation emails; distribute all the communications related to the event; and provide registration coverage on the day of the event. The symposium team registers more than 1100 attendees for the two major events each year. They resolve technical issues related to the on-line system, questions and quarries from the members and any cancellation / refund issues. Beth joined the PMINJ Registration team as a volunteer soon after earning her PMP in 2007. She chose to volunteer for the Symposium Registration team because of her prior experience and interest in event registration processes and being a team player.

Many PMINJ members are familiar with Beth’s symposium notices or perhaps she has helped you address a registration issue. Beth is very prompt responding to any inquiry related to registration and if she cannot answer, she will get the request to the appropriate team lead and assure a response. Beth enjoys working with the other Registration team members and cites its leaders, as essential to keeping the Registration system humming! These team leaders cite Beth’s commitment to the team and how she always goes the extra mile. Beth sends ‘Thank You’s to attendees and more recently stepped up to email the survey for IPM day event. All these activities take up Beth’s time including weekends.

When she’s not volunteering with the PMINJ Symposium Registration Team, Beth is an IT Project Manager at Mars Information Services where she partners with Business PM’s to advance global multi-segment projects and she is responsible for their PMO.

Beth loves project management! She especially enjoys working with engaged volunteers and coworkers, learning and addressing project challenges to deliver successful results.

The PMINJ chapter cannot run successfully without the help of dedicated volunteers like Beth. We appreciate Beth’s hard work and dedication for the chapter and desire to give back to the PM community.

Morris’s focus on IT Project Management came as a natural evolution during his 20+ years in data center, computer, and Help Desk support. His skill in leading teams and working with technology are key ingredients to his success leading the PMINJ Programs’ rapidly growing Satellite Team. His team is comprised of a network of over 25 members statewide, and they coordinate with the Programs’ A/V Team to broadcast the monthly programs to fifteen remote meeting locations around the state, from Mahwah to Atlantic City.

Always positive and decisive, with a project manager’s attention to detail, Morris works with his Satellite Logistics Coordinator to make sure each Satellite Coordinator gets the list of individuals who will be attending the meeting at that remote site each month, so members can be signed in and be confirmed eligible to claim PDU’s. His prompt answers to logistics questions and regular communications with the Satellite Team throughout the month ensure each location is prepared to host as many as 25 guests for the meeting.

After the event, Morris contacts each Satellite Coordinator to collect registration forms; discuss communications or logistics issues; and ensure continued improvements to this new process. With his guidance and leadership, the Satellites have grown from a few small locations with a handful of participants to a thriving program whose attendance now exceeds registration at the Main Meeting location.

A PMP and PMINJ member since October, 2010, Morris first started volunteering as a way to earn extra PDU’s. Originally he was a Marketing Team volunteer, when he was asked to assist the Programs Team in a Satellite Coordinator role, Morris immediately accepted. With his help as a Coordinator, the team has developed a standard process for qualifying, setting up, and running satellite locations. Now the Satellite Team Leader, he reports, “I enjoy providing an opportunity for PMINJ members to participate in the monthly Programs and enjoy local ‘networking’ when the Main meeting is not close to where they live or work. It’s a way to ‘give back’ to PMINJ, and a great way to ensure that as many members as possible have access to the monthly Programs.”

PMINJ is a volunteer organization and the chapter’s success is attributed to volunteers like Morris who work tirelessly to provide quality service for chapter membership and we thank him for that.

Suzanne brings more than 20 years of experience in Healthcare Information Technology to her PMINJ chapter volunteering. She also brings a detailed oriented and pleasant personality that is needed for the Symposium Registration Team. Suzanne has been the Team Co-Lead for symposium Registration Team for the past 5 years and has worked tirelessly during the year to organize and stream line the annual event registration process. Suzanne and her team are instrumental for the on-line registration, confirmations, badges and gifts for attendees for the May Symposiums as well Nov IPM Day events. Before becoming registration team lead, Suzanne served as a volunteer on the Registration Team.

The first step for a successful Symposium is to have smooth registration process. Every year over 600 members register for the May Symposium and over 500 members register for IPM Day Seminar, both online. There are significant efforts involved for planning, setting up team and assign responsibilities, setting up dates, setting up online registration with web master, continually monitor registration, answering phone calls related to registration and resolve any issues members might have registering for the events. On the day of the event, Suzanne and her team arrives at the facility very early in the morning to set up registration tables with gifts and name tags. Due to hard work and dedication of volunteers like Suzanne, the chapter is able to provide quality events like symposiums to the members.

Suzanne’s thoughts on her PMINJ volunteering experience:

“Initially when I joined PMINJ I thought that I would be able to attend some interesting seminars on Project Management and keep my PMP certification current. After attending a few Chapter Events and seeing the quality of the programs as well as the knowledgeable membership, I knew I had to be part of the organization and help make things happen. I am proud and excited to be an active member of the PMINJ Chapter and encourage everyone to Volunteer as you not only help the organization, you help yourself and make many new friends and acquaintances”.

PMINJ is a volunteer organization and chapter’s success is attributed to volunteers like Suzanne who works tirelessly to provide quality service for chapter membership and we thank her for that.

Lisa brings more than 25 years of experience in telecommunication and information systems to her PMINJ chapter volunteering. She also brings a detail-oriented and pleasant personality that is needed for the Symposium Speaker Team. Lisa has been the Team Lead for symposium speaker team for the past 3 years and has worked tirelessly, around the year for speaker solicitation, review and selection. Lisa and her team are instrumental for creating the final agenda for the May Symposia and the November IPM Day events. Before becoming speaker team lead, Lisa served as a speaker angel and was a proactive member of the team for over a year.

The Symposium Speaker team is the heart of the symposium. The quality of speakers is the most important factor for the success of the symposium. There are significant efforts involved with planning, reviewing, and interacting with speakers to manage their needs. Lisa and her co-lead are responsible for soliciting speakers, collating and reviewing documents from all the speaker proposals. They check references and lead a team of volunteer angels through the rigorous speaker selection process. On the day of the event, Lisa makes sure each speaker arrives on time, has an assigned angel and satisfies all their requests.

Lisa’s thoughts on her PMINJ volunteering experience:“PMINJ offers a variety of great professional development opportunities, and volunteering on the Speaker Team for the Symposium and IPM Day and working to provide the best experience possible for our Chapter members is my way of saying "Thank you!" to PMINJ. It's also a fun and rewarding way to meet and network with other PMs”.

PMINJ's success is attributed to volunteers like Lisa who work tirelessly to provide quality programs for the chapter members and we thank her for that.

When you attend PMINJ’s monthly programs, you will almost always find Dennis Komsa at the sign-in table ready to help you register for the meeting. In return for his dedication, strong leadership skills and proactive efforts as team lead of the On-Site Registration team, Dennis is being recognized as PMINJ’s Volunteer of the Quarter.

Dennis became a member of the NJ chapter in 2008 and, in the following year, volunteered to take lead role for the On-Site Registration team. His strong leadership skills are evident as he deals with scheduling his team, now reaching 15 members in size, to ensure that there is ample registration support for each meeting. As part of this responsibility, he deals with resolving any registration issues that are uncovered.

For each of the eight months that PMINJ holds a dinner meeting, Dennis will insure that there are sufficient volunteers to work at the meeting’s on-site registration table. He has demonstrated flexibility in handling last minute changes in scheduling. With a recent increase in volunteers, Dennis has improved the scheduling of team efforts so that each volunteer has some time off for dinner and networking. Also, Dennis takes responsibility for bringing the registration supplies and name tags early to each meeting.

In addition to handling the walk-in registrations on the evening of the meeting, Dennis assists in compiling the payment analysis that is done after registration is completed. He also follows up on post-meeting issue resolution.

Dennis’ volunteer efforts do not stop with the PMINJ organization. In addition, Dennis is an active volunteer with the Somerset County United Way; as a member of the Resource Development and Marketing Committee, he heads their Social Media efforts to expand the organization’s outreach program. He has helped them establish a presence on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, established a blog on MyCentralJersey.com and is currently in the process of implementing a high school intern program to lend staffing assistance.

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Michael Lange has been a member of the Program Evaluation team for 3 years. He has been consistent with his support. As a team member, Michael is required to summarize anywhere from 30 to 50 evaluation forms every month using the team’s MS Excel spreadsheet. What has set Michael apart is his initiative. Over the years he has recommended various reporting improvements and modifications to the spreadsheet calculations which have resulted in more meaningful data mining.

In addition to his regular monthly activities of collecting data, Michael recently volunteered to help the chapter test the use of Survey Monkey to provide an electronic program evaluation survey for the satellite locations. Michael created the program evaluation survey based on the paper version while at the same time enhancing the electronic version for ease of use and data entry.

The electronic survey has demonstrated it is possible for the chapter to go ‘green’ and improve the satellite location program evaluation reporting. The electronic evaluation form has reduced handwriting interpretation issues and reduced the time it takes to summarize and collate the various question’s answers into a single master MS Excel spreadsheet report.

Michael continues to provide improvements to the electronic evaluation form. Two great examples are the addition of a ‘pointer’ to the PMI.org site upon completion of the evaluation which serves as a reminder for program attendees to submit their PDU's and the addition of check box's for the various volunteer activities available, making it easier to complete and faster for chapter leadership to complete data searches.

Michael has helped the program evaluation team make a difference and provides value added support to the chapter every day.

Dave has been a member of the New Jersey Chapter since 1999 and received his PMP certification in 2002. From 2000 through 2006, Dave was the chapter’s newsletter editor. He continued to generate the newsletter even while he was working at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Once he returned to NJ to work at Telcordia Technologies as a Senior Project Manager, he became the chapter’s lead photographer.

For the past three years, all the pictures taken at the monthly meetings and at the May/November Symposia have been the responsibility of Dave Case. During this time, he has taken over 1,800 pictures for the monthly meetings while he and his photo team have shot over 3,500 pictures for both the May and November events. A portion of these pictures appear on the chapter’s website. All of the pictures can be previewed at www.damaca.smugmug.com/pmi/.

Sandy Sandlin has been named our Volunteer of the Quarter. Sandy works with the Programs' Evaluation Team to streamline the process and to make it easier for everyone to review the results. The team that he is leading tabulates survey results from each of the eight monthly meetings held each year:

• Around 175 - 200 people at the main site
• 10 - 25 people at each of the satellite locations

There are currently satellite sites in Camden, Fairfield, Iselin, Princeton, and Roseland. While the amount of work is steadily increasing, the team is looking for ways to provide the results quickly. Through Sandy's efforts, the Evaluation Team is a strong team which always remains positive and willing to help.

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Volunteer extraordinaire would best describe Barbara Fuller. Barbara has been a member of the New Jersey Chapter since 2001. Barbara has been a PMP for over 10 years.

She has been actively involved in leading the Career Networking Group since 2006. Under Barbara’s direction, she has transformed the Career Networking Group from chapter members in transition searching for a job to a true networking forum. In addition to providing a venue for chapter members to network with each other, Barbara has been very instrumental in bringing in speakers to educate and motivate. Speakers have coached Career Networking Group members in the art of communication, as well as boosting confidence. Group members and participants have truly mastered the art of networking that goes well beyond job search. The group meets at 5:30 prior to regularly scheduled chapter meetings each month. By attending these meetings and sessions, members have learned how to create a resume that gets a second look, honed interviewing skills and perfected the effective 30 second elevator pitch.

Barbara was the program manger for the Seminar @ Sea event in 2008. It was the first time such an event was offered by the New Jersey Chapter and Barbara accepted and rose to the challenge! She worked tirelessly to negotiate contracts with suppliers, including the cruise ship, attract sponsors to participate in the event, secure dynamic speakers, and provide a venue of overall fun. Barbara successfully achieved a mix of fun and learning to all participants’ satisfaction.

Most recently Barbara program managed the successful Career Workshop held at Rutgers University this past June. The theme of the workshop was getting your career in shape for summer. In addition to securing Rutgers School of Business as a host/sponsor and inviting career coaches, Barbara also taught an elevator pitch session herself.

After completing her undergraduate and graduate education in Ohio, she relocated to Dallas, Texas and soon connected with AT&T where she worked for 21 years. To take on additional challenges as an in-house consultant, AT&T relocated her to New Jersey. While at AT&T, Barbara held various positions of increasing responsibility focused on program and project delivery. Her final assignment at AT&T was establishing and running a PMO. Her work there caused a transformation in the information technology organization; the people, the processes and the client perception.

Barbara left AT&T to pursue her own business within the project management consulting arena. Her company is called Process and Project Solutions, Inc.. She has successfully built her client base utilizing project management skills to manage large scale initiatives for customers or to provide process or project consulting expertise. Recently she formed a professional and personal coaching business for individuals, entrepreneurs and companies called “Focus on You, Now”. It embraces her passion of developing people and teams using her many years of coaching experience.

When asked about her successes whether in her corporate life, as an entrepreneur or a leader of volunteers, she recognizes the talent, and excellence of the people on the teams she has led.

Maureen Sammis has been a member of the New Jersey Chapter since 1992, when she achieved her PMP status. She has been a role model of a volunteer for more than 7 years, mainly supporting the Symposium and the International Project Management Day events with communications. She has also contributed two poster presentations to chapter symposia.

The Symposium Communications Team that Maureen leads is our connection to the world. The role has grown through the years. Currently, Maureen’s team develops content and writes articles for the chapter web site, for specific e-mail notifications, for chapter newsletters, and for PMI News articles. These pieces of journalism involve pre-event and post-event objectives, and rely on input from the entire Symposium Team. Maureen’s team takes feedback gracefully, while meeting the deadlines. You know what is going on with upcoming symposium and International Project Management Day events, thanks to Maureen and her team members.

Maureen spent 35 years of her career with AT&T. For her last 5 years, she was the Vice President of Customer Service, serving large business customers with worldwide networks. She was one of the first executives on the AT&T Project Management Organization board. After retiring from AT&T in 2004, Maureen has taken on new challenges. She currently consults for Creative Resources, interfacing with customers in the gourmet food industry to design, develop, and deliver custom packaging, which is created in China. Her extensive project management skills, as well as her communication and diplomacy skills, are used daily.

Countless contributions were made by volunteers on the 2007-2008 PMI/NJ Programs team.

While everyone worked hard to make these meetings successful, Jane Banfield efforts have been instrumental in the success of the programs.

Besides working with the caterers and the audiovisual contacts, she has also interacted closely with the satellite sites to ensure that the people in these locations are able to hear what is going on at the meetings as well having the ability to ask questions. This has resulted in her visiting the main meeting locations and arriving at the main location the day of the meeting anywhere from mid afternoon to a couple of hours before the start of the meeting. She has spent hours working with the audiovisual contact at the main meeting location adjusting the equipment to improve the sound quality. Due to her patience and attention to detail, the attendees at the satellite locations have had very good experiences. In fact, the contact for the Marlton location sent a note to the Board thanking us for our efforts.

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Eileen Szperka brings more than 30 years of experience in health care, financial, clinical and management information systems to her PMI NJ chapter volunteering. She also brings a can-do attitude and terrific people skills, which are needed on the Symposium Facilities Team. Eileen has been the Team Lead for Facilities for the past 3 symposium events, including new locations with record-setting attendance. Before that, Eileen was a proactive member of the Symposium Facilities Team for over a year.

The Symposium Facilities Team is where the rubber hits the road. There are significant planning as well as execution and closing activities, and tremendous amounts of interdependencies to be managed. Eileen is responsible for selecting the symposium locations, negotiating the facilities, A/V, and hotel contracts, addressing the changing needs of speakers and vendors, providing the essential layout diagrams that help attendees navigate the events easily, ensuring that the A/V is perfect and has back-ups, and most importantly, that the food part of the experience is excellent both in terms of quality and service. As we have more events and events get longer and more complicated in terms of programs, the challenges of the Facilities Team increase, but Eileen has built a strong team and mentored a co-lead, which will help us continue in this area with excellence.

Eileen’s thoughts on her PMI NJ volunteering experience:“After passing my PMP Certification in July, 2005, I decided that I didn’t want to belong to an organization and not be active. Then I went to the PMI NJ November Symposium and was so impressed with the group that I signed-up to be on a committee. Since then I have been active on the Facilities Team for the Symposium, first as a team member and in 2007 as Team Lead.Although working on the Facilities Team can be challenging at times, it is very rewarding when things come together and you hear from the attendees that it is the best event they have attended. Volunteering has broadened my understanding of how project management impacts other industries. It allows you to network with people you might otherwise not have met. I have had the chance to be mentored by some individuals that I see as role models and I have developed friendships that I know will last.”

For years, she has been a great asset to the PMI NJ Chapter successfully supporting the monthly meetings, the Annual Symposium, PMP training class, International Project Management day, and more. Kelly started volunteering as the Project Manager – On-Line Registration in 2004. At that time, there was a project manager responsible for manual registration and one for on-line registration. Due to her diligence and willingness to please, this volunteer position has expanded. Starting this year, registration is only available through the on-line registration and therefore the entire registration process is her responsibility.

She works behind the scenes to ensure that the online registration system runs smoothly and the resulting list of registrants is correct. She is the one who you contact if you encounter such issues as your password for the on-line registration system is suddenly no longer valid or if you never received an e-mail message indicating that your registration was accepted by the system. In addition, she maintains the list of those individuals who decided to take advantage of registering for the 8 meetings to be held during the program year in September and checks that the final registration list is accurate. She also creates the formatted registration list used by the On-Site Registration Team and Career Networking Program Group as well as the one for generating the name tags for each evening meeting. She trained someone to print the name tags and serves as the backup to this position.

In addition, Kelly has become in many cases the first point of contact for not only questions related to Programs registration but also the other events sponsored by our chapter. She takes the time to find the appropriate individual to respond directly to each member’s inquiries. Given all of Kelly's efforts to support the chapter, Kelly is well deserving of this PMI/NJ "Volunteer of the Quarter” recognition.

Being “The A/V Guy” is one of those jobs that if done well, is in fact invisible! So, many of you may not know Harry the way the PMI NJ Symposium Planning Team does! But join us in recognizing Harry as our first "Volunteer of the Quarter”. We are starting this form of recognition to show our appreciation for some invaluable team players, without whom our events would not be successful.

Harry joined our Facilities Team as the point person for audio-visual needs in 2004. He has now successfully supported 5 major events at four different locations! Every space has different challenges in terms of ensuring that the speaker can be seen and heard by everyone in the audience. He is responsible to solicit, select, manage, and work with subcontractors. There are the technology unknowns! And there is the holding your breath phenomenon on the day of the event, in between responding to calls to fix a microphone that has suddenly stopped working or other glitch. In all of this, Harry has shown leadership, patience, perseverance, adherence to the highest standards of quality, and, yes, good cheer! For this we honor him!

Harry can only recall “one time when there was a potential for problems. It was before the 2006 Symposium, when the in-house A/V contractor could not get the dual projectors working in the General Session room. He was up until about 1:00 AM trying to fix it. Luckily the technician who came at 6:00 AM was able to fix the problem.” And no one except the planning team knew about it!

Harry recommends volunteering to chapter members: “Volunteering is not only a good way to get PDUs, it is also good for getting noticed and for networking. I’m glad the chapter has given me the opportunity to do something I enjoy.”

Stop by at the upcoming IPM Day Event November 1 or at next May’s Symposium to let Harry know what a great contribution he is making!