The date on 26th September 2021, is the current BOD 100th day. I would like to congrats to all the newly elected BODs. Frankly, two years ago, I was never thought of becoming the chapter leader, especially becoming the president. But when you have a mission, your ikigai kick in.
The chapter is moving in the direction that I am expecting. It is undoubtedly something new to many, but it is not something different from what PMI is. I hope everyone here is gaining something, if not at least having some fun. Remember, we are still growing, and a lot is still work in progress. Don’t Apply, but Practice.
Feel free to read the full speech as below or you can directly navigate to the link for the full speech directly from our Chapter Leader. The link is Here.
Salam Sejahtera, and good day to all my fellow members. My name is David. I am the Chapter President of PMI Malaysia 2021/2023.
Today marked the 100th day since our last AGM. I am thanking you for the opportunity to serve you as the chapter leader. I like to take this opportunity to share what we did for the past 100 days and what are we planning until the next AGM.
Before I do so, let me share some updates from PMI.
Today, every organisation is changing in one form or another, and we, project management professionals, need to change within the environment especially since this pandemic. We are being asked to do a lot more than simply execute a project on time, on budget, and in scope. There are many more demands coming to us. We must learn new ways of working and getting things done. It is not just us but also students, entrepreneurs, specialists, and business leaders. They are individuals that proactively drive change and transformation for businesses, people, and society. PMI seeks to support this group of people through this evolution while expanding PMI focus to a broader community of changemakers that needs much of the same skills and knowledge as a Project Manager.
In the very near future, PMI will launch PMI 4.0 to empower people like you and me to make ideas a reality. PMI will broaden its community, volunteers, chapters, and board to bring this winning aspiration to life for changemakers from ages 5 to 75.
So, how will this impact us as chapter members?
For the last 100 days, we have been preparing ourselves to align with PMI. Thanks to our Planning Director, Ms Gayathri Jeyasingam, for organising several strategy meetings for the past two months. As an affiliate of PMI in Malaysia, we will support and make all of us relevant through this evolution. We either working as an employee of a company, contractor in a gig economy, self-employed, leader of an organisation, or even an entrepreneur. PMI Malaysia Chapter will become the champion to power project economy in our beloved country, Malaysia.
To doing so, we must enable our chapter and empower our volunteers to turn ideas into reality. As of today, we have successfully recruited more than 110 volunteers from our chapter. We need many volunteers to help us create 10X impact and meaningful values for our chapter, members, and society. This effort is led by our chapter deputy president, Ms Jacqueline Soo, and her team. And we are not going to stop there. Our target is to have one volunteer to 10 members ratio. Our chapter is growing nearly to 1,500 members, making us a large chapter status in PMI. I applaud Mr Nehru Nagappan, our Membership Director, and his team for their effort making this a reality. To increase the success rate in our chapter events, we also need a solid collaboration tool for our volunteers. Recently, we have subscribed and migrated to Microsoft 365 cloud solution to ensure smooth chapter activities. This effort is only made possible by our Publications Director, Mr Raymond Chow. We will continue our monthly webinar using Microsoft Teams to ensure our outreach to all our members no matter where you are. These efforts are made possible by our Programmes team led by our director, Maruthamutu Subramaniam, and Agile Outreach team led by our director, Mr Stan Lee.
We are currently developing the mentoring and coaching programme for our chapter. A group of 9 volunteers from the professional development led by our director, Ms Queenie Lee, working closely to ensure a quality programme aligned with the PMI 5-75 initiative. On the same initiative, the chapter’s Social Good Squad, led by our Youth and Social Impact Director, Mr Shawn Er, continue to reach out to more NGOs, Universities, and even corporates to empower our youth in Malaysia with project management skills. Our chapter also pledged to support the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals and a number of hours contributed to PMI’s hour of impact this year. We are also continuing public outreach and collaboration to connect to more changemakers in Malaysia. This effort is led by Mr Herley Abdul Hamid, our Public Relations Director, and his team. Thanks to our PR team, we recently participated in Project Control Virtual Expo. They will also continue to support CIDB International Construction Week virtually in November and other public events.
Apart from the public outreach, we also need to reach out to our existing and potential partners. We connect to all PMI Authorised Training Partners in Malaysia and get a common understanding of collaboration for a Win-Win-Win solution. This effort is led by our Secretary, Mr Azlan Mohd Sidek and his team. We are also not going to stop there. We will also reach out to all PMI accredited universities in Malaysia, other education institutions, professional bodies, and corporates with the same shared value. I also want to thank our Treasurer, Dr Joshua Netto and his team to ensure an up-to-date and balanced financial account for our chapter. I hope we can make our account transparent as soon as possible through our new chapter website.
So, what next?
As our chapter is celebrated its 27 years anniversary, our chapter must transform and align with the PMI direction. We must ensure our chapter is sustainable for many 27 years to come. We have to focus on value creation, fun, and agile. Here are few initiatives that will be triggering this year:
1. Revisit the Chapter By-Law to align with our new chapter vision and values and meet the latest PMI requirements. We need passionate members to drive this effort and create meaning for the chapter, members, and our society.
2. The next Chapter Election will be moving forward to November and December to allow amber of time for incoming board members to onboard, learn, and plan early for their chapter year. The most important is getting the incoming board to connect with you as early as possible.
3. The chapter will adapt to the new norm forward from this December or National Recovery Plan Phase 4, whichever latest. We want to re-establish a safer face-to-face event for you and our stakeholders. We want to create a platform that allowing you as a member to connect with others for potential prospects and a possible partnership.
4. During this pandemic, Covid19 has proven that Digital Experience is the way forward to ensure value creation for all our members nationwide, from Sabah to Perlis and even in Singapore. Our chapter most significant investment for this year and next is to revamp our website to provide more than just a bulletin board. This investment will include a job board, chapter dashboard, member directory, PDUs corner, Blogs, events, merchandise store, and many more.
5. The chapter also committed to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. We will create a platform that belongs to every changemaker, including Women and Youth. Women in Project Management is restarting to ensure more activities to support and empower our ladies through project management. We also will empower our youth to turn ideas into reality and create better job opportunities within and beyond the chapter.
Our chapter will not function without a member, same as our chapter will not work without a volunteer. But we believe if we can empower our volunteers with the necessary skills and knowledge, they will realise sustainable benefits and create meaningful values for you and our chapter. This is a win-win-win solution.
What do we need?
We need your participation and constructive feedback. I am sure there will be many challenges ahead of us, but we will be vigilant, persevere, and resilient.
Malaysia Chapter is the first chapter in Asia-Pacific. A couple of years ago, when I attended the PMI Hong Kong Symposium, I met with one of the Hong Kong chapter founding members. He told me during the 90s, the only way in Asia to get a PMP, is to travel to Malaysia for the class and exam because we are the one of the earliest chapters in Asia. And I hope we can bring back the glory of Malaysia as a leading chapter to power project economy in this part of the world. I am sure we can do it because we have a group of passionate members who volunteer to make it happen. From the bottom of my heart, I thank all the volunteers. Please stay safe and stay strong together. We will be able to go through this pandemic very soon. Until we meet again, thank you.
