President's New Year 2020 Message

Mr. Krishnan Srinivasan

President, PMI Malaysia Chapter

Dear Esteemed Chapter Members and Project Management Professionals,

As we bid farewell to 2019 and welcome in a New Decade, I thought I would share a few thoughts with each of you.

It has been a very exciting time for PMI Malaysia Chapter. In 2019, we celebrated our 25th Anniversary – not many people know this, but we were one of the first Chapters to be Chartered in Asia Pacific in 1994 (the other Chapter being PMI New Zealand Chapter).

Our Membership has grown in each successive year, ending 2019 with a little over 1,350 members. Amongst the initiatives we embraced, were:

  1. Free Membership for PMI Student Members – this is to encourage Student Membership for Students who are in Full Time Study at a Higher Education Institution or University;
  2. PMI’s Chapter Guest Pass Program – this is to encourage PMI members who have never been Chapter Members to participate in and experience firsthand Chapter Activities for the remaining duration of their current PMI Membership;
  3. Opening Branches in Northern and Southern Peninsular Malaysia – there is a Group of Volunteers at each location who help to organize activities in their respective areas – your board has plans to open more Branches, the next likely to be in East Malaysia;
  4. We have had a relationship with IEM (Institution of Engineers, Malaysia) through an MOU which we have renewed every 3 years. More recently, our Southern Branch collaborated to bring a half day talk to both PMI and IEM members in Johor;
  5. Beginning with HELP University, we now have 4 PMI GAC (Global Accreditation Centre) accredited Universities – the most recent were University Malaysia Pahang and Herriot Watt University. These join the ranks of more than 60 Universities worldwide offering Undergraduate and Post Graduate Degrees in Project Management aligned to PMI’s PMBOK. Herriot Watt was recognized in Philadelphia during the PMI North America Leadership Institute Meeting for accrediting its 3 campuses in Putrajaya, Dubai and Edinburgh simultaneously;
  6. The Chapter has a number of MOU’s with a number of leading Universities in Malaysia. These are to help those Universities become GAC accredited and to leverage their facilities to bring events and programs to you. HELP University has been hosting your Chapter since 2018;
  7. Since mid-2018, the Chapter has been offering Supplementary Study Workshops to help would be Certificants prepare to successfully complete their PMP and CAPM Examinations;
  8. One unique thing our Chapter does is it has a number of WhatsApp Groups which includes Chapter Members Only and are based on the members location.  The purpose of these groups was to create a sense of community, where apart from sharing Project Management Information, we could help members of each group – prepare for exams, solve problems they might experience, help members satisfy PDU requirements etc. This has perhaps helped to improve the Chapter retention rates;
  9. In February, your Chapter hosted the PMI Asia Pacific Leadership Institute Meeting (LIM), the bi-annual PMI event for chapter leaders across Asia Pacific in Penang. We brought 28 Chapter Volunteers to that event – this was an opportunity to show volunteers firsthand what happens at the LIM’s – I am sure those who were privileged to attend will share what may have been a memorable experience for them. On the back of the LIM, the Northern Branch organized the 6th International Symposium in Georgetown, Penang. This was the first time the Symposium was organized outside the Klang Valley and it was the first time such an event was organized wholly by volunteers from the Northern Branch;
  10. To wrap up 2019, the Chapter decided to celebrate International Project Management Day which occurs on the first Thursday of November each year. We chose to celebrate PMI’s 50th Anniversary and the Chapters 25th Anniversary at a one Day Seminar on November 7th2019.

We are a membership organization – without you, our members, we are redundant. We are also a volunteer driven organization – without volunteers, we cannot organize and deliver activities that are the key to growing our membership – our events and activities must be relevant, resonate and relate with our Project Management Communities and Stakeholders. To this end, may I ask for your support as follows:

Renew your Membership early

  1. Encourage your colleagues, co-workers, friends and relatives to embrace PMI, its Certifications and PMI Malaysia Chapter
  2. Come and participate in Chapter organised events and activities
  3. Create a Volunteer’s Profile at https://vrms.pmi.org
  4. Volunteering with the chapter:
    1. Speaker or support team for events and activities
    2. Special Interest Group Lead
    3. Trainer to help non-certified members to be certified
    4. Elected Council Member (vacancies to be announced soon)

Please contact the following Council portfolios should are you interested in:

  1. Chapter Guest Pass Programme / Chapter WhatsApp groups – [email protected]
  2. PMI GAC Programme for Universities – [email protected]
  3. Sponsoring the Chapter – [email protected]

To end, may I share our best wishes for a Happy New Year to you and your loved ones. May you be blessed with Good Health, Happiness, Joy, Peace, Prosperity and Great Success in 2020 and beyond.

Thank you.

Krishnan Srinivasan

President, PMI Malaysia