| In our first article about the SIG’s transition to a community of practice, we reviewed what PMI's new communities of practice are, the benefits of communities of practice, why we're making the change and when the change will be completed. In this, our second article, we want to review PMI's vision for the communities of practice and what changes you can expect during this transition period. · PMI's Vision o The vision is for PMI to have a collection of member communities that provide a rich and interactive virtual environment for project practitioners to share and gain knowledge with a large global community of practitioners. · Virtual Community Benefits & Changes o Leadership and Management Changes: The leaders of the MSSIG are volunteers who are passionate about our area of the project management profession, and strive to provide a high degree of value to our members. Transitioning to a community of practice will allow us to focus on delivering high-value member services such as facilitating the development and sharing of a profession knowledge base while PMI staff handle administrative tasks such as the community’s website maintenance and financial reporting. o Website Changes: Next year, the PMI® Marketing & Sales Community of Practice website will be an even more knowledge-driven site through which will not only deliver discussion boards and webinar information, but also provide more virtual and dynamic exchange of ideas and expertise through blogs, wikis, shared document areas and opinion polls. These tools are designed to make it easier to share and gain a local and global perspective on best practices, lessons learned, new research and techniques. · Changes You Can Expect During Transition o Over the next few months, the MSSIG will continue to provide services to its members. You will receive communications regarding a vote to dissolve the SIG and transition into a community of practice, as well as Virtual Communities Project (VCP) status updates. o As part of a limited-time access, all PMI members have complimentary access to several SIGs that already have transitioned into communities of practice. This is a great opportunity for you to explore the new websites to better understand the community of practice platform, and to participate in any communities that interest you. To access PMI’s communities of practice: § Visit PMI.org and log in with your PMI.org username and password § Click on “Communities” § Follow the links to the communities of practice and click on the name of the community you wish to access Our name and structure may be changing, but our mission remains the same: Open the channels of communication between the communities of marketing, sales and project management to accelerate our mutual goal of organizational alignment. But don’t wait for the transition to complete. We encourage you to contribute your insights now and benefit from the experience of other practitioners who share your interest in marketing and sales. Join the conversation. What is a PMI Community of Practice? PMI communities of practice are defined as a group of members with no geographical boundary brought together by a common interest such as a particular project management discipline or issue. To that end, the outcome of PMI’s new virtual communities is centered on member value and providing the global project management community with a knowledge base all in one location. Undertaking this effort has been a wonderful challenge for PMI and its members and has fostered a new way of connecting as we continually evolve in our interactions with one another. It is an exciting time for our members and we hope that it is going to increase the value of your membership and participation in PMI.
The PMI community of practice model replaces the industry and practice-oriented organizations we’ve known as colleges and SIGs. Each community will be one of these types: · Knowledge domains: Aligned to knowledge areas of the PMBOK® Guide, PMI global standards, and/or the PMI family of professional credentials and other services. · Industry domains: Built around project management knowledge inherent within unique industry groups. The Marketing & Sales SIG will be one of these communities of practice. · Affinity communities: Focus on an area/topic of interest | | SIGs | Communities of Practice | | Leadership | All volunteer leadership | Organization leadership shared between PMI and volunteers | | Fees model | Annual dues paid for each SIG joined | Provide access to all communities of practice for one fee · PMI Membership fee + VC fee = access to all VCs (For a limited time, access to all communities of practice are available to all PMI members at no cost) · Chapter membership is NOT included | | Member benefits | Determined by each SIG | Standardization of member benefits across SIGs | Why Virtual Communities instead of SIGs?
PMI understands the challenges of the more independent SIGs and colleges. For example, the Marketing & Sales SIG has planned to provide a means for its members to develop a practices and taxonomy knowledge base, but this is a large undertaking that often takes a back seat to the day-to-day delivering webinars, developing and maintaining the SIG website, recruiting SIG board members, financial reporting, etc. The intent is for the new communities to more fully ensure delivery of the following value and benefits across all SIGs: · Ability to collaborate and share insights and learn from others around the globe · Access to more information and knowledge (i.e., best practices and case studies) · Access to other valuable services like webinars, blogs, wikis · Increased opportunities to volunteer and take leadership roles · Extend member reach and growth of the community to more geographic regions · · More fully engage members How is the Marketing & Sales SIG progressing in this transformation?
The Marketing & Sales SIG Board of Directors recently completed the first three steps to becoming one of the new PMI communities of practice. These steps included: 1. Reviewing PMI’s transition package and completing the vote for the SIG Board to approve transitioning to a community of practice and dissolving our PMI component corporation (PMI Marketing & Sales SIG). 2. Submitting a completed Current Activities Assessment (CAA) to PMI that documents our current activities, assets, obligations and operational plans. 3. Submitting to PMI a completed and signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) concerning fulfillment of our legal requirements. Our next step is to communicate the transition plan to our members and complete a vote among our board to approve the following: Dissolving the SIG and transitioning to a PMI community of practice to include the approval of the distribution of SIG/College funds and assets to PMI to be held for the use of the community of practice. Acceptance of the proposed PMI fee model. On the day our new virtual community website opens to our members, the dissolving SIG dues collection will stop and the new community of practice fees model and processes will be in effect.
When will the Marketing & Sales SIG complete its transformation to a Community of Practice?
The MSSIG is working to complete its transformation to a community of practice in the 1st quarter of 2010. All this will take place while the Marketing & Sales SIG continues normal membership benefit operations. We will continue to provide the services in community, communications, education and development that we provide now. | 
