Giving Back to the community In this economy

In today’s recession, many people are out of a job. The competition is steep and everyone is competing for so few jobs. While you are awaiting that next big break or the door of opportunity to open, what are you doing to keep your skills and talent fresh and competitive? 

     Speaking from a personal perspective, I am that someone who is currently seeking a position in which I spent thousands of dollars on education to brand myself academically and professionally in the market. To maintain my skills and improve my talent, I volunteer my time as a Community Project Manager through BDPA Columbus. 

     As a Community Project Manager, I have helped three non-profit organizations create websites to advertise and communicate their businesses via the internet. Although I do not have the skills to build a website, I do have the skills to lead a web development project. The websites were actually developed by volunteers of Columbus Give Camp (www.columbusgivecamp.org). This organization has IT volunteers giving their time and expertise in developing websites for non-profit organizations. I helped led the development of the website by assisting the non-profit organizations in creating a project plan. I was their voice in ensuring they got a website that positively represented them.   My PM skills consisted of the following….

*Initially met with the stakeholders of each non-profit organization to develop project plans

*Created a proposal for each organization which is a requirement of Give Camp

* Designed prototype web pages via Microsoft Power point

*Gathered needed documents/data which is needed for the website

*Scheduled meetings with all stakeholders (organization members & Give Camp web developers)

*Constantly communicated to all stakeholders the status of the web development

*Successfully close each phase of the project ensuring the organizations were satisfied with the final delivery

*Temporarily acted as web master until each organization found a suitable candidate to take over the position

     Participating as a volunteer PM is not only helping me maintain and improve my skills; it is also allowing me to continue to help those in the community maintain their status so that they can continue to help others.  I thank BDPA Columbus for giving me the opportunity to utilize my skills so that I can help others.

 Arias L. Heard, MBA, PMP