FAQs

PMI Hardship Provision to help members renew their membership
 
The Hardship Provision is available to any PMI member whose financial condition has changed drastically and sufficiently so that a member would have difficulty renewing their membership. A member must be in good standing for at least three previous years to qualify for the hardship provision. Under this provision, a member is granted a waiver for one year of PMI membership dues and one year of dues for membership in any two PMI Components of which the applicant was a member the previous year. The Hardship Provision may be granted for a maximum of two years for each member. This information can also be located on the back of the renewal invoice that members receive.

To apply for consideration, send a letter explaining the nature of the hardship, along with the invoice, to the attention of the Manager, Membership Services prior to the membership expiration date. Please remember that any incorrect or untrue statements made by a member are in violation of the PMI Member Ethical Standards-Member Standards of Conduct and may lead to the initiation of an ethics complaint in accordance with the PMI Member Ethics Case Procedures. Contact PMI for more information.

PMINEO is a Chapter chartered by the Project Management Institute(“PMI®”), Incorporated and separately incorporated as a non-profit [501(c) (6)], tax exempt corporation (or equivalent) organized under the laws of the State of Ohio – United States of America.

As of December 2016, by majority vote of the chapter, please view the bylaws by which the Northeast Ohio Chapter of PMI (a.k.a. PMINEO) is run.

Bylaws are the written rules by which the organization is governed. They provide the structure of the board and the organization. They determine the rights of members, and they determine the procedures by which rights can be exercised. In other words, bylaws guide the organization in conducting business.

Questions regarding PMINEO Bylaws can be directed to the Chapter President.

Professional Development Units (PDUs) is the measuring unit used by PMI to quantify approved learning and professional service activities. PMPs must complete and submit sixty PDUs to PMI in order to re-certify their PMP status.  These activities must be related to project management topics that are substantially consistent with the knowledge areas and processes as outlined by the Guide to the PMBOK® and involve appropriate expert resources. Typically, one PDU is earned for every one hour spent in a planned, structured learning experience or activity. The latest and most detailed information can be found in the CCR Program Handbook and the Continuing Certification Requirements FAQs.

The PMI Northeast Ohio Chapter is an affiliate of the Project Management Institute, Inc., with primary responsibility for the furtherance of the project management profession.  The chapter serves the Greater Cleveland, Akron, Canton, Sandusky, Youngstown, and surrounding counties.

We do so by:

• Providing chapter meetings that include a presentation on a topic of interest to project managers, as well as an opportunity to network with other professionals in the Northeast Ohio area.
• Provide a plethora of venues for individuals interested in project management to obtain information, apply their skills by volunteering, and attend chapter sponsored educational opportunities.
• Offer assistance and preparation training for professional certification to those members interested in obtaining certification from PMI.
• Maintaining a library of project management-related materials, accessible to all members.
• Keeping our members apprised of project management-related developments on both the international and local areas.
• Informing our members of external educational resources and opportunities available to them.

Become a member of PMI and the local Northeast Ohio Chapter of PMI

Membership is not required to get your certification, but you will find the discounts and membership perks are valuable.

If you are not already a member of the local chapter or of PMI, please visit http://www.pmi.org/Membership.aspx to learn about the benefits of membership.

Membership at PMI gives you a discount on the exam you are interested in as well as free resources to help you study for the exam.  For example, downloadable PDF editions of the PMBOK, Program Management, Risk Management, Schedule Management, etc. There is also a great Knowledge Center that features many books to help you with certification and other general purpose project management content.

Membership at the local Northeast Ohio of PMI will give you discounts on our chapter meetings and on our PMP Study Groups offered 3+ times per year.

Become a member at http://www.pmi.org/Membership.aspx and remember to add both the global PMI membership and also the local Northeast Ohio Chapter of PMI to your shopping cart.

Learn about certifications

Please visit this page to learn more about all the different PMI certifications available to you.

https://www.pmi.org/certifications 

Each individual certification has a handbook that gives you all the information you need:

• Determine if you qualify for the certification
• Details on the application process
• Details on what is covered on the exam
• Expectations for you to keep the credentials once you pass the exam

The list of handbooks are here https://www.pmi.org/certifications. Click on the specific certification on the right you are interested in.  Then look again to the right and click on the handbook you wish to download.

When do I report PDUs?

The following page on the PMI website provides useful information on how to maintain your credentials and report PDUs.

http://www.pmi.org/Certification/Maintain-Your-Credential.aspx

You only have to report PDUs to maintain your credentials for the following certifications:

• Project Management Professional (PMP)®
• Program Management Professional (PgMP)®
• PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)®
• PMI Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP)®
• PMI Scheduling Professional (PMI-SP)®

How Do I report PDUs (please read the below completely):

1) If you provided a valid PMI ID when registering for a chapter event...

When you register online for a local Northeast Ohio Chapter event that offers PDUs, and you provide a valid PMI ID, the chapter will report those PDUs for you. After the event you will receive an email confirmation from PMI that your PDUs have been reported. Please allow 3-5 business days after the event for the team to process attendance confirmations and report the PDUs on your behalf. 

2) If you did not provide a valid PMI ID when registering online for a chapter meeting, the meeting was before June 2012, or registration occurs as a third-party event...

Following are some circumstances where you will need to manually report your PDUs.

1) A valid PMI ID is not provided when registering online for a chapter event.

2) For some events the Northeast Ohio Chapter does not collect your PMI ID during online registration or passes you through to a third-party vendor for tracking registrations.

In these cases, you will need to report your PDUs manually and follow the below steps to claim your PDUs. Please allow 3-5 business days after the event for the team to process attendance confirmation and PDU claim information.

The local chapter is listed as code C048, PMI Northeast Ohio Chapter.

*Note: Before proceeding through the PDU claim process, please be sure you received and keep your confirmation of attending the event.

To Report PDUs:

• Go to www.pmi.org
• Click on Login, and login
• Go to myPMI in the main menu, then click on “Report PDU” in the Certification Status box
• Under PDU Category, click on the down arrow for the dropdown box and select “Cat A: Registered Education Provider program/PMI Component Event”
• Under Activity type, select “Report a Component 1-2 PDU Event” or 'Find an Activity (Course or Event)'
• Click the “Next” button at the bottom of the page
• Enter Provider Number: C048 (the letter 'C' followed by the numbers zero, four and eight), or the Provider Name: PMI Northeast Ohio Chapter
• Click “Search” button at the bottom of the page
• Enter the dates of attendance, Activity Title (available on the PDU form) and remaining fields on the claim form including the 'I agree' statement check box, and click “Submit” at the bottom of the page to continue
• Click the checkbox to confirm the accuracy of the claim and click “Submit” at the bottom of the page to submit your PDUs
• You should get 2 emails, one confirming your submission and one confirming approval. Please allow up to 24 hours for receipt of these emails.

The Project Management Institute (PMI) is the leading professional association in the area of Project Management.  PMI establishes project management standards, professional certification, provides seminars, educational programs, and opportunities to share knowledge and experiences with other project management professionals.  Since its founding in 1969 as a nonprofit organization, PMI has grown to over 200,000 members in 150 countries worldwide.  PMI has become, and continues to be, the leading professional association in project management.

Check us out: https://www.pmi.org/about

Becoming a member...

You need to be a member of PMI global to also be a member of the local Northeast Ohio Chapter. Local chapter members cannot be offered without being a global member as well.

Visit this link to join PMI. Remember to add the Northeast Ohio Chapter C048 membership to your shopping cart before completing your order.

Becoming a volunteer...

You can be as active as you can afford to be. We are always looking for volunteers, but if you can only attend a few meetings, that is fine.

Join our chapter, attend meetings, become an officer, or board member, and/or volunteer!
Do what you can, you are under no obligation to volunteer.

If you are interested in volunteering, we welcome your help! Visit this link to learn more about volunteering.

Yes, we do not give out our local membership database, contact information, email addresses to anyone outside of the chapter leadership. The chapter uses this membership data to communicate programs and events to its members.

Sponsors may pay to have an email sent out on their behalf, but the chapter owns the distribution list and sends out the emails. The sponsors never get a copy of our chapter's membership data.

As a PMI member, you can login to www.pmi.org and download some project management tools and templates for free here...
https://www.projectmanagement.com/templates/

There are also forms available in the following book:
http://marketplace.pmi.org/Pages/ProductDetail.aspx?GMProduct=00101133701

Membership in PMI is required first to be a member of the Northeast Ohio Chapter.

Individual membership dues:
* First year and renewal annual PMI dues are $159 and Northeast Ohio Chapter dues are $25, total $184/year. There is an additional $10 application fee for the first year.

Student dues:
* First year and renewal annual PMI dues are $32 and Northeast Ohio Chapter dues are $10, total $42/year.

You can become or renew your membership anytime through the PMI website.

Self-cancellation for events is not currently available. Please contact webmaster@pmineo.org with any event registration questions, including cancellation.

It is recommended all events, including sponsor and community events, have a communication plan submitted to the marketing team at marketing@pmineo.org.

Communication information should be provided as soon as possible after event information is finalized and with a timeline of when communications are to be published. The PMINEO Communications team would like to be informed of your event and plans at least 60 - 90 days prior to your event, to ensure the event is included in the appropriate PMINEO communications.

For your convenience, a general order of communications is provided below so your requests can be scheduled and published efficiently.

The Announcement and Communication Plan:

The announcement is published in 'The Latest News' on the PMINEO website. The announcement of the event includes a description of the event and logistics such as date, time, agenda, and location. It also becomes the basis for subsequent communications.
Along with submitting the announcement information, we request a communication plan be included with details on when the announcement information should be posted, timing of email blasts, and social media posts, graphic or image, and any (if applicable), and other issues regarding timing of communications.

The template of the Announcement and Communication Plan is here.

Newsletter Content:

Events posted on the PMINEO website are noted and linked to event information in the PMINEO newsletter, the Monday Pulse, which is published each week on Monday morning. Please submit the newsletter/s in which you would like your event posted, and a description of what you would like included in the newsletter beyond the link to the announcement.

Email Blasts:

Email blasts are published at the request of the event owner and scheduled by the Communications team as part of the overall event communication plan. Please submit the timeline for the email blast along with content information. An email blast can be sent immediately after the announcement is published on the website and then again at later dates before the event. In general, email blasts are a copy of the event announcement.  Indicate if you would like the email blast as a copy of the announcement and any additional or updated information to be included.

Supplemental Documents:

If needed, please submit documents to support event information.  These documents will be posted and linked to your communication.

* Please note, it is not permissible to copy information from third party websites or copyrighted information. If this is the case, please supply information with permissions for publishing or written by the third party, and please provide websites which are permitted to be linked to communication on our website. If you have questions, please contact the communication team at marketing@pmineo.org.

Please note membership with PMI Global is required prior to enrollment in the Northeast Ohio Chapter of PMI.   For your convenience, instructions for both are provided below.

To Join PMI Global:

1. Go to www.pmi.org.
2. Click on the Membership & Community tab.
3. Click on the "Purchase PMI Membership" button.

To Join the Northeast Ohio Chapter of PMI:

During the membership process, look for the “Join another Chapter” button and select, or search, the Chapter of choice to add to your cart. This process can be completed while joining PMI.org or at a later date by clicking on your profile in the upper right-hand corner of the PMI website and selecting Membership.

If you are seeking a job opportunity or a qualified candidate, please take advantage of the services offered by the local chapter.

1. RECRUITERS – All are welcome to post your openings on our PMI Northeast Ohio Chapter LinkedIn Group.

2. EMPLOYERS – You can post your position at jobs > submit a job posting. And post it on the PMINEO LinkedIn group!

3. JOB SEEKERS – Available jobs are located here. In addition, set a reminder to check our website regularly for updates and join our PMINEO LinkedIn group to get daily or weekly digests.

Good luck to everyone in finding the perfect candidate/job!

The “Member Login” on the upper right of the website is the Single Sign-on (SSO) between the chapter website and PMI.org. By logging in here, you will be connected to the pmi.org functionality: MyPMI, Volunteer Engagement Platform (VEP), and the Continuing Certification Requirements System (CCRS).

Also, when logged on, the members will have these opportunities, too:

• Prefilled in registration fields with known information from PMI
• Additional views including what events the user has already signed up

The Northeast Ohio Chapter of PMI will post a survey link and article on our chapter home page for a student wishing to gather information from a chapter member.

The article will be on the home page for no longer than 30 days.

The information collected on the survey must be the advancement and research into project management. 

The survey cannot collect personally identifying information from the user.

The chapter reserves the right to refuse the posting of the survey or to take it down before the 30 days limit.

Please send any requests for surveys to the VP of Marketing at marketing@pmineo.org.

Several Chapter Members have commented that the Chapter Newsletters are received in old email addresses. First review the FAQ 'Why am I not receiving Chapter emails?' as the Chapter uses the email you recorded in www.pmi.org, 'My PMI'. Edit the email settings there, and the Chapter Newsletter list gets updated monthly.

As a Member of the Northeast Ohio Chapter, you will continue receiving the Chapter Newsletter. The Chapter Newsletter is provided to all Chapter Members, and is a valuable tool used to keep the members informed of upcoming events and highlights.It's a recommended 'must read' for those interested in continuing their Project Management proficiency.

When 'Unsubscribe' is used, the chapter is notified and removes you from the distribution list. You will be removed per your request as long as you are NOT a Member of the Chapter. Due to the automated download from www.pmi.org, because you are a Member of PMI and the Chapter, your email is therefore readded to the Chapter Newsletter list.

It's best if you log into Member Login (SSO) before registering for an event. This feature auto-populates many of the registration forms. Also, once the registration is complete, you will see the event listed under Event Calendar tab in the My Registration list.  

The technology also checks, as you register for an event, if your email address is already in the event registration list; it will not allow duplicate email addresses to be registered for the same event.

If the event is not listed under My Registrations list, then you did not log into the website first (Member Login (SSO)), or your registration did not complete.

When you use the SSO on the chapter website, a feature is available under the Events Calendar column called My Registrations. After signing into Member Login (SSO) in the upper right of the Home page, when you register for an event it gets recorded into the My Registrations list. This list is a great reminder of all the events for which you've recently registered.

The SSO also prepopulates the majority of the fields on the registration list; therefore this is just another great feature of this website.

In today’s business climate, acting and behaving ethically is more important than ever. Project professionals face unique challenges as they navigate political and social dynamics both inside and outside their organizations. It may not always be clear how you should act when faced with an ethical dilemma.
 
Project Management Institute (www.PMI.org), the certifying body for the project management profession, believes in the importance of ethical behavior. That’s why they provide resources to help certified professionals use their best ethical judgment: http://www.pmi.org/About-Us/Ethics.aspx

Ah, technology is wonderful, and email is a good communication tool when it works.  Here's what the chapter website Support team has learned regarding the communication tools used for registration confirmation and chapter newsletters, both sent via email.

All users are sent a confirmation email after registering for an event. If you registered for an event and have not received an email confirmation, or if you have not received the Chapter Newsletters, then check:

• Did you login to the chapter website before registering? If you did, this will auto-populate the registration form based upon the information you provided to PMI (check MyPMI at www.PMI.org to change this information)
• SPAM folders (WE don't serve SPAM!  Some bad childhood memories...)
• Mailbox Rules and Settings
• If Gmail is the web e-mail service you use, then check how Gmail is organized (probably applies to other webmail accounts too). Google has initiated a new feature where it automatically separates e-mails into three boxes (Inbox, Social Media and SPAM). You may not realize the Chapter information is automatically (thanks to Gmail) going into one of the other mailboxes; not your primary in-box.
• Firewall / proxy and filter rule settings (usually set for corporations to prevent SPAM robots from attacking internal technology)
• Other areas not covered under the End User Agreement between you and Northeast Ohio Chapter of PMI (the lawyers made us put this in...)