APM Board meeting

Board meetings are always interesting when they balance an inward and an outward focus. As a board, you need to ensure inwardly that your executive is following a robust process, and outwardly you need to look at your stakeholders and how you affect the market.

For the March board meeting, we had a guest: APM President, Tom Taylor. There is nothing like having a guest to bring perspective to a meeting similar to having new board members, a guest asks pertinent questions and can bring their experience to the table.

Having Tom attend for the day was a joy he has a long history with the APM, having worn many hats in the past as advisor to the APM on the move toIbis House and the APMBOK, as APM Chairman and in many other guises. His response on being asked to be APM President in November 2012 was: I have been asked to be an ambassador for the profession and a critical friend for the association it will be a pleasure.

As part of his role, Tom is looking to reacquaint himself with both the internal and external facets of the APM. As such, over the next 18 months Tom has made it his aim to see all areas of the APMs internal workings from the executive at Ibis House, to all manner of volunteer activities. Of course, he will be representing the APM as an Ambassador externally it does look like a busy time for him!

It does bring to mind the question: How many of us, when running a project take the time to look at our stakeholders and really understand their motivations, such as Tom is doing? Following on from that, do you take the time to understand what it is you are representing?

As we aim for a world in which all projects succeed, we have looked externally and moved to address the needs of the profession more closely. A lot of work on this was done at the Branch and SIG forums, hosted by the North East Branch on the 15-17 March 2013. If you have any questions regarding the output and how you can help, please dont hesitate to clarify withIbis House.

All of us whether board member, executive staff, or volunteer represent the APM. We are the APM - and we should be proud of it.