APM's Volunteer Achievement Awards - Winners Announced

Following a successful launch last year, APM has extended its Volunteer Achievement Awards programme to recognise and reward the invaluable contribution volunteers make to the association’s success. This year’s awards, held on Friday, 8 November, included five categories: Volunteer of the Year, Special Achievement, Event of the Year, Volunteer Innovation and Branch of the Year

The winners for each award category were selected by the Volunteers’ Steering Group from the entries and nominations received. 

Sarah Slater, APM Volunteering manager at APM, said: “I know just how much effort our volunteers put into our events and publications, sharing their knowledge and expertise, as well as promoting the profession and membership of APM.

We rely so much on their support and commitment and we are delighted to see the awards extended this year to recognise the volunteers’ hard work and dedication. I would like to take the opportunity to congratulate all the winners and nominees.”

The Volunteer Achievement Award Winners:

The Volunteer of the Year – Matt Bruce-Kingsmill (chair, APM Scotland Branch)

This award is for the individual who most consistently demonstrates the spirit, values and impact of volunteering within APM. Under Matt’s stewardship and leadership, APM’s Scotland Branch has achieved a series of successes, including a 12 per cent growth in membership within the region, and widened breath and number of events with over 1,500 delegates this year. In addition, Matt has instigated an initiative to connect the Scotland Chartered Project Professional (ChPPs) to form a community of individuals to continue developing our professional and act as mentors to those considering the new ChPP qualification.

The Volunteer Innovation Award – Stakeholder Engagement Focus Group

This award is for the group delivering the most innovative volunteering activity in the year. After receiving research funding in 2014 the Stakeholder Engagement Focus Group wanted to maximise exposure, and so developed an idea to create a website resource available to visitors promoting the findings of the work in a creative and engaging way. Working collaboratively with the APM digital team, this productive relationship meant that as well as gaining an understanding of the APM website’s capability and the association’s brand standards, they were able to gain a crucial understanding of the best ways of optimising the materials for search engines.

Event of the Year – Measures for Assuring Projects Webinar

This award is presented to the APM branch or SIG (Specific Interest Group) that has delivered the best volunteer-led event based on quality of event, topic, audience and feedback from delegates.

The award went to Measures for Assuring Projects webinar – an APM Assurance SIG webinar based on two elements: an introduction to the creation and content of the toolkit guidance by Tim Podesta, the chair of the working group that created the document; and an example of the guidance being put into practice by Matt Bruce-Kingsmill, Scotland Branch chairman. The content had been honed over previous events during 2018: the Assurance SIG Conference and a Scotland Branch event.

Branch of the Year – Scotland Branch

The award is for the branch which has delivered the most successful programme of activities throughout the year.  Scotland saw an average growth in membership of 12 per cent and 48 new Chartered Professionals registered. The committee grew at the start of the year with several new volunteers increasing the size of the active volunteer pool. Their project challenge competition this year saw a record number of entries and they launched new individual competitions focusing on early careers professionals. The year’s competitions concluded at a branch awards dinner attended by around 150 project professionals.

Special Achievement Award – Adeline Daly

This is a discretionary award for the individual who has made a significant contribution to APM and its goals through volunteering, particularly over an extended period.

Adeline Daly’s volunteering journey with APM started when she asked a question as a delegate at an APM event. As chair of APM’s Women in Project Management SIG in 2018/19, she had a very successful spell in which she has been a figurehead in the development of diversity and equality in the profession, guiding the Women in Project Management Committee to launch a mentoring pilot scheme supporting those looking to apply for Chartered status. She championed a clear strategic objective of expanding their reach and engaging with followers. At the centre of this is the APM Women in Project Management Conference and the delivery of an ambitious multi-location event to celebrate International Women’s Day.

The award was collected on behalf of Adeline by committee member Adetoun Ayilara.