Part 1 – Category 3 and 4

There are many ways to get PDUs to meet the 3-year 60 PDU requirements for example, attending a formal class given by a local college/university or attending a cost-effective workshop provided by Mass Bay PMI Chapter.  These types of meetings provide Category 3 and 4 PDUs, if the event is sponsored by a PMI REP (Registered Education Provider) it is reported as a Category 3, if not it is reported as a Category 4.  As promised in last month’s article, here are some meetings you can attend and receive PDUs.

• Attend PMI chapter meetings.  If you attend all of the monthly Mass Bay PMI speaker meetings you will get ten (10) PDUs. Do this for three years, and you are half way to the total of the required sixty (60) PDUs.  If you are unable to make the Mass Bay meeting (Thursday) every month, there are two other local PMI chapters – Mass Central PMI meets on Tuesday’s and the New Hampshire PMI chapter meets on Wednesday – each meeting is worth one PDU.  Attend all 3 PMI chapter meetings and you can earn three (3) PDU’s per month!
• Attend meetings that have PMI related topics. MPUG (Microsoft Project User’s Group) and Boston SPIN (Software Process Improvement Network) have monthly meetings with roundtables and speakers and attendees receive at least 1 PDU each.  This is a also a great way to do more networking!
• Attend Professional Seminars or Symposiums.  Often attendance to the keynote speaker is free and attendees receive PDUs.  Many times those who volunteer to help at the event (collecting tickets, registration, introducing speakers) receive a free pass to one or two of the speakers.  Check it out!!

Other than attending meetings, there are other more active ways to obtain PDUs, such as speaking, training, coaching, volunteering, even reading and studying,  - these and others will be covered in next month’s article along with how to report these PDUs.

Part 2 – Category 5

The following ways fall under Category 5 “Volunteer Service to Professional or Community Service”.

Do your PMI chapter officers often look like they are having a good time?  Well we are and by serving on the Board of Directors of your local PMI chapter you can earn up to 10 PDUs a year!  Key Volunteers (committee member, event chair, etc.) can earn you up to 5 PDUs per year.  And it is not all hard work-it is fun working together to bring you the monthly meeting, study groups, breakfast meetings, newsletter and the many other activities and benefits of your PMI membership.  It is also a great way to network and make new friends.  Feel free to join us at any board meeting and see what goes on behind the scenes and perhaps volunteer to help with an upcoming event like Career Night, or help with registration at a meeting.  What better way to meet new members and enlarge your network!  There are many tasks (large and small) where you can help your chapter.  JUST ASK!

You can also log PDUs by doing community service.  By providing Project Management service to a charitable group (like our YMCA project) you can earn up to 5 PDUs per year.

These are just a few of the ways to get FREE PDUs - just for a modest investment of your time you’ll get a big return in satisfaction by helping others, helping your PMI chapter, and promoting the project management profession.

Part 3 – Category 1, and 2

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this article we looked at how to earn PDUs in Categories 3, 4 and 5.   Category 3 and 4 PDUs are achieved by attending chapter and professional meetings.  Category 5 are achieved by doing community service or serving as an officer or volunteer in Mass Bay PMI.  We now will look at Category 1 - Formal Academic Education and Category 2 – Professional and Self-Directed Learning. 

If you are an author/co-author of an article on project management that gets published, if you are a speaker on project management at a conference workshop or formal course, or if you are an author of a book or developer of a seminar you can earn up to 40 PDUs un der Category 2.  Category 2 is a gold mine of “free” PDUs, but it requires a tremendous effort and time commitment. The qualifying activities are best described at the PMI Web Site (www.pmi.org).

There is one, often overlooked Category 2 option (2H), “Practitioner of project management services for more than 1,500 hrs per year (37.5 weeks)” that many of us qualify for and forget to report.  If you are working as a project manager there are 5 PDUs per calendar year that you can claim. This could work out to 15 for the complete 3 year cycle.

Finally, Self Directed Learning Activities or PDUs, are available for the taking. If you write a white paper, do research, or coach co-workers on project management, these activities all qualify.  You can report up to 15 PDUs for Category 2SDL per the CCR Cycle.

As with all categories, but especially with 2SDL, make sure you document with notes, dates, names of co-workers, etc.  You will need this if you are selected for audit.

Category 1, Formal Academic Education is final way to get PDUs. However these are courses that are offered for degree credit and can be quite expensive.  Again documentation will be required, a transcript, a grade report, or a certificate of completion.

Hopefully you are all keeping up with reporting PDUs.  Remember there is always a crunch at the end of the year when procrastinators all come forward to enter their Continuing Education Requirements.  Now where is our good Project Management Planning and Scheduling in that scenario?

MAINTAINING CERTIFICATION – Some Hints

It is a good idea to maintain your receipts for meetings, classes etc. and even better to get into the habit of reporting them in a timely manner rather than at the end of the cycle.  Isn’t that what a “good” project manager would do?  Remember you can look at your transcript on www.pmi.org at any time and see how your PDUs stack up!  Also they are processed in only a couple of days during most of the year, except during the end of year crunch.