InfoXchange
| July/August 2005 Volume 1, Issue 3 |
IN THIS ISSUEAnnouncementsFrom the Board -There'll Be Some Changes Made Risk Management Mentor's Corner - Obtaining More Clients, Part 2: Volunteering Who Are We? From the Editor:We would like to encourage anyone to submit articles to the new ICCA Greater Boston Chapter newsletter. If you know of anyone interested in free publicity, ask them to write an article of any size or topic pertinent to our organization for submission in the next issue of our newsletter. The good news is the smaller the article, the better, since long articles are hard to read on-line.We are very open to ideas and suggestions regarding article topics in all sections of the newsletter, including: Local or Chapter Announcements; Articles; Member-to-Member Spotlights; Member-to-Member News; Mentor's Corner. Submit ideas or articles to:Kim ReddingtonDirector of Communications kreddington@ deluxetechnologies.com Next Deadline:Aug 17, 2005 for the Sept/OctIssue |
The ICCA will not be holding any meetings for the summer months, but there are some great meeting activities planned for when we see you in September. Have a nice summer!
There’ll Be Some Changes Made!You may have already noticed some of our recent changes:
What are your thoughts on these suggestions? Do you have any of your own suggestions to improve the services we offer our members? We’d love to hear from you! The best way to service our members is to find out what they want. Email any suggestions and ideas to pastpresident@icca-boston.org. Nor surprisingly, all of these ideas above require time or money. Do you have fifteen minutes to bring any of these ideas to fruition? Just let any of the current board members know. Norman Daoust Past President of ICCA-GBC Chapter Daoust Associates - www.DaoustAssociates.com A Short Tour Through Risk Managementby Jim Stewart, Project Management Consultant and Trainer of JP Stewart AssociatesEvery project manager I know loves to talk about, teach, or just practice risk management. Why? Because done correctly, it’s one of the most proactive things you can do on a project to help keep it on track. That’s because instead of waiting for potentially bad events to happen, you anticipate them and plan for exactly what you would do should they occur. Can you realistically plan for the eventuality of every risk? Of course not. But you can brainstorm and anticipate many of them, which will give you the peace of mind that you need on a project to proceed with confidence. The Project Management Institute, in its PMBOK Guide, Third Edition defines risk as, “An uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or (emphasis mine) negative effect on a project’s objectives.1 In the previous sentence I emphasized the fact that a risk can be considered positive (that is, an opportunity) or negative (a threat). It comes as a surprise to many people that a risk might have upside advantages. And while I don’t have space in this article to cover both positive and negative aspects in depth, as part of your risk planning you should be considering whether a potential risk could be an opportunity. (For example, if a competitor comes to market with a new technology, is that always a bad thing? Could you benefit from it?) Click here for the rest of this article. How To Obtain More Clients, Part 2: Volunteeringby Norman Daoust, Principal Consultant of Daoust AssociatesDo you want more clients? In this issue, we examine one method few consultants utilize effectively: volunteering. In upcoming issues, we’ll cover additional ways to obtain more clients. Less then two months after I started my consulting practice in 2001, I received a phone call: “Norman, this is Sheri from CIHI. We’re involved in a national Client Registry project and are looking for someone to create a data dictionary and a data model. Would you be interested?” Within two weeks I had a signed contract. Why did they select me: “We’ve seen you model at HL7 meetings.” I’d been volunteering for that international non-profit healthcare standards organization for several years. Sheri noticed my email footer change to indicate my new consulting practice when I answered a question on one of the organization’s list servers (yet another method of volunteering). At the time I was still working on my first consulting engagement, which also resulted from my volunteer work for that same organization! Click here for the rest of this article. Founded in 1976, the Independent Computer consultants Association (ICCA) is a national not-for-profit organization of independent computer consulting firms sharing the highest ethical and professional standards. The ICCA offers great services and benefits to its members including business and health insurance, marketing programs, a National Conference, standard form consulting and subcontracting contracts, and many discount programs. For additional information regarding the ICCA or to search the National Membership Directory, visit the national website http://www.icca.org or the Boston website http://www.icca-boston.org Board MembersPresident - Vin D'Amico - president@icca-boston.orgVice President and PR Contact - Mike Spanos - vicepresident@icca-boston.org Treasurer - Michael Stiefel - treasurer@icca-boston.org Secretary - Peter Dwyer - secretary@icca-boston.org Director of Programs - Gordon Corzine- programs@icca-boston.org Director of Internal Communications - Kim Reddington - newsletter@icca-boston.org Director of External Communications - Bob Goodearl - extcomms at icca-boston.org Director of Membership - Jim Connell - membership@icca-boston.org Past President - Norman Daoust - pastpresident@icca-boston.org Legal StuffThis newsletter comes to you via the Chapter Members Announcements list of the Greater Boston Chapter of the ICCA.If you believe it has reached you in error, or if you do not wish to received further messages from this list, visit the Yahoo URL following this newlsetter. Alternatively, you can send a message via US Mail to: ICCA, Greater Boston Chapter Attn: Chapter Email List Unsubscribe 11131 South Towne Square, Suite F St Louis, MO 63123-7817 Publisher: Greater Boston Chapter of the Independent Computer Consultants Association, http://www.icca-boston.org Copyright 2005, Greater Boston Chapter of the Independent Computer Consultants Association This newsletter may be distributed without charge as long as it's distributed in its entirety. Individual sections and portions may be distributed with permission. |