SoTec

I.What is SoTec:

The Southland Technology Conference ( SoTec) has been in existence for 18 years. It is run by volunteers from PMI-LA, PMI-OC, IIBA-LA, IIBA-OC, and AITP. Each of the mentioned Sponsor organizations has committed $1000 seed money that helps to sustain the event. PMI-LA donated $1000 ten years ago and has seen profit from that $1000 about 90% of the time. At this time, no additional funds are required to support SoTec, but volunteer hours are needed from each sponsor organization

SoTec brings a two day event to the local Los Angeles area. The speaker topics, include Project Management, new technologies, Business Analysis and Testing. The two-day event allows attendees to earn PDU’s for under $300.00

II.PMI-LA’s involvement in SoTec

PMI-LA has supported SoTec for over ten years, by supplying volunteers to help with the organizing of the event and also with a Sponsor table at the two-day event.

PMI-LA will need to have at least 1 volunteer that will be available to attend planning committee meetings. The meetings are once or twice a month thru early summer. Summer thru October the meetings are once a week. The majority of the planning meetings are 1 hour conference calls. There are 4 face to face meetings are occur between May and October. In addition, there is a “bag stuffing” meeting the week prior to the event.

PMI-LA will also need to staff a Sponsor Table for the two-day event. The table should have two volunteers manning the table on both days. This can be split into two shifts per day, which will allow volunteers to volunteer for shorter timeframes.

III.Volunteer Support and Requirements

The following are the suggested volunteer needs based on the last few years:

  1. Project Lead – This is approximately 80 hours for the year, beginning in January thru early November. The project lead is responsible to attend all the Planning meetings, and to support SoTec by joining in one of the SoTec Planning groups. The Project Lead will need to attend all face to fact meetings, and to attend the two day event. *** This role may require more volunteer hours. It is strongly suggested that there be two Project Leads, so at least 1 will be available to attend meetings. This could become a very time consuming role.
  1. Marketing Coordinator: This is about a 30 hour volunteer opportunity beginning in March and ending in October. The Marketing Coordinator will need to form a team of volunteers that can speak about SoTec at the Flag Ship meeting, as well as at the Satellite meetings. The Marketing Coordinator will also need to make sure the PMI-LA website and social media sites have information on SoTec. *** This position should get volunteer support for the Satellite meetings as well as working on the Website and Social Media.
  1. Volunteers for the Sponsor Table: Normally, PMI-LA has 4 volunteers over the two-day event. The volunteers are able to attend some of the seminars during the event and any volunteer in transition will be able to talk to the recruiters that are part of the event. The volunteers are able to earn PDU’s for being volunteers and also PDU’s if they attend any of the seminars, but should not “double dip”
  1. Volunteers should be coached on PMI-LA, what we offer our members, our meetings, etc.
  2. Attendees ask about PDU’s, how to become a PMP, and where are meetings are located.
  3. PMI-LA should be selective on choosing volunteers for the Sponsor Table. We need to have volunteers who will be able to represent our organization and can answer questions about PMI and PMI-LA.