zondag 31 augustus 2008

IBM Project Managers completed Salvation Army Projects

In 2007 IBM organized a Project Management Event. At that event, a project management workshop was started, to help the Salvation Army creating project plans. These projects aimed to support some of the problems the Salvation Army was trying to solve in many cities in The Netherlands. The workshop was a success, project plans were created and both the Project Managers of IBM as the people from the Salvation Army learned a lot and got results. Of course the Salvation Army asked if the projects could be executed with the voluntary effort of the Project Managers of IBM. Our team said "yes" and the next months we worked with a big group on 3 projects. Project 1 was to setup a weekly self defense training for the youngest kids in the area, to make them more confident of themselves. We arranged sponsoring, training environment, advertising, trainers, insurance for the kids, drinks, etc. We also made photographs of the kids to give them a memorable and touchable "proof" that they were really working on their self defense, something they could show to others, making them proud on their own achievements. Project 2 was to organize a big party for the whole neighborhood, so the kids on the street and the parents at home would all be outside and have a positive and joyful day together. We arranged again sponsoring, advertisements, flyers and posters, BBQ food, local gouverment approvals, sponsoring with pizza, live band, "open mic" rappers, stands with drinks, food and sweets, inflatable playgrounds, soccer competition, music and DJ, etc etc A lot of weeks preparations and the 1 day execution was a very exciting time. The day itself was excellent; Good Weather conditions with lots of sunshine, many volunteers to help building up from 07:00am, just as planned start at 12:00, music, kids, parents, food, drinks, soccer games, everything was there and people had fun. Around 19:00 the big BBQ started and after the last people left the party we cleaned until 23:30 and tired but satisfied went home. Project 3 was a small project in between the other two projects. It was to sponsor and build an IBM Kidsmart computer for the little kids at the Salvation Army center in Haarlem. So the little kids can play and learn at the center. Last week we came together to do a lessons learned and had a BBQ ourselves, as a "Thank you" from the Salvation Army to all volunteers of all projects. 3 Successful projects, where both IBM Project Managers learned a lot from the Salvation Army and the other way around. Bottom line, the neighborhood have seen a couple of projects and that effort was put into their neighborhood. They enjoyed it and had fun, lets hope it will inspire them for the future. PS As this was a summary of the text already provided in Dutch, no pictures were used in this English Blog. Please scroll down to the Dutch version(Haarlem Wijk Feest enorm geslaagd !!!) and enjoy the pictures I took during the events. You can click on any of the pictures to get a larger and higher resolution picture. :-) Pictures speak for themselves and do not need translations :-) Greetings, Marcel de Koningh Project Manager IBM View Marcel De Koningh's profile on LinkedIn