Mailing Address

Project Management Institute
North Saskatchewan Chapter 
Box 278
8B - 3110 8th Street East
Saskatoon SK S7H 0W2

Chapter President

Stacy Lloyd PMP
president@pminorthsask.com

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PMI NSC A Look Back on the Early Days
An Interview with Dennis Sabat, PMP

by Lynn Francis, PMP, VP Communications PMI NSC

1. What events led the initial idea of chartering a PMI chapter in Saskatoon?

• Regina had a thriving club and several Saskatoon people were actually driving down to attend the meetings.
• I worked in Regina, but lived in Saskatoon, so it was easy to go to the meetings.
• SaskTel was just getting involved in project management, as were many other companies. These organizations had recognized significant value in having a PMI like training program. So myself, and several others started talking to our contacts in Regina and Saskatoon about the merits of PMI.
• I watched and participated as the Regina chapter got organized. I saw it grow and the benefits were obvious to participants.
• The benefits not only came to the employers, but there was a growing communication and successes from people belonging to PMI. This benefit was recognized in some of the organizations where “Project Manager” began to get used more and more as an unofficial, than later as an official title.
• During the first year or two of Regina startup, Walter Wawruck was being brought in to prepare interested parties for the PMI exam.
• Several Saskatoon based people that had been driving to Regina, had been studying (rather unsuccessfully) for the exam. As a convenience, we would meet at the old AECL building. Somewhere, someone suggested we invite Walter to bring his preparation course to Saskatoon.
• He would teach his class in Saskatoon Wed and then Wed evening he and I would drive to Regina, where he would stay with his family and then teach in Regina. Since I was commuting to Regina anyway, it was nice to have the company.
• Not really sure of how it happened, but he asked me if I could work with some of the other interest people in Saskatoon about forming a chapter. We held a meeting with probably 10 – 15 people, where I presented the benefits of getting a PMP certification and potentially forming a chapter.
• Since I had the idea the people asked me to begin forming the chapter. Several people listed on the charter stepped forward with offers to help.

2. What memories do you have of the people first involved, i.e. personalities, leadership and enthusiasm, in getting the ball rolling.

I was very fortunate in having the start-up team I had. Most of them had extensive project experience.

Barry Hawkins was the project manager for the Synchrotron. A very organized fellow with worldwide project experience. I believe he was a PMI member in Calgary at the time. A rumor I heard about him showed the kind of person he was and why he had the position he did. Apparently he was in Toronto during the early stages of planning the Synchrotron. Several very senior personnel and sparkplugs associated with the program were not quite convinced. He’s said to have asked the waiter to bring a clean table cloth, then wrote project goals on the table cloth as they gained agreement, and then to have asked each of them to sign it. I’d sure like to believe this of Barry.

Brenda Comfort. I can remember her drive and like many others on the start-up committee, just ask and she would help you out. I guess we all had a belief that this was the right thing to do. I remember one time she could not attend an executive meeting, but she joined us in a conference call. It was obvious she was balancing her role as a mother of a young child and still wanting to be involved.

There were several other people involved in the start-up like Wayne, Daniel, Todd, Carl, and Glenn. We each took responsibility for coming up with a plan as to how we would proceed after the charter was approved and also took responsibility for key aspects of the charter. What a pleasure having them take on these leading roles.

I’ve already mentioned that Walter Wawruck was providing training. He was also very involved with the chapter in Calgary or Vancouver. Not only was he the person that set the stage, but as an advisory member he helped with drafts of their charter and in so many other ways.

I know there is always Regina, Saskatoon competitive environment. In this case a friend of mine by the name of Don Stockan from the Regina Chapter deserves very special mention. He came up to Saskatoon to share the excitement of the Regina chapter and their activities with our potential members. He provided invaluable support and assistance to any need we had when we were setting up the chapter. The Regina Chapter really came through for us when we got our charter. They actually provide start-up funding assistance. I can’t remember the amount, but I do know it was a very important contribution.

I guess I was never more proud of being a project manager than when I saw how all the parties and Regina Chapter pitched in to get this off the ground.

3. What was the initial "goal" of the chapter? What needs would it meet for members, the “What's in it for me", incentive to join?

There was several goals:

• Provide comradeship, peer support and a sufficient base for holding presentations and courses. It takes a certain number of members to ensure we can have these. A very solid means of self-improvement.
• Provide a direct means for us to share the cost of PMI certification training that Walter brought to the table. We knew he was really plugged in, aware of latest information in project management and we would increase our chances of passing.
• A very important driver was as a group, if we got recognized in the community, then we could get recognized by our employers. I mentioned earlier how, when I first started at my employer in 1972, there was engineers, admin and customer service and many other types of staff. Projects were rather simple in the early days. After a few successes on simple project, I had a failure. No one remembers the success, but everyone including important customers remembers failures. So I started looking at this discipline of project management. Slowly at first the PM concepts and methodologies were introduced by myself and others. We continued to learn and apply through readings, courses and the like. Slowly with more successes and demonstrated skills, myself and fellow project personnel would have very successful projects. Eventually there were several people running many projects and as an experienced project manager I was asked to become a program manager, or senior project manager mentoring others. Then one day, not too many years back, project management became a solidly recognized discipline. The designation PMP became a key requirement for new job postings.
• My belief is that most organizations went through this evolution. Having PMI, project management peer support and chapter member support was essential in this happening. I can remember both the Regina and Saskatoon chapter making an effort to contact senior managers and executive of companies to explain what a PM is and how they can help. We also explained the role and benefits of having their project leaders and team member join PMI.

4. How was the project managed? Was there an initial strategic plan?

I am a little rusty on that, but I believe we struck a work plan with a timeline, roles and accountabilities. I was big into Microsoft project in those days, as was Brenda and I remember using this to get not only the charter together, but to program new member recruitment, lunch programs and contact companies to encourage support. As I recall there were some good charter examples provided by PMI and the other chapters that gave each committee member a good role statement, that we modified for our need.

• We met periodically as a committee/project team at Glenn Walkers office at System house to review drafts, discuss helping each other if we had problems and to record project progress, update timelines and the like.
• I must confess that all the start-up committee really practiced good project skills and had a solid understanding of the project tools and methodologies we were using. Someone said at one of our meetings ‘that we had to use the principles of project management in the start-up process’. I think we did well.
• With respect to a strategic plan, I came from a solid strategic planning and project management background. I personally believe that you should never start a project without considering how it fits into the long-term strategic plan. PM has taught me there are soft strategic plans and hard strategic plans, hard strategic plans don’t have fluffy language but are very action oriented and action can take form from the direction.
• We did have a vision of how we wanted the chapter to look down the road and key initiatives. For example, holding regular monthly presentation, a membership target, increased awareness in the community by business, educators and the like; more employers recognizing the success and formalizing project management; attendance and presentation by our members at Canadian, provincial and international conferences, building our partnership with the Regina and other chapters, building a peer support network. The start-up committee talked about these and prioritized what we could do – remember project management is not about doing everything, but putting a doable plan together. I can recall in the first year we worked so hard to get several of these going.

5. What project management activities are you now involved in?

I retired in 2001. Then one day, six months later I got bored and went looking for a contract. I worked as a project manager/executive director for the provincial association that represents ambulance organizations in the province. Its called SEMSA (Saskatchewan Emergency Medical Services Association). It was a pleasure working with them, every time I see an ambulance go by I think fondly of my period with them.

In April of 2002, I was awarded a contract with the Saskatchewan Educational Technology Consortium that works on behalf of the Pre-12 school divisions within the province on technology issues. Its funded by Sask. Learning. My role is definitely as a project manager of technology projects. It was supposed to be a short-term contract, but I’m still working there and enjoying it immensely.

The fact that I’ve worked in telecommunications, health and now the education sector demonstrates that PM provides a solid knowledge base and transferable skills to work in any sector. Its true that there is some skills development that has to be developed as well as learning the distinct needs of each sector. You can tell I’ve been very fortunate in the opportunities that I have enjoyed because of PM.