A Fortuitous Snowtorm
Now it so happened that Jim, Susan and Ned had run late in their business discussions
and Jim had offered to drop Ned off at the airport saying it wasn't much out
of his way. As they were driving along through urban Philadelphia in the afternoon
rush hour, a really heavy, wet and slippery classic Philadelphia snowstorm came
rolling in. Being the smart people they were and recognizing that in weather
conditions this bad Ned's plane would not be flying anyway, they stopped off
at a typical small neighborhood restaurant for solace and some free exchange
of ideas and flashes of insight. The name of the establishment was 333's at 333
Smedley Street, Philadelphia.
It was here, as the snow fell, the wine was enjoyed, the seafood digested and
the conversation waxed philosophically, that the idea of an organization
dedicated to the concept of managing projects was really born. In
the past, others had talked about this need, but to no avail. Now
it was decided that the three of them take the lead and work to
bring about such an organization.
So in January, 1968, Ned Engman wrote inviting potential members to a meeting
to form a National CPM Society. The meeting would be held at the
Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana, on the 15th and 16th
of February, 1968. Attended by Messrs. Engman, Jenett, King, Davis
and Snyder, the minutes show that they agreed to form an organization
to be known as the "American Project Management Institute"
whose specific objectives would be to:
- Foster a recognition of the need for professionalism in project management.
- Provide a forum for the free exchange of project management problems, solutions,
and applications.
- Coordinate industrial and educational research efforts with the objective
of directing research efforts towards industrial problem areas.
- Develop and disseminate common terminology and techniques in an effort to
improve communications between users of project management systems.
- Provide an interface between users and suppliers of both hardware and software
systems.
- Provide guidelines for instruction and education leading to project management
implementation and encourage the career opportunities in the field of project
management.
The following May, an application for registration of the organization
in the State of Pennsylvania was prepared by Jim Snyder in the name
of Project Management Institute, Inc. The signatories were
James R. Snyder, Edward A. Engman, Eric Jenett, Michael Homyak and
Susan C. Gallagher. The registered office was at Jim's home address.
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Meantime over at …
