I received my PMP certification last March. While my company promised to send me to training (which is turning out to be more painful than pulling teeth to get them to pay for it), I still haven't been able to earn any PDU's in that manner. I go to the meetings at our local PMI chapter whenever I can, but one PDU a month? I'll never get my 60 PDU's that way. So what is a full time computer consultant and a full time mom supposed to do?
I found one option through another passion of mine. Boy Scouts! I am the camping director for our pack. You can earn points by applying a project plan to a scout activity and then getting your cubmaster to sign off on it. You can also earn PDU's by donating your time to other charitable organizations. Design a website for your church. Run Network cables for your school. Help your school update their website. Any of these items that you apply your project management skills on will help contribute towards your PDU's.
In doing this for the scouts, I have found that I have a better appreciation for the Project Management full life cycle than I did before. Sometimes, especially in the IT world, you get stuck in one small section of the Project Management process and you tend to lose sight of the rest of the process. Do something like this with the organization of your choice and keep all your skills sharp. There is nothing that will brush up your Risk Management skills like planning a two day campout with 45 little boys.
Good Luck in your endeavors.
Nicole McDowell
