Jim Moran, C.P.M., CPSM

Treasurer/Secretary

ISM-Philadelphia

As we enter the new year, I would like to extend the board’s best wishes for a happy and safe new year. May you attain your goals in this new year and push forward in your careers. To help you in this endeavor and enable you to invest in yourself, your board at ISM Philadelphia has scheduled several educational events that will enable you to pick up a few pieces of knowledge and earn CEH’s related to Supply Management.

First, on January 21, 2021 we will be offering a virtual educational event that will discuss How Can Business Continuity Planning Minimize the Effect of the Pandemic.  Then in February, we will over another virtual educational event that will discuss 2021 and how the pandemic will be impacting the financial outlook.

In addition, we will be continuing our micro learning program related to the review of the CPSM certification study guide material, by yours truly. The next Cohort in the series will deal with the competencies from the ISM Mastery Model ™, related to the 2^nd exam covering Supply Management Integration. The competencies to be covered include, Supply Chain Strategy, Sales & Operations Demand Planning, Sales & Operations New Product Development, Sales & Operations Forecasting, Quality Management, Project Management and Logistics and Materials Management. The first Lesson will be a Zoom conference on February 2, 2021 at 6:30 in the evening. As with Cohort 1, each succeeding module will be released every two weeks with a zoom conference and the balance of the lessons in each module will be self-paced.

Regarding our financial outlook going into 2021, I am pleased to advise that our investment fund and scholarship fund fully recovered its losses that occurred due to the pandemic. In addition, we have received a donation that is targeted to increase our scholarship fund by over $2,000 in 2021 enabling our support for our student members to continue.

As you can see, your board is very committed to ensuring you have plenty of opportunity to advance your career in 2021, and do not forget, if you want to learn more and become more involved in your ISM Chapter, you should consider volunteering for a committee of the board and help influence the future direction of your Chapter and your career.

Thank you.