NICA member Tricia Hoekwater, certified in Project Management and Asset Inventory, authored the Project Management Course for the home inventory industry’s Continuing Education Program.
PRESS RELEASE – It is imperative that the National Inventory Certification Association (NICA) contract with qualified authors to create online, self-directed courses for the Continuing Education Program. The most recently released course, Project Management, was created by Tricia Hoekwater, a member of NICA, who is certified as a Project Management Professional, a Certified Inventory Specialist, and owner of Uniquely Yours Digital Solutions.
“We thought it would be difficult to locate someone with experience in both the Project Management and the Home Inventory sectors, who also has the writing skills required to create a quality course. We are very fortunate to find this in one of our certified members,” NICA Managing Director, Cindy Hartman said. With the asset inventory industry mind, Hoekwater included examples of how specific steps throughout the project can be applied specifically to personal property inventory projects. However, the course is written with the intent to serve any professional who seeks to gain the knowledge required to manage projects that will help ensure a successful result.
Tricia earned her PMP certification in 2008 from the Project Management Institute. Prior to achieving certification, she studied Project Management at U.C. Berkeley and received an honors certificate in Project Management. Tricia shared her background by stating, “I have worked as a Project Manager since the late 90’s in a variety of industries including law, telecom, digital media consulting, direct sales, and the cruise industry.” She used the certification professionally in website development, facilities management, marketing projects, and most recently as an Inventory Professional in the San Francisco Bay area.
What ended up merging these two interests began in 2006 when Hoekwater experienced a home robbery. She practiced as an inventory professional indirectly when she had to put her project management skills to work.Tricia explained, “I had to identify what was lost, create an items lost inventory for insurance and the police report, and then subsequently, created an inventory of my personal assets where none existed before.”
In 2008 during the weak economy, Hoekwater lost her project management position and was unable to find replacement work in the private sector. She discovered an 11-week mini-MBA program (Women’s Initiative for Self-Employment) and launched her home inventory business 30 days after graduation.
Many home and business inventory professionals fear taking on a large inventory project due to a lack of knowledge in tackling a multi-unit or multi-property opportunity. As an inventory professional, Hoekwater uses her project management skills to assist in identifying her clients’ needs, developing the contract and managing her team of onsite and back-end support – all necessary to successfully complete a project.
Hoekwater sees the value in continuing education, which encouraged her to accept the course-writing project. She concluded, “In an ongoing quest to provide the best service to my clients, I became a Certified Inventory Specialist. Having NICA as a resource for continued learning has been so gratifying to me and helped me grow professionally and financially. My business has always been about helping people document their assets, minimize paper, and have an organized system for tracking their assets. Writing this course gave me the opportunity to assist others in this industry.”
In addition to Home Inventory services, Tricia speaks to senior and community groups on the topics of Home Inventory, DeCluttering, Digital Legacy, and Digital Photo Libraries.
The online, self-directed Project Management course will be available by mid-June on the Professional Development page of the NICA website.
Many people have commented in the past that doing an inventory really requires a keen sense of organization and the ability to manage a project. These comments inspired us to develop the course, Project Management. Written by fellow NICA member Tricia Hoekwater, she not only has her CIS designation, but she is also a Credentialed Project Management Professional. Written with the home inventory sector in mind, she applied the project management skills required to achieve success for all types of inventory situations – small, large, collections only, estates, small businesses, etc.
