PROJECT DUCKS UNLIMITED

Project Ducks Unlimited: Budget Issue



Project Ducks Unlimited: Budget Issue

Introduction

Established in 1937, Ducks unlimited, Inc. (DU) has conserved nearly 13 million acres thanks to contributions from more than a million supporters across the continent. Guided by science and dedicated to program efficiency, DU works toward the vision of wetlands sufficient to fill the skies with waterfowl today, tomorrow and forever. Ducks Unlimited is the world's largest nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving North America's waterfowl habitat (Ducks Unlimited, 2011).

Founded in 1937 to save the waterfowl population during a North American drought also referred to as the dust bowl, Ducks Unlimited claims to be the world's leader in wetlands and waterfowl conservation. In short its core mission is habitat conservation and it vision is to preserve wetlands and waterfowl for generations to come (Ducks Unlimited, 2011).

Ducks Unlimited will host its Keystone Conference in Charlottesville, NC, twenty one months from now. Two chapter members from each state in the US separated into ten different teams will work virtually on individual projects to be presented at the conference. These teams will not travel until the actual conference. An overall budget of 1.2 million dollars was allocated for this project. However, the budget has now been reduced from $1,200,000 to $280,000.

1.Create a new WBS using the new budgeting parameters.

Work Breakdown Structure

Work Breakdown Structure is an effective tool in project management. It allows determining what work must be performed for the project, and establishing a unified framework for these studies. The structure of the partition of work allows the project participants and all interested parties to achieve a clear picture of the finished product, and all of the work required to create this product (Dennis, 2010).

Ducks Unlimited will be holding its Keystone Conference in Charlottesville, NC in less than 21 months. There has been a reduction in budgeting due to economic conditions beyond the control of Ducks Unlimited. The operating budget for the conference has been reduced by nearly than 75%. Therefore, changes have been made to reflect the reduction. The teams who are responsible for speakers, venue, marketing, and registration are all still in place. However, there will be fewer speakers and fewer representatives attending the conference. Ducks Unlimited will be divided into regions for the purpose of the conference: Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, South, and Pacific. Out of each of these five regions five regional representatives and one senior manager will come who will speak at the conference. Otherwise, the WBS does not change significantly (Dennis, 2010).

Once conference, hotel, transportation, vendor and keynote speaker arrangements have been made, information should be given to each chapter for their planning purposes and so they can begin deciding how to select the two chapter members from each state. The states should be split into regions and the teams formed. There should be a single point of contact at Ducks Unlimited for each regional team to report into. The allocated budget of each team will also be reduced accordingly to adjust the total project ...