Newsday

Tuesday

New Personal Growth and Involvement Plan (PGI) Guidelines

Last night, a webinar was held to introduce the new Personal Growth and Involvement Plan (PGI) for Optimist International. Below are the new program guidelines, as well as the list of the requirements for each level. 

Please note that all levels of the new PGI must be completed on the Optimist Institute. If you have been working on PGI levels in the last 5 years, take special note of #3 below.

New PGI Guidelines:

1. The new PGI program will be available online in the Optimist Institute on September 10, 2024.
2. To participate in the PGI program, each member is required to have an active account in the Optimist Institute.
3. Any current member that has completed PGI Level 3 or higher within the last 5 years will be able to start at the next level they need to complete. For those members, previous levels will be unlocked, and members have the option to complete earlier levels in part or in their entirety as desired. All other members will begin work at Level 1. Members receiving manual credit must be sure their account has been created in the Optimist Institute on or before October 31, 2024, and credit will be granted by November 30, 2024. If an account has not been created, credit for the completed levels cannot be granted. Those who fail to have an account by October 31, 2024, will start over at Level 1 in the program (if you have created an account in the past, you are all set – just be sure it’s been renewed for this year!).
4. The levels of PGI must be completed consecutively. Upon successful completion of a level, the next level will be unlocked, as some of the work builds up to other work.
5. When completing components within each level, members must be sure to follow the verification deadlines as required for each submission, which will always be within 60 days. However, members can take as long as they want/need to complete an entire level.
6. Certificates of completion for each PGI level can be generated through the Optimist Institute once a level is completed. Reward badges for each level will also be awarded through the Optimist Institute.
7. The Level 10 gold pinback will be sent directly to the District PGI Chair or Governor for presentation to the member, unless the OI office is informed that it should be sent to the member directly.
8. The PGI Passport, along with other forms of written documentation and verification, will no longer be accepted.

As a note, please know that the PDP will be receiving a rewrite by the Optimist International Leadership Development Committee during the 2024-2025 year, as they have been charged with this task. Because of this, the current PDP was taken offline on Sept. 10, 2024. 

When it is finished, it will be relaunched on the Optimist Institute, and a webinar will be held to explain the differences between the old and new programs – just as is being done with the PGI.

If you have any questions on this new program, feel free to email institute@optimist.org.