Reaching Out

In doing this we've been trying to link and coordinate alongside existing meetings that are already in place in order to best coordinate what we are doing.

In August alone Judith attended meetings with the SDEP, DHP Scotland and DCOP Scotland as a precursor to our Society Review tour of the BPS taking place.

September saw the Society Review tour start in earnest with a visit to the BPS's 1st Midlands Conference at Birmingham City University on the 3rd of September.

Although we were unsure as to whether the conference format would be the best for presenting the review, it was agreed that the fact that we were going to actually be there in person to present to the members was progress in itself.

We were scheduled in after the 5-Minute Challenge session of the Conference, where three postgraduate students presented competitively against one another, and the applause for the final presenter was still ringing in our ears as we took to the stage. 

The lecture hall was quite full with maybe a hundred or so members in attendance. A call for a show of hands early on asking for attendees to indicate whether they were aware of the Society Review and the consultation that had been undertaken previously demonstrated the difficulties that we face with this, as only around ten people raised their hands.

The 5th of September saw our first open session Workshops take place and we had members in attendance representing a range of Sections, Special Groups and Faculties, along with staff from the society's Member Network Services Team.

It was our first time running these open sessions and it was interesting to see how the dynamic shifted depending on the groups present and the medium through which contributors were involved, as well as picking up on the differing concerns and specific issues that exist between different Networks.

We finished the first week of our tour with a trip to London to speak to the DoN at the society's London Offices on the 7th September.

The committee format really lends itself to the workshop sessions that we are trying to put on as you will often find the myriad of ideas and contributions also exist within these individual groups, as well as a collective all invested in the organisation, all with interesting and different viewpoints to contribute.

With the first week out of the way it has to be reflected on as a positive experience. We've been lucky that many of our Networks have already given us the opportunity to speak and present to them and there are many more to come.

The next two weeks particularly are very busy and we'll look to keep you updated as we go, and encourage you to get involved via the Webinar Workshop sessions and/or the new commenting facility available on our Society Review webpage.