This week I had the absolute privilege as ARMA UK (Association of Research Managers and Administrators) Chair to attend our Board Residential. As always we had a packed agenda, with SO much to talk about, but as a relatively "new" Board with a number of new Directors and position Elects joining us, the most important factor was getting time together to get to know one another and build our identity as a Board.
We're at a really exciting point of our journey as an organisation, and our focus is developing our new Strategic Plan (incoming later in 2024!).
A real challenge for ARMA is prioritisation. We have so many amazing opportunities, mainly through the great work of past Chairs (hello there Stephanie Bales and Jennifer Johnson) to raise our profile and develop our reputation, we need to ensure we're prioritising activities which deliver greatest benefit to our membership. I keep going back to that great quote, "You Can Do Anything But Not Everything!".
Our ever-changing landscape was a big topic, with "new" areas of importance having emerged since our last strategic plan was developed including (for example) research culture and research security. We talked about the emergence of AI (ChatGPT wasn't invented when we did our last strategy!), and the ever-changing needs of our research ecosystem, which require our members and community to upskill and respond to new challenges continuously.
We talked about how visibility of our profession (and the contribution we make) has grown, but there is still SO much to do in this space. We reflected on great opportunities ARMA has to advocate for our members, including joining sector level groups to feed directly into policy makers on topics such as research bureaucracy and research security (for example), and how exciting it is to see research professionals being asked to engage in funding panels as key players in the research landscape. But we need to do more to share the amazing work of our volunteers and the impact of the organisation, particularly so members have a clear picture on progress being made.
The importance of partnership was a key theme and I couldn't help but think of some of the amazing colleagues I've met who Chair sister organisations (such as Dipti Pandya, EARMA, and Bryony Wakefield, NCURA), or others who lead sector organisations such as the new Chair of PraxisAuril Amanda Selvaratnam. We'll continue to engage with our existing partners, and improve engagement with new colleagues and partners across the sector.
I was struck most of all by how inspiring it was to spend time with some phenomenal colleagues, particularly so many amazing and powerful women! Knowing that we're taking on the task of leading ARMA in the next few years together is so exciting, and I can't wait to see what we can achieve together.
Sapna Marwaha Sophie Collet Ushma Gudka Grace McConnell Alison Lloyd Rachael Sara-Kennedy Jo Lakey Alison Evans Camelia Dijkstra Saskia Walcott Alasdair Cameron
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