AUA Branch Blog

Benefits of AUA Membership Appeal for ideas and suggestions

We're about to have our first branch session in several years here at Northumbria. 

I surveyed all branch members before Christmas to ask them if they'd like to have a new programme of branch meetings and the response was very positive.  It was suggested that the first session should be open to members and non-members (recruitment possibilities!) and should be focused around the benefits of, and opportunities provided by, membership of the AUA.  This would serve two purposes - it would remind or inform current members who may not have engaged so much with the AUA over recent years and it would also help promote the AUA to non-members.  So far, so good!  I'm leading the session and am using the benefits as outlined on the AUA website as a starting point alongside my own experiences as a member - completion of PG Cert, attendance at conference, annual lecture, etc, etc and am hoping that others within the session will share their experiences too.  I really want the session to go well and people to feel inspired and reinvigorated at the end of it so I was wondering if anyone had any advice, any experiences they'd like to share that I could feed into the session or indeed any (short) activities I could work into the session (it's an hour over a lunch period).  Any suggestions, advice or words of encouragement would be gratefully received.  Thanks in anticipation.  Janette.

Recruitment of New Members

We are about to undertake a recruitment drive and I would appreciate any suggestions you may have in promoting the AUA, what worked well in recruiting new members and what didn't.  Any suggestions gratefully received.

Thank you.

New Regional Coordinators in Yorkshire and Midlands West

We are pleased announce the appointment of Jayne Barker and Pippa Boyce as the new Regional Coordinators for Yorkshire and Midlands West respectively.

Pippa, based at the University of Oxford has been a Branch Coordinator since 2004 and takes over from Mike Newell who was previously based at Oxford Brookes. Jayne has represented the University of Sheffield as joint Branch Coordinator since 2006. She takes over from James Craig who stepped down from the role earlier this month.

Good Practice for welcoming new Branch members

Following our AUA Regional Conference on 15th May I have two new AUA members at Leeds. I'd like to take the opportunity to introduce some good practice in terms of welcoming new members to the branch. Any suggestions would be gratefully recieved. If we share them here other BCs can think about their own practices and procedures too.

Best wishes

Helen Billington (BC at the University of Leeds)

Developments at AUA National Office

Dear All,

As you already know, we're in the process of changing over to a new membership records system here at National Office. This is great news for the association, as it will mean certain activities (such as accessing member details) will be speeded up and simplified, making it easier for you to access the information you need.

Two changes affecting BCs are detailed below:

Branch membership lists will no longer be accessed via the Branch Blog, they will be sent out on an individual basis to all BCs.

All branch and regional events should now be submitted by emailing Felix Mussell at National Office. The events submission facility on the Branch Blog will be removed from 22 May 2008.

We'll be keeping you updated with any further developments in the coming weeks. Thanks for your patience.

Organising a Conference Feedback Event

Following on from last year's informal feedback event when half a dozen delegates to Nottingham  with minimal prompting got up and shared with each other what they had got from the conference and particular sessions that had inspired them I decided to organise a more structured event this year.  I was particularly taken with the enthusiasm of newcomers and felt this really was worth sharing to a larger audience and could be a useful recruitment tool.  So it has proved- as enthusiam generates more enthusiam -  so I thought I'd share the recipe for success.

Preparation - "persuade" delegates from your institution to prepare a paragraph (Max A4 report)  on a session that they want to share and warn them that they must be prepared to stand up and share their experience with others -50% of our attendees agreed. If anyone can't attend ask them for a quote to put up on a powerpoint presentation. Ask each member to bring some colleagues from their immediate area or their line manager if they want to show them the wider benefits of attendance at the conference (and thus get supported in future years!).

Take - One room set out cabaret style with tables holding 8, tell all gathered that its a very informal event, the main purpose being to network and provide an opportunity for those who attended the conference to share what they brought back from it with colleagues . Provide as a background "floor show" an overview of the York experience , the structure of the conference, who went from your institution (group photo from Gala Dinner) and a flavour of the highlights ( or lowlights - like in our case being beaten on the last round at the quiz!) to get a feel for the experience.  Prepare slides giving the details from the conference brochure on each of the sessions that folk have agreed to feedback on - plus the quotes from those unable/unwilling to speak -  but put them up in a random way so that no one knows who is speaking next - so can't get too worried about if its them! As "their" slide for the session comes prompt the person feeding back to state their name, position in the organisation, how many years they have been an AUA member and how many conferences they have attended.

Place at least one AUA member on each table and add a good buffet so everyone has to get up and mingle.  As "their slide" comes up each person feeding back just stands up and holds the floor for a couple of minutes.

Sprinkle AUA branch membership with non members and allow anyone to chip in with contributions if they attended the same session or ask questions so it has a free flow.

Sit back and watch the whole thing come together (all you have to do is press the next slide when the discussion has ended).

Serve with a liberal dose of Get connected brochures on each table and include a session on the PG Cert feedback at the end so a plug for participants and mentors can be added if desired.

Enjoy - It really works - the mix of preparation and informality gives a good impression of the value of attending the conference and brings it to life with a varied and very human, more local touch, and relatively new members can then network with those who attended sessions that interested them to find out more.  I've had very positive feedback from all who attended which makes it very worthwhile.

Event idea: Learning at Work Day, 22nd May 2008

Visit the Campaign For Learning website to find out about this year's Learning at Work Day. Many HEIs organise activities to coincide with the event, and it's an ideal opportunity for AUA branch members to get involved. Here are some suggestions...

1) organise a small branch event on the day
2) send an email to all members asking them to visit the members' area of the website on LAW (they would need to be registered in advance)
3) send an email to prospective members telling them about LAW day and suggesting that they explore the AUA website on that day
4) circulate hard-copy of AUA materials to prospective members, asking recipients to read them on LAW day

Has anyone taken part in LAW day before? Let us know your experiences...

BC Development Sessions, Annual Conference 2008

Thank you to all BCs and RCs who attended the Branch and Regional Coordinator Development Sessions in York last week - a great start to a marathon 3 days! Over 65 attended, including a number of new BCs joining for the first time. Sessions included: an introduction and update from Felix Mussell (AUA Membership Services Coordinator), information about the feedback received on the revised BC role description, an interactive workshop on web 2.0 led by Alison Mitchell, and a Branch Development seminar. After coffee, Andrew West gave a session on the LGM project (developing a professional development framework for HE administrators), and to finish off the morning, Sara Dixon produced a jigsaw of the UK and led the group in a teambuilding exercise!

BC Job Description...your views needed

Over the past few months we've been working on a revised job-description for Branch Coordinators. The BC development session that took place at Annual Lecture last October was useful in bringing together both past experiences and new ideas about how to run a successful branch. This resulted in a document,  Annual Lecture BC Meeting Outcomes 2007, providing up-to-date advice and suggestions on different areas of branch activity, and was distributed to all BCs and RCs in November.

The BC Job-description draws upon the key themes from the Annual Lecture BC Meeting Outcomes 2007 to provide new BCs with an introduction to the role, and outlines the support that BCs can expect to receive from National Office. With a number of branches starting up every month, it’s essential that we have a good introduction to the role. This job description (along with other resources and opportunities) hopes to meet this need.

The BC Job Description has already been discussed at the London meeting that took place at the beginning of February. The suggestions made have been used to update the latest draft. Now it's over to you: so we can make this document as effective and realistic as possible, we'd like to hear your comments. Please submit them to me by 10 March so that we can have a final document in place for Annual conference.

Please also note that the amended BC Job Description document does not in any way replace the current Bye-Laws that describe the regulation of AUA Branches. The purpose of the BC Job Description is to provide BCs with practical information about the role, and works within the framework outlined by the new Bye-Laws and constitution.

BC Job Description Draft 1.2.pdf

BC Job Description Draft 1.2.doc

 

Felix Mussell - Membership Services Coordinator

London BC Meeting, 5 February 2008 at City

Minutes for the London BC meeting that was held on 5 February at City University are available in pdf format here

The next London region BC meeting will take place at  5.00 pm on Sunday 30th  March 2008 at Annual Conference.

South-West Region newsletter

The January 2008 edition of the South-West region newsletter is now available in pdf format here

AUA Roller Banners

We've purchased some new roller banners - the previous set were beginning to look a bit tired out, and often came back to National Office needing another layer of parcel tape!

The new roller banners are of the same design, but more sturdy and a little bigger. You can view the designs of the banners here.

If you'd like to use one for a promotional event, please get in touch. You can either email National Office directly or complete a promotional materials request form (link in the left hand column). Remember to give us plenty of notice, as we'll need to ensure they're not needed for another event.

Instructions on how to use the banners can be found here