Shaping and supporting our community

Annika Grandison, Royal Society of Chemistry

Each year we invite representatives of our Local Sections, Interest Groups and Committees to join us for two days of discussing our strategy, exploring new approaches to our work and celebrating achievements within our community at the General Assembly. This year, many of the around 170 members who joined president Dominic Tildesley, chief executive Robert Parker and other members of staff and Council in Manchester on 7 and 8 November attended the meeting for the first time.

A professional community

“Supporting professionalism in our community is the theme for this year’s General Assembly,” explained Dominic Tildesley in his welcome address. “But why do we care about making our community a professional community? Because the professionals of today are the problem-solvers of tomorrow. They pioneer research, they tackle the challenges our society faces, and they create an environment, in which the next generation of scientists can thrive.

“They enable us, as an organisation, to bring together chemists from all corners of the world and from all areas of the chemical sciences to shape the future of chemistry, for the benefit of science and of humanity.”

Three invited speakers set the scene for the meeting by exploring the topic from their personal perspectives. Dr Jenny Boxwell from the Atomic Weapons

Establishment talked about the role that continuing professional development has played in shaping her career and how she is now involved in helping others to develop their careers.

Keith Wiggins, one of our honorary fellows and chief operating officer at Nanoco Technologies PLC, explored the importance of having people with the right skills to put in place a thriving chemical science community.
Finally, our past president David Phillips presented some of the work we are doing as part of our Influencing public attitudes to chemistry campaign. He explained that – in order for us to communicate chemistry effectively and professionally – we need to first understand current public perceptions.

Hearing your thoughts

A series of discussion sessions gave delegates, Council members and employees the opportunity to discuss topics related to the theme of professionalism.

In the workshop on skills and recognition, we discussed how professional awards such as chartered chemist support recognition and career progression. The session on diversity explored the ways in which we can embed diversity across all of our activities to encourage and support an inclusive professional community.

Our third session focused on different ways to connect scientists to the right data and tools to foster professionalism, collaborations and scientific growth. And finally, the fourth workshop looked at ways to get more people involved in outreach activities, and making sure we conduct all of our outreach activities in the most professional and effective manner.

All four sessions generated animated discussions and enthusiastic suggestions, leaving us with some great new ideas to explore in the future.

At the end of the General Assembly, Jenny Boxwell said: “I thoroughly enjoyed the presentations and discussion sessions. The whole event was very informative, well organised and I feel inspired to further strengthen my interactions with the RSC.” Her feelings were echoed by many other attendees, who commented that they left with a better understanding of how they can help us achieve our strategy and vision.

Achieving results together

An exhibition provided further opportunities for informal discussions and for finding out more about the support we provide for our members. In addition, the delegates had a chance to explore some of our recent work on diversity and inclusion and the Benevolent Fund.

And many of you visited the campaigns stand to find out how to get involved in our public campaign and to lend support to our two policy campaigns on science and innovation and chemistry education.

Finally, the networks meeting enabled members to share with each other best-practice, the challenges they most commonly face and new project ideas. The topics discussed ranged from engaging members in specific sectors and demonstrating to employers the benefit of being involved with the Royal Society of Chemistry to ways of encouraging new committee members to diversify these groups.

Closing the event with his presidential address, Dominic Tildesley shared with the audiences, two of his priorities for his presidency: continuing to champion diversity and driving forward our new industry strategy.

He also highlighted the importance of our members’ dedication, enthusiasm and passion for our success, saying: “Listening to some of the ideas you put forward in the workshops, I know that you have great feedback and ideas for how we can continue to improve and build on what we are already doing. And I’m looking forward to working with you, through the term of my presidency and beyond, to put these ideas into practice.”