Seven weeks ago I was fortunate to be chosen as the QLD LN representative at the biennial Asia Pacific Community Volunteers Conference (AP CVC) held in Brunei. There were many brilliant presentations from the Asia-Pacific networks, but there were a few key topics that were focused on in particular. Those topics include the CRC Strategy, CCAP Strategy, and Technical Networks. The CRC’s strategic priorities were as follows:
Technical Expertise – Technical communities that allow engineers from around the world to engage
Next Generation – Create a pathway for students and YPs within communities
Expand Local Reach – Increase the reach, scale, and impact of local community activity
Excellence – Aim for operational excellence and volunteer satisfaction
Each of these strategies were then broken down to its fundamentals – specifically their objective, tactics to approach the strategy, and the benefits of fulfilling the strategy. The CCAP very much have their strategy aligned with the CRC’s, though their top three priority are more focused on the follow: 1. Increase number of YP volunteers 2. Establish On-Campus relationships 3. Expand scale and reach
The last main discussion was on the Technical Networks currently available. The technical networks support the IET’s wider vision of inspiring, informing and influencing the global engineering community, and will continue to strive for long-term and sustainable growth of their technical offering. At the moment, the IET only have 22 technical networks, and are looking to expand in the near future. In the hopes of utilising Technical Networks more, the following plan was devised:
Formats – Diversify to remove barriers to engagement and reliance on physical formats
Development – Multi stakeholder approach to developing new technical networks
Content - Commission and curate content rather than reliance on volume
Success – Take quality and impact driven approach of measuring success
Communications – Publish our vision and objectives, and governance to be more visible
Name change – Change from TPN to TN,
International – Scalable, sustainable model to enable international communities to grow
Engage YPs – New generation of volunteers to inform and inspire next generation
Discussions about expanding the relevance of Technical Networks by live streaming their webinars was a notable strategy that the Community Team brought up. In summary, the Asia Pacific region has improvements to consider as well as action plans to satisfy the redefined CCAP strategic goals. The AP CVC was eye-opening, as not only did I get to meet other Chairs in the Asia-Pacific region, I also had the chance to sigh see part of Brunei. Thank you again to Ljubo and the QLD committee for giving me the opportunity to attend such event.
