Editorial: Conferences and comfy chairs
Attending
external conferences, courses, workshops... they always seem
such a good idea when purveying very relevant bumpf from your
harassed desk. They speak of the concept of getting away from
it all (even if only for a couple of hours); peace to concentrate
solely on one thing; chance to talk about a subject or issue
or new development with like-interested people who'll face some
of the same - or refreshingly different - problems.
There
are two major stumbling blocks to attending such things.
Firstly
the day-to-day concerns (justifying the need for attendance;
whether there's a budget to allow for it anyway; getting the
correct permissions; problems re cover; figuring out travel
and / or accommodation...).
Then there's
the day before or the day itself when you survey everything
you haven't managed to do in the rush to get things completed
so you can leave. This is when the regrets can really take
hold and you wish you'd never looked speculatively at that
enticing piece of paper in the first place!
On the
10 November CDG had it's National Conference in CILIP in London
on the theme of Skills for the Future - this issue of Impact
is about bringing all of Conference (in as much detail as
space will allow) to you in a timely manner without any need
to lunge for trains, automobiles or flights with strange check-in
times. This is CPD that you don't need a budget for, or cover
to attend, and that can just as happily be perused on a peaceful
day at home as in work itself.
It's not
totally painless as a mechanism - CPD requires effort, so
you'll still need to sacrifice the time to read and think
about this. But it does bring Conference, as much as possible,
outwith one location on one day delivered to 'x' delegates.
As such
it has been decided that all of this issue of Impact will
go online on the Impact website (http://www.careerdevelopmentgroup.org.uk/impact)
as of date of publication of this issue. Future skills and
competencies is a matter for the entire profession, not just
any one Special Interest Group, as such feel free to refer
the online issue to other friends and colleagues who are not
necessarily CDG members.
For those
of you who know a CDG member who's been very involved in the
profession for some time you might like to look at the call
for nominations for the CDG Fellowship award which appears
in this issue.
Not every
current professional issue revolves around revising the body
of knowledge and qualifications structure (it only seems like
that some days!) so also included in this issue are some taster's
of what local Divisional life is like for CDG Committees and
what they get up to in fulfilment of their own personal CPD
and in ensuring that local opportunities are available for
other LIS workers. In this issue we look at some of the recent
activities of North Thames, Scottish and Yorkshire & Humberside.
Isabel Hood
Joint Honorary Editor
| 
