PA Away Day

Personal Assistant Mrs Charlotte Beard (Estates), reports on her experience of attending the PA Away Day on 23 July.

Personal Assistant Mrs Charlotte Beard (Estates), reports on her experience of attending the PA Away Day on 23 July. The PA Networking Group offers development, support and networking opportunities for all staff at Imperial who perform a PA type function as part of their role.

“After some hesitation I was encouraged to sign up for the PA Away Day. Although I have previously attended a couple of talks with the network I was not sure what to expect. I needn’t have worried as when the 31 members of the PA Network arrived at a hotel in central London I realised we were all equally unsure of exactly what we would be doing. The  aim of the event was to strengthen the PA Network and consider our future development needs. Lindsay Comalie (Learning and Development Centre) and Judy Barnett (Talent Development) worked closely with the  group dividing the day into several tasks designed to look at our roles and the network, and also to enable us to work together in different groups. We started the morning by looking at what the network currently means to us and how we would like it to work in the future. The network was seen as a positive influence which supports its members and works as an ‘ideas exchange’. Looking forward we want to welcome new members - particularly from other campuses and those in similar job roles who do not necessarily have PA in their title.

Later sections of the day looked at our own roles in several different ways, including approaches to ‘work smarter’ and think about the way we are perceived by others. We also looked at the seven ‘Imperial Expectations’ - a set of statements which articulate how the College expects its leaders, managers and supervisors to behave such as  ‘Consider the thoughts and expectations of others’ and ‘Champion a positive approach to change and opportunity’.  All seven of the statements are equally important and relevant to our roles.

In summary I really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know colleagues, especially those whose names I recognised from emails, but had never met. Even during breaks we were discussing where we work in the College and other factors affecting our roles. I would encourage others in the future to try to attend meetings whenever possible as the network is a great resource to anyone in an administrative support role, whether ‘PA’ is in your job title or not.”

If you are a PA /administrator and are interested in joining the PA Network, please contact:

pa-network-committee@ic.ac.uk