In the coming weeks, my 2-year elected term as IIBA UK’s Communities Director for Wales, the Southwest, and Midlands comes to an end. There’s still lots to do before then, with a great pipeline of events coming up, but I’m also reflecting on the last couple of years leading my local Branch teams, being a member of the Board, and getting deeply involved in the BA Community.
I’m an introvert by nature, and volunteering in this role has needed me to get comfortable with being in the spotlight, talking to a lot of strangers, and generally put myself “out there”. I probably assumed this role was going to be more “behind the scenes” when I took it on. Instead, I think I’ve developed a whole bunch of new skills in leadership, marketing, presenting, and networking.
I’ve loved working with my fellow volunteers, and building our teams in each region. We have some amazingly dedicated, fun, and talented people giving up their free time to help the BA community. It can be a challenge providing a professional experience for our members and the wider BA community when squeezing in tasks around the day-job, but having a great team makes it much easier. My Branch volunteers have been so supportive and full of enthusiasm and ideas!
Through the webinars and face-to-face events I’ve helped to organise, (and helping man the stall at BA Conference Europe) I’ve got to meet loads of talented speakers, authors, and leaders of our profession. What better way to access BA wisdom than meeting the person that wrote the book?! I now have a great list of “go-to” people if I need advice on a particular topic – and I know how happy these people are to help and share their thinking.
I’ve been running the BA Brown Bag drop-in sessions most weeks for the last couple of years. It’s quite a commitment making sure you’re free each week, but the payoff is getting to meet HUNDREDS of fellow BA professionals. I get to hear what’s really going on across our profession, get exposure to all kinds of industries, and get to help my fellow business analysts forge loads of new connections. I’ve developed some great friendships from these sessions, and the mutual support has been immensely valuable.
It’s not always been plain sailing! Along the way, I’ve had my share of crises and blunders. Memorable moments include accidentally publishing an event before the host organisation gave the go-ahead, and finding out people had turned up at an event I thought I’d cancelled! In the last week, I caused a panic among event attendees with an inadvertent change of start time. These things definitely help build character – and the (many) successes have hugely outweighed those minor catastrophes!
I’ll be continuing as a volunteer within the Wales + Southwest branch team, so I’m not quite disappearing into the sunset! I’ll still be involved in local events and supporting my peers in the BA community.