First year as an Ambassador (2012–2013) (by Dr Christopher Emersic)

Shortly after the Ambassadors were created, I finally found time to attend one of the general Ambassador meetings that we have quarterly.  Afterwards, I proposed the idea of making a website to Vicky who was my counterpart at the time.  At first, the idea was that it would act as a way of communicating postdoc related things we were involved with.  Fairly quickly as I was designing the site, I realised that it could become much more. One of the things that had always bothered me about the university’s main website was how difficult it was to find things in general (understandably given how much there is and all-encompassing it is for all audiences).  This is a complaint I’d heard from many people.  Not only that, but how so much of the seemingly little, but actually not-so-little, everyday things that crop up all the time were of course non-existent in written form.  Things which despite being too trivial for someone to write about on a website, are actually fairly major showstoppers (or at least major slowdowns) when they crop up in day-to-day working postdoc life for the first time.  Things like how to fill in risk assessment forms, how do you book travel, how to use i-Proc, how do you connect to the university network from home, what kind of training courses are there etc.  As such, I conceived the ‘day-to-day’ section containing everything I could think of and had experienced myself which had to be learned at the time and slowed me down because it was hard to find the information.  The ‘researcher development’ section was intended to contain all the other Ambassador-related stuff associated with personal and career development.  Both sections involved a lot of learning; the more pages I developed, the more I realised could also be added—some of which was outside my knowledge and required learning.  I spent countless hours (hundreds in total) of my own personal time on this project, not only writing the website, but learning about the topics in question from a postdoc perspective—often arranging to meet with people who knew so I could learn, and meticulously planning how to arrange and structure it all to try and get it right first time.  I mostly did, but there’s always room for refinement which has happened gradually over time.  Each time there’s a significant change, I’d add one to the rev. counter on the title of each page in the site. The design of the site is another area I'm particular about.  I can’t stand most websites that are text-based.  The last thing I wanted to do was make another horribly ugly and cheap Wiki.  I wanted something visually spectacular, professional, and clean.  Fortunately I have expertise with software to help me do this.  Intuitive layout and slick design were also another focus for me.  Planning the structure of a 60 page website is hard work; trying to optimise which sections should go where to facilitate the user’s ability to find information. Ironically, despite all the effort, it’s not clear how many people use it, but if even one person finds it useful to some degree (excluding me!), it would be effort well spent.  There has been some positive feedback, in some cases not from postdocs, but from other staff who seem to love it.  One highlight for me was getting a “wow” reaction from a postdoc after viewing the site for the first time; I took that as a sign I was at least getting the front end right; I don’t know anyone who has ever ‘wowed’ at a Wiki... Later, we realised that as nice as the website is, it’s a passive approach to our role as Ambassadors, and we needed to complement this with something on the active side of the spectrum.  Hence our ‘postdoc forums’ were born where we get postdocs together for a chat about all things of value to them.  We found a place to bid for some money, were successful, and this allowed us to entice higher attendance with cakes.  We particularly enjoy going to the local shop and trolley-dashing junk food for each event.  The postdocs are now well fed! Being an Ambassador for one year so far has been a great experience.  Not only the learning side, but being involved with activities which help postdocs develop.  Special thanks to Lynn too for teaching me how to ‘reflect’ in a blog during a teaching course I attended last year!

Reflections from Ambassadors