I’m appointed President of UK Chapter of IIBA!

I’m writing this post to share my recent good news.

I’ve recently accepted the post of president of the UK Chapter of the IIBA.
If I’m honest, I was reluctant as I am feeling stretched rather thin whilst I hold down a job, deliver online training and try to squeeze in time with my wife and daughter.

However, I accepted the post so the UK Chapter can move forward and decided I would focus on what I believe are the priorities for the chapter.

We have been very successful in running events that are very popular for good reason.
We have also set up the first European BA conference in 2009 and look to have a great success with this year’s conference too (click here for details of speakers). I have some exciting news for a series of events and articles that will be available online as we run up to the conference that I will share with you when it has been finalised…

I have facilitated setting up a branch in the Midlands which had a great first event on 10th May (click here for details).

However, the board members are stretched and are struggling to start new initiatives.
It feels like we are sailing a yacht but everyone is either tending the sails, plugging leaks or checking we don’t run into any sandbanks (as you can see, I’m very experienced with sailing!)

We get very little time to chart our course or even decide on our destination!

This is inevitable with a volunteer organisation which relies very heavily on the good will of the volunteers.

The key word here is volunteer - we have plenty of people who offer to help but the board have been very bad at taking advantage of those offers.
I guess that can be a problem when you’re busy making sure your yacht stays afloat.

If there’s one goal I have whilst I am president it is to put the necessary processes and oversight in place to ensure we can utilise this very valuable resource for mutual benefit.

One of the board members will be focusing exclusively on this to ensure it it put in place over the next few months.

PS The Mastering Use Cases course started successfully on 17th May and the students are beavering away on the lessons and coursework. I have run a couple of live tutorials that have been well received.
I will announce the dates for a new course within the next month. At the moment, my focus is ensuring the students are fully supported during the course.