CESNET very kindly hosted the GÉANT Community Programme (GCP) workshop on 14-15 May at their office in Prague. This is the second time members of the GCP, including the GÉANT Community Committee (GCC), representatives of GCP initiatives, coordinators of the Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and Task Forces (TFs), and SIG Steering Committee members came together face to face, with the previous meeting held in Malaga in 2022.
The workshop started with a round of introductions as there were plenty of new faces in addition to familiar ones! Charlie van Genuchten, the newly appointed GCC chair, shared the refreshed GÉANT Community Programme Framework and GCC Terms of Reference (ToR), and dived into the community level input to the GÉANT strategy development process.
Following this, each SIG had their own Lightning Talks to introduce their SIG, describing their areas of interest, what their main challenges are within their thematic area, and what collaboration opportunities with other SIGs may look like.
Throughout the day, the room buzzed with ideas for collaboration, as the synergies sparked by insightful Lightning Talks came to life. If you would like to read more about our SIG groups, please visit our thematic areas page: https://community.geant.org/thematic-areas/.
The following morning started with Dawn Ng, Sr. Community Programme Manager, sharing statistics into SIG meeting attendees. It became very clear that there is still a significant amount of work to be carried out to encourage more female participation within the community. We discussed our Gender Equality Principles, and bounced around some suggestions regarding what we can do to make women feel more comfortable and invited to these sessions.
Looking at where we are now encouraged conversations to look to the future, asking the question where do we want to be, who is our future, and who is the next generation?
Divided into focus groups again, we noted down our community priorities following the insightful discussions over the past two days, what the process may look like to achieve these, and how we can continue to grow as a community.
After listening to each other’s feedback, we were informed of the updated process for creating and managing events using Indico – GÉANT’s event management tool, and the importance of the post-event survey was highlighted to ensure we can closely track what channels are effective to maximise capacity of notifying potential participants about various GCP initiatives. After this, a presentation for best practice with communications was shared, demonstrating the importance of post-event summaries, and sparking the question of how we can all support with engaging on social media, especially on LinkedIn, to promote what we do within the GCP.
Charlie closed the meeting with a thanks to all those attending, a few final questions, including what our priorities we should focus on. The GCC will now follow up with actions based on the workshop’s outcomes, and an agreement was made to meet face to face annually due to the success of this meeting.
Throughout the workshop there was plenty of allocated time to share our thoughts and feelings following the focus group sessions, which enabled all participants to take the time to listen to one another, and have our voices heard. This is what the GÉANT community is about, and it was great to not only witness it, but be a part of this. There were debates on the process, support on new innovative ideas, questions on how we can reach out to younger audiences, and passionate conversations regarding potential collaboration opportunities between SIGs. The sense of community was authentic and alive.
Finally, the new GCC members were announced, and with the final member of the committee being selected this week, we can now announce that the new GÉANT Community Committee members are:
Charlie van Genuchten was elected as the GCC Chair on 20 November 2024. Senior Product Manager for Security at the Dutch NREN SURF, Charlie will lead the GCC for the next three years, and cover the area of Security. Six months into her role, Charlie reflects on the changes she is beginning to implement, and the impact she hopes the GCC will have in strengthening the community.
“The election of new GCC members will enhance the committee’s representation of our community through greater diversity, allowing it to build on the commendable work of the previous GCC. We can promote the combination of different activities carried out within the community successfully due to the wide range of knowledge and links to various thematic areas which now make up the GCC.”
Ariela Herček, Arnes – Marketing and Communications
“I’m excited and eager to bring the communications perspective to the GCC. I believe all GCP activities have a need for clear and effective communication strategy in order to better connect to the community and spread the word about what types of opportunities GCP offers. Lastly, my goal in GCC is to help bridge differences and find common ground between the different areas of activities within the GCP and the people involved.”
Dawn Ng, GÉANT – Community, International, Innovation, Strategy
“I am excited to be part of the GCC’s next chapter, filled with new energy, ideas, and inspiration to bring the Community together for more impact than ever.”
Arjan Xhelaj, RASH – Policy, Community, Strategy
Erik Kikkenborg, NORDUnet – Education, Multi-Media
“I’m delighted to be continuing with the GÉANT Community Committee. This group is really important to me! not just what we do, but the people that are in it. It’s been so heartening to witness how much love and selflessness everyone pours into taking care of our community. Most of all, I can’t wait to welcome them, and hear their perspectives. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done in years one through 60, there’s no reason you can’t accomplish the impossible in year 61 of your life or the first full year of a new decade of life! “I’m ready for all this new energy and can’t wait to see what we’ll create together.”
Ivana Golub, PCSS – Network Development
“It is a great honour and privilege to be a member of the GÉANT Community Committee. Being part of a team dedicated to facilitating collaboration and supporting the exchange of knowledge and experience across the research and education community is both inspiring and rewarding. I look forward to contributing to the Committee’s efforts in fostering innovation and the continued advancement of the GÉANT community.”
Maria Isabel Gandia Carriedo, CSUC – Network
“I’m truly honoured and excited to join the GÉANT Community Committee. After many rewarding years with this wonderful community and collaborating from the SIG-NOC, it’s a privilege to continue contributing also from the GCC. I’m looking forward to giving back to a community that has given me so much!”
Michel Wets, SURF – Procurement, Cloud
“The GCP meeting in Prague, where all the SIGs presented was very inspiring. It allowed me to get an even better idea of the different SIGs, the collaboration within them and the challenges some of them face. It’s really unique to see all these community efforts where experts focus on a specific topic, thrive. I’m very honoured to have been accepted into the GCC and look forward to working even closer with the SIGs.”
Matthew Slowe, Jisc – Trust & Identity
“I am looking forward to being able to see more of, and contribute to, the inner workings of GÉANT as it supports its members and the wider R&E community”.
Source of this article: https://connect.geant.org/