Thanks everyone who attended the recent Take on Board breakfast and our very first online breakfast too! Due to social distancing requirements due to COVID-19 we moved this breakfast to Zoom.
Thank you in particular, to our fabulous speakers Penny Wilson and Melanie Eagle for their informative, insightful and interesting stories and tips.
Here’s a summary of some of their take-out messages:
- Throw yourself in!
- Support other women (e.g. suggest roles to them).
- Connect to the organisation you want to be involved in – hand to heart.
- Identify your top three skills for a board – don’t overload your CV.
- Always keep learning.
- Use your networks.
- Listen to others – find those you admire and replicate, or work out what you want to avoid
- It’s partly luck – being in the right place at the right time – so don’t give up!
- Build your experience (e.g. take up acting chair roles, or chairing a committee).
Note that we are working on turning this into a podcast in the near future – we’ll let you know when it is live!
Some of the feedback:
- Great mood given the circumstances. Very effective use of digital technology.
- Break out rooms.
- The virtual break out rooms are really useful; if we were to sit at a table, one talks to the people next to you – virtually, it is an opportunity to connect with random people – I find
- The breakout rooms were great.. .could be ways to utilise these even more if there are ways for people in similar industries to connect this easier as it caters for both extroverts and introverts. Great opportunity for us all to learn how a larger get together can be done!!! Everyone could participate in all aspects.
- The speakers were terrific with lots of reassuring comments that were relevant to my context.
- The agile approach to Facebook live follow up – well done!!
- You’re energy and holding the group safe.
- Speakers were excellent, help with wrangling the technology was also good.
- The Zoom session worked brilliantly and the break out rooms were a great idea.
- Great to chat to people and hear about something other than COVID-19.
- Way the session was conducted
- Pre-prep email/clear guidelines sent before the event/the preparation email was very helpful.
- Agenda for the meeting.
- Helga – fantastic example of positive adaptive guidance thanks for your thorough prep.
- Zoom platform was stable & interactive/enjoyed learning about zoom and slido
- Quality of the Zoom, keeping to time – well done Helga.
Things for me to change next time:
Your navigation of the technology was terrific. On a couple of occasions you appeared perplexed you couldn’t find a button without telling us what you were looking for. I think by saying I’m looking for X would have added to the awesome learning experience for all. My reply: Thank you! Good advice!
I guess ensuring nobody was alone in a chatroom – not sure how that can be managed. My reply: It is hard to manage this, particularly if someone drops off the line.
I think I would have preferred questions via the chat option. My reply: It’s really hard to do it this way, as questions get lost in the comments (and cats walking on keyboards!). Apps like slido also mean people get to vote, so the most important questions rise to the top.
Timing of speakers and Q&A – I have both requests for more time for Q&A as well as more time in break out rooms! It’s hard to get the balance right. The timing of this one was slightly different as it was the first time on zoom. Generally, it’s 10m per speaker, 5m to discuss after each speaker and then 20m or so for Q&A. (comments included “Run it more as a workshop than a presentation (e.g. more time to have discussions in the breakout room). The networking was really valuable.” and ‘More question time for the speakers’.
I find the gallery view of 30 people on video distracting; maybe ask people to turn their videos off unless it is needed / necessary for break out rooms, etc. Likewise, listening to a speaker and seeing public and private messages pop up makes it difficult to focus on the task at hand. Helga’s feedback – it’s hard to get this one right. Some people like to see others (I confess I’m one of them); some like to use chat. You can close the chat screen, but you probably still get alerts. It’s kind of like having someone chat next to you, just like in real life.
As a test, I think it worked pretty well. And in these strange times, connection is even more important, so I’ll be doing another one of these in early May. You’ll get advance notice of it as soon as I have the speakers confirmed!
Board marketplace
- Molly shared YWCA Traineeship (which has now closed)
- I shared Greenpeace Australia Pacific Board roles (which have now closed)
