The NSW RACI President's Letter - March 2022
Dear NSW Branch Members,
I sincerely hope this letter finds all of you well despite the uncertainty around the next phase of the COVID pandemic, the devastating floods across the east coast and the conflict in the Ukraine. As a community I believe we are here to support each other, so if there is any way the RACI community in NSW can help you, please reach out to us.
I was fortunate to attend my first face-to-face RACI event last week, the RACI Board Meet-and-Greet. It was terrific to catch up with members of our community, fellow NSW branch committee members and meet some of the RACI board members. From the conversations I had there is a strong commitment to drive engagement with our current and future members. I am sincerely looking forward to being out at more events in the coming months and meeting our members.
March offers a great opportunity for you to get out and engage with fellow RACI members. The NSW Pharmaceuticals Science group is hosting their ‘Preservatives and Preservative Efficacy: Pharmaceuticals and Cosmetics’ event on the 22nd March and the Frontiers of Science Forum (collaboration between the AIP, TGNSW, RSNSW and RACI) on the 25th March. As always Chemraderie (Thursday 17th March) is a great online opportunity to connect with RACI members from across the country online. From a schools perspective registration for the 2022 crystal growing competition is open now and registrations for the 2022 titration competition will open on the 28th March. Please reach out to your local schools to encourage them to register and participate.
February and March are important times of the year to recognise and celebrate the contributions that Australia’s diverse peoples make to our community. Key events like the UN’s International Day of Women and Girls in Science (11th Feb 2022) and International Women’s Day (8th March 2022, #BreaktheBias, #WomeninSTEM) highlight and celebrate the tremendous contributions that women and girls make to Chemistry and help us identify areas we can work on to improve gender quality. Later this month is Harmony Week (21st – 27th March 2022) and it is all about celebrating Australia’s tremendous cultural diversity and recognising we still have a lot of work to do to ensure everyone in our community feel included, respected and have a strong sense of belonging. I would love to hear from the members of our community what the NSW Branch can do to help promote and support a more diverse and inclusive institute and community.
The RACI is at its heart a volunteer organisation, with people from across the country making contributions of time, effort and resources to deliver value to our membership. Two programs that I would like to highlight are the Mentoring Program and the Ambassador’s Program. The mentoring program is a highlight of the RACI’s offering to members, but there is a need for more mentors to meet this year’s demand, so if you are interested, I encourage you to reach out to the mentoring team, [email protected]. The Ambassadors Program is kicking off this year to improve our engagement with members at universities and there is still a need for ECR & student ambassadors at most NSW universities so please reach out to Nick Taylor ([email protected]) at national office if you are interested in being involved.
At a branch level our focus will be on supporting the return of face-to-face events and commencing the budget process for the next financial year. Accurate forecasting is essential to maintaining a balanced budget and allows us to explore options to support events. Sponsorship is and integral component of our funding so I would like to sincerely thank all of our sponsors over the last year and welcome any prospective sponsors for events and awards to reach out to the branch, group or sections committees.
Best Regards,
Nigel Lengkeek
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