All magazines from February 2016
Waiting for the new Board – Interview with Roy Someshwar, MCAA Treasurer Waiting for the new Board – Interview with Snežana Krstić, MCAA Chair Waiting for the new Board – Interview with Axelle Viré, MCAA Vice-Chair Waiting for the new Board – Interview with Kiran Kumar Chereddy, MCAA Ordinary Board Member
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Waiting for the new Board – Interview with Francesco Sanna, MCAA Ordinary Board Member

You have been Ordinary Member of the MCAA Board since November 2013. How would you describe this experience?

As an ordinary Board Member, I was in charge of the Events and Network Working Group. I can proudly confirm that it has been an outstanding experience. First, it was really interesting to follow the growth during the first years of life of such a big international organisation as the MCAA. Moreover, thanks to this opportunity, I was honoured to work and organise international networking events with highly motivated scientists.

What did you learn?

As a Board Member, I have been in touch with other expert researchers, with much more experience. This has given me the opportunity to learn, directly from them, about what is needed to face and solve the different problems that a big worldwide association experiences. I am the youngest of the group and the whole experience was the first of its kind for me.

As the Chairman of the Events and Network, I organised events and supported attendance at national and international conferences or workshops, both as speakers and collaborators. I definitely improved my managerial and organisational skills. Although I was responsible for everything, I learnt a lot from the collaboration and the feedback of the other team members.

This is particularly the caes for the two big events in Greece and Czech Republic, for which the organisation was rather complicated. Firstly, I created a virtual group of MCAA Members and I defined a hierarchy. Secondly, we were in contact with a local group of volunteers and with local institutions in the host country. From these experiences I learnt that you need not only a plan, but also initiatives to motivate other people to carefully follow it. In addition, dealing with a limited budget was also complex. I have to admit that sometimes I felt a bit of pressure because of the short deadlines and because of the degree of responsibility. Although this was my real first experience as a coordinator, the team was able to successfully organise the event in time and on budget. 

Which tasks did you deal with?

In order, my main tasks were:

  1. Taking important decisions on the future of the association
  2. Talking, updating, and motivating the team members
  3. Keeping track of the budget
  4. Preparing a successful plan, as well as a back-up plan
  5. Following the mail flow between all the institutions
  6. Setting deadlines and milestones to verify and to check the quality of the work
  7. Informing the MCAA Board
  8. Writing a report for each activity, including the financial status
  9. Preparing and checking presentations for each event the working group was collaborating with.

What would you like to say to encourage Alumni to put themselves forward as candidates for this position?

Dear Members, sometimes I am afraid the power of this association is not fully understood. This is not an association born to organise travel or to hand out money. This is an essential worldwide organisation to build and take care of each Marie Curie researcher’s career. If you care about your and our future, don’t be afraid to put yourself forward as a candidate to join the Board. Contributing actively to the success of the MCAA is indeed the only solution we have to be certain that our hard work is rewarded.

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