From Board Member to Vice-Chair: Four years serving the MCAA - MCAA Magazine March 2024

Celebrating the first decade of our Association, we invited members from all five MCAA Boards to share their insights. Alexandra Dubini, from the 2022-24 MCAA Board, highlights her transition from navigating the Association through the COVID-19 pandemic as a Board Member to her role as Vice-Chair. She discusses the challenges and triumphs, emphasising the dedication required to uphold the Association’s needs and expectations.

I came with my previous board experience as an ordinary Board member during COVID time and decided to take on the challenge as vice chair as this period had been a bit frustrating for all because of the restrictions. Thus, I thought I could give back more to the Association in a second mandate.

The 2022-2024 board was elected with some previous board members (5 out 11) and new ones, which compiled a good mix of experience. Again, women were highly represented, 8 out of 11 Board members, and we had a good diversity of background and country representation. We started this board with high motivation and a face-toface meeting straight away. After two years of no in-person meetings in the previous board (due to COVID), we were eager to meet and set the objectives of this mandate.

In the previous board, we had to face COVID and adapt to new circumstances, but this time, we had to engage in a transition towards independence, which meant helping the association manage itself. Thanks to the hard labor of the previous executive committee, the Association had successfully secured a new type of contract with the European Commission and received funds to empower the MCAA on its own terms. That meant hiring independent people with specific tasks to perform under the supervision of the board instead of having companies managing the practical aspects of the association life with little involvement of the board.

Bearing in mind that all the board members are professionals, students and, more importantly, volunteers, we engaged in the difficult task of hiring people with specific competencies related to management while managing the daily activities of the association.

The MCAA is like a germ, we need to take care of it.

We first decided to hire an Executive director to facilitate this transition and build an adequate team. Overall, it has been a very tough process, and it took time to identify the right people for the various tasks, but we were happy to present our new operational team in the last newsletter.

This is the beginning of a new era. The next board will have to take over and manage the Association in a different way and set new strategy goals to ensure the growth of the Association in the right direction.

The activities I have been involved in and/or coordinated during the past two years have contributed to my personal and professional growth, from organising the Annual Conference 2023 in Cordoba, handling daily tasks for the Association to creating a new General Interest Group (GIG) together with my colleagues Donata Iandolo and Mariana Rosca on sustainability.

What I keep in mind is the potential that MCAA has, what we are doing and what will be done in the future. I reckon that the Association, thanks to its national Chapters, Working Groups, and the different activities organised, has a tremendous potential to help the scientific community. First, we need to increase our members’ engagement to make sure that everyone is aware of the Association’s capabilities, and then, we need to put in place a strategy that will allow the association to shine even more at the International level (from science policy to science diplomacy) while having a direct impact on its members.

Overall, it has been an honour to be part of the board twice, but as an executive member, I have seen directly what the Chair is doing, and I have to give my reverence to Fernanda Bajanca, who has been the pillar of this Board. It has not always been easy to interact with 11 people, but we all learnt lessons and tried to go forward. I think we were all anxious to make sure that the transition was being done in a smooth way and that the next board would have a much easier task than we did. The next Board will be able to focus more on strategic tasks and develop a closer interaction with the members and the different stakeholders. But I need to thank everyone for their hard work, I will definitely miss the Board and the non-ending discussion for the greater good! I also wish all the best for the next Board and will remain available for anything needed. In the future, I will be involved in MCAA activities via the sustainability interest group (please join if you are interested through the website: www.mariecuriealumni.eu/groups/) and probably other general activities. The MCAA is like a germ, we need to take care of it and make sure that it carries on shining for the next decades!

Alexandra Dubini
Vice Chair
Twitter @alexdubini
ORCID 0000-0001-8825-3915