Hello again, I can’t believe time flies! It’s nearly the end of semester 2. There is SO MUCH to catch up since my last post about my volunteering experience for the Film Active Project. Sorry for not being able to make timely updates.
In February, we were excited to have Refilwe and Nousheen join us. Fiona and members of the Intergenerational Engagement in Research and Teaching (IE) project had a welcoming meeting for our new blood. Each of us took turns to introduce ourselves and went through what we have been doing. Refilwe and Nousheen were asked to think about which team they would like to join. In the end, they decided to join different teams. Both the research and the event teams had a nice balance!
While we gained new members, we understand that new work, new study schedules or new commitments could create barriers to involvement in the project. In semester 2, we were sorry to see Lisa and Ellie from the event team officially resign from the project. In fact, there were new challenges facing the research team as well. In particular, time zone issues crept in again. As Refilwe joined the research team from Botswana, we were trying to negotiate three time zones (GMT +8, GMT +1, and GMT +2) concurrently. Due to a conflict of schedules, Refilwe was unable to join us for the first team meeting. We realise it was highly important that our new member was able to participate in our discussion. Or we could lose her easily. We tried to work out a time that we could meet every week. In other words, we changed our meeting mode from recurrent to 'spontaneous'. Since I am very bad at Math, I literally had a headache when picturing the three time zones on my mind. A time zone converter did save my life! “UK time” is now added to our communication in order to avoid confusion.
From December 2021 to May 2022, we had a couple of meetings and email exchange with Fiona to discuss our survey drafts and the Psychology Research Ethics Committee (PREC) form. She provided us with detailed annotated feedback and reminded us of rethinking the overarching aims of the project. The survey is now in good shape, and we hope to submit the PREC form by late May. The event team has also endeavoured to reach out to different parties which could potentially provide support for us. For example, the event team had a meeting with Age UK in January to gain insights into where the need was for signposting groups. In February, Aimee, Ella, and Beth presented our work to the Healthy Later Living Network. In March, the event team met with Bath SU community engagement to see how the University or SU could coordinate engagement. In April, Age UK got back to us with great news! They agreed to promote our upcoming events and we will have our own stall. More details will be provided in future posts. Since April, both event and research teams decided to meet as a whole group due to the reduced number of active members in the project. To me, it always feels good to have such a point of convergence and feels like we all grow separately without growing apart.
Next Monday is a big day for us. We are going to present at the end-of-semester VIP poster event. Please join us at 4 west 1.2. We will be showcasing our work from 10:00am to 1:00pm. We can’t wait to see you there!
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