Coming together to discuss and share CPD plans

Talking to others when thinking about your CPD plans can be incredibly useful - particularly at a time when most of us are now working from home and detached from our usual networks. Doing so can help to spark off new ideas and to reflect on your goals. Over the last few weeks, we've been asking members to share their own CPD plans and how they're adapting to the new situation in which we all find ourselves.

In the first of our stories we are sharing updates from members who are taking time to catch up on some of those activities which always get put to one side, and others who are making the most of webinars and online programmes which are rapidly being developed by many organisations to ensure people can continue to access support and advice. 

Read on to find out more!

Emma Le Cornu ACR

• Editing and renaming treatment photos, long overdue.
• Catching up with treatment documentation entry and general browsing of the database to become more familiar with the collection.
• Planning social media and blog posts to feed to our social media manager including things like past treatments and conservation lab shots, but also ‘how-to’ posts for looking after your own documents, books, photographs at home - in collaboration with the librarian so keeping communication active.
• Preparing a presentation about paper conservation at my institution for the friends of our museum, booked for some time in the future.
• Attending a virtual meeting once a week with my department, which is great for keeping in contact and seeing some friendly faces.
• Finding webinars/articles/courses online through Icon, IAP, IIC etc. so always something to watch, read and learn. Joining the discord page set up by Icon, another way to keep in contact with conservators specifically and share ideas.
• Listening to podcasts whilst doing monotonous tasks, either conservation related; CCI and C-word or whatever you are interested in.
• As a yoga fan, I make sure to get up regularly and do a few stretches, no colleagues around to be disturbed!
• Some days are easier than others, I also try to be kind to myself and not get frustrated or feel guilty if I don't achieve as much as I think I should be. 

Anonymous member

• I plan to map out and begin a research project related to the collection at work. 
• I will set up a discussion network with colleagues to find out information they would need.
• I will take online courses which will assist in bettering my knowledge in areas I feel need improvement. Such as blog writing, presentation skills, researching into artists techniques.
• I will also spend time reading articles which I don’t normally get the chance too.

Lucy Branch ACR

• Publish my first non-fiction book and a workbook accompaniment for my online course.
• Produce a series of audio-chats based on blogposts I've written.
• Start incorporating affiliate income into my website.
• Set-up Patreon page for those interested in bonus material.

Peter Meehan ACR

• Doing an online course to learn how to use Adobe Photoshop so as to be able to edit my photographs.

Anonymous member

• Reading materials from conservation.
• Volunteer to read CPD reviews itself!
• Attend MS Excel training.
• Participate in in-house workshops that have impact on my work.
• Explore how to organise the next conservation conference with relevant theme.
• Survey the collection with glass decoration and ascertain the current condition for follow up action.
• Fine tune the storage system of the 2-D plant-based collection.
• Work with the scientists to establish sampling procedure with external / internal customers.

David Carrington ACR

• Writing up team guidance practice notes that have been on my desk in draft for some time.
• Reviewing the Company Environmental Policy.
• Drafting papers for publication that I've been meaning to write up for ages - how far I get will depend on the length of the lockdown period.