From the President

For many of us, Easter is usually a time to make the most of a long weekend and head away to the beach, holiday house, the crib or bach, or just connect with family and friends. For those of us in the cooler parts of the region, Easter also often signals the end of warm sunny days as we head ever closer to cooler days and the chilly nights of winter.

However, this year we all stayed at home self-isolating in our own bubbles as we collectively work together to overcome the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic. Except for the few idiots about, all of us are making sacrifices as we stand united together in our own bubble to beat this virus. Being suddenly required to self-isolate and work from home has created both stresses and opportunities for how we do our work.

For some, working from home is the norm and it is business as usual, while for others it is a completely new working environment. Learning to engage and immerse ourselves in our work in a fully online environment, connecting in a meeting through video conferencing, creating space at home and then setting boundaries between home and workspaces are things we have been forced to manage, and I think we have adapted to this new way very quickly.

For me, one of my greatest learnings is the need to have breaks between video meetings. Unlike a face-to-face meeting, I find video meetings incredibly intense with participants ‘on show’ all of the time. You become more aware of everyone’s facial expressions, including your own, and how others may be interpreting those intended or unintended expressions. For some it is contending with unexpected distractions, be it from the cat who thinks the keyboard is a warm and cosy place to nap, or a child who needs to talk to Mum or Dad ‘right now’. Multiply those experiences several times a day, and by the end of the working day, you can feel very drained. Thankfully there are many blogs and posts on how to manage working from home, and some of our own institutions have produced some outstanding resources to support the ‘away team’.

The upside of the current situation is somehow feeling much more connected than before as we thoughtfully and intentionally reach out to check in on each other. While video conferencing can be draining, we are now talking and engaging more regularly with colleagues in our own teams, our own institutions and between institutions, than we have likely done in the past.

The AAIR Executive Committee is no exception. As we collectively navigate how to best support and provide opportunities for our members, to continue to network, learn from and share with each other over this past month, we have made more connections than we would have had in the past. To me, the outstanding feature of AAIR has always been the generosity of members to share and learn from each other. I know institutions are looking at how best to capture feedback about both student and staff wellbeing, as well as the experience of remote learning, especially when online and remote learning hasn’t been undertaken on such a large scale before.

AAIR is looking at how we can best connect interested institutional researchers and survey managers to look at sharing practices. We hope to offer online connected events on a range of topics for our members in the very near future. Please stay connected with us through the website, the SIG LinkedIn groups, the newsletter and email communications from us.

If you have a particular area of interest that you would like to host as a webinar through AAIR, or if you are interested in being a participant, please get in contact with us at info@aair.org.au. We would value your contribution.

Stay safe in your bubble.

Kia kaha (Be strong)

Stuart Terry

President, AAIR

Read the April 2020 AAIR newsletter Right Here, Right Now!

April 2020 Newsletter

Photo of the bubbles in nature by Jamie Street on Unsplash

Photo of a dog shaking paws by Fabian Gieske on Unsplash

Photo of a dangling phone by Alexander Andrews on Unsplash

From the President

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