Since first joining BIA Council as a trainee member in the late 2000s, I have held the roles of Newsletter Editor, Membership Secretary, Communications Secretary, Honorary Secretary, Vice-President and President. My term as President is now drawing to a close so it seems a good time to reflect on my time on Council and the opportunities and challenges that it has presented.

What have I gained from my time on the BIA Council?

My time on Council has hugely enriched my working life. It has afforded me the opportunity to genuinely have an impact on the development of infection services across the UK, from early involvement in the development of joint training to my current representation of the Association on the Infection Clinical Reference Group, shaping the future of service delivery. This has all been hugely rewarding.

On a personal level, I have worked with many colleagues from around the UK, which means that there is pretty much always someone that I can chat to at any meeting or conference. Involvement in different aspects of BIA work has also enriched my knowledge and developed my skills in ways that are useful in the day-job too, specifically with respect to management and communications.  As Newsletter editor, I even found myself drawing a couple of cartoons, which is possibly the most challenging thing that I have had to do I all my time with BIA given my near total lack of artistic talent!

How do I find the time?

We all have busy lives and numerous work and non-work commitments and finding the time to do something extra is probably the biggest challenge (except for drawing cartoons). The different roles that I have done have required very different levels of commitment with respect to time, though, and the fact that they are different to my day-to-day job has meant that none of the roles have felt particularly burdensome. Of course, not everything is predictable and sometimes life has taken over but everyone understands this and the beauty of Council is it contains committed individuals who will step in to assist if asked.

The Vice-President/President-elect role has been a bit of an exception as it carries a greater number of commitments both within and externally, representing the Association. Following my election to the role, I took the opportunity to remove a PA from my job plan to improve my capacity for the additional BIA work. This probably wasn’t absolutely necessary but is something that I had been thinking about doing anyway and has meant that I have been able to absorb the additional work into the week much more easily. My Trust and team have been very supportive of my time in the role and this has also been key.

Prior to the pandemic and the ubiquity of Microsoft Teams, attendance at Council meetings was a challenge, requiring a request for external commitment leave to permit travel to Birmingham or London for the day. This is now much less of an issue, we have 4 Council meetings per year and the two in-person events are held to coincide with FIS and the Spring meeting with the other two meetings (typically in February and September) occurring via Teams. This does have the negative consequence that someone elected to take up a post in May doesn’t meet the rest of Council in the real world until November, but we have recently begun inviting new Council members to one of the monthly Principal Officers Teams meetings early in their tenure so that they can at least meet some of the team in a smaller “virtual room”.

What would be my advice to someone interested in getting involved with the BIA?

It would be worth speaking to the existing Council member regarding any position that you are interested in or any of the Principal Officers, including myself, who would be happy to share their insights. Also speak to your team at work to tell them that you are interested. Trusts should be supportive of your involvement in national level work and it has benefits both in terms of your personal development and insight into wider issues relevant to your work.

If  still uncertain, why not ask about opportunities to join one of our committees such as Clinical Service, guidelines or the Educational Subcommittee to get a better flavour of the Association’s work?

As is probably clear from the above, though, my involvement in BIA has been a real highlight of my career so far and my advice would therefore be to “go for it”!