So long, and thanks for all the fish.....

The UCISA conference is over, and with it my term of membership of the Executive Committee, and the last two years as Chair. It's been a great time, I've thoroughly enjoyed it, but it has been hard work at times to fit everything else in, especially when you are invited to attend or chair so many other meetings as well. I'm very grateful to colleagues who covered for me and ran the department so well when I was away so much. I'm also grateful to all of the team in the UCISA office who have supported me so well, and the rest of the Exec who were a pleasure to work with.

During the past couple of years UCISA has continued to work on behalf of  all IT staff in Universities in the UK. In these challenging times we need more than ever to work together, to share best practise, and to make the views of our community known and listened to.  We've organised 25 events, including three multi-day conferences, recognised good practice by presenting awards, and producing resources for this community. During this year this final set of resources for ITIL in the HE community were published, as well as report on the Cost of IT Downtime.

 I'm also proud that we have extended our relationships with a number of other organisations, including the Finance Directors, Estates Directors, Heads of University Administration, as well as continuing our relationship with the Library community.  

UCISA relies very much on volunteers from the sector, and for people to be involved - the Groups orgaise many events including training days, seminars, conferences, there are best practice guides, toolkits and case studies to be written, and information to be collected. So, please get involved, attend the events, and use the resources available.

I'm looking forward to taking a back seat - and it was especially nice at this year's conference not to have to get up after the conference dinner and chair the early morning session!  That pleasure was my successor's, Tom Mortimer from the University of Dundee, to whom I wish lots of luck for leading UCISA through the next couple of years.