Faculty Hard At Work

Congregation, the act of conferring our degrees upon successful associates, is clearly the highlight of the week. But days before graduands and their guests assemble for the happy event, faculty from around the world take the opportunity to meet, exchange informations, share learnings and discusss ways to even further increase cooperation between a faculty team that covers all corners of the globe. In this picture alone we have faculty members and registry staff from Finland, Singapore, New Zealand and England!

Work Hard, Get To Go To The Pub As A Reward

Preparing for Congregation is hard work. Starting the day before the event with one's preparations is not recommended. A smooth event on the day requires weeks of planning and even then, s*** happens.
Three days out, the combined Auckland/Buckingham team of (from left) Deputy Registrar Kathryn, Registrar Debbie and Bursar Sylvia are relaxed enough to take the Dean down to the pub - where it is lemonades all around and a real ale for the writer!

Breakfast @ Villiers

The days leading up to Congregation created an opportunity for Gordon Prestoungrange and the writer to formalise IMCA's management plans for 2010 and beyond. After a hearty breakfast that luckily did not include kippers, Drs Prestoungrange and Maurer sealed their agreement with initials, signatures, a handshake and this photograph taken by the Younger of Prestoungrange.

No Rest For The Wicked

Each year the Chancellor presents IMCA's high achievers with special prizes at Congregation. Unfortunately, these prizes do not clean themselves prior to Congregation! Muscle power, pink gloves and a toothbrush were called for when Bursar Sylvia Burgess (right) and Registrar Debbie Woods (left) got serious about getting the prizes ready for the engraver.

Ah well, time for a quick photo and then off to the pub in case the two of them came up with a job for me as well!

Just back from 2009 Congregation in Oxford

I haven't shaken the jetlag entirely yet, but I am sufficiently awake to start processing my Oxford experiences.

IMCA's 2009 Congregation took place on Saturday, 5 September, at the Oxford Examination Schools.

Over the next few days, I will be posting comments and photographic images relating to the event itself as well to the graduands' workshop on Friday, 4 September and the meeting of our Common Professional and Academic Board on Thursday, 3 September. Both these events were held at New College, Oxford. Graduands and faculty present came from the Uk itself, as well as from Finland, Vanuatu, Barbados, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, the USA, Canada, Malaysia, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.