What Does it Actually Mean for SRAI to “be the Premier Global Research Management Society?” | by Mark Hochman
What does it mean to be the Premier Global Research Management Society? It's more than being the biggest! In this article Mark Hochman suggests it’s about our reach - the breadth and diversity of our members, the significance of our offerings and the opportunities for individuals to grow.
SRAI’s vision is to be “the Premier Global Research Management Society.” As the Society begins developing its next strategic plan, it is timely to ask, “what does this actually mean?” It means different things to different people, but it’s more than just being the biggest! In this article I want to share what I think this statement means, what it means to me personally and thoughts to develop this vision.
To give you the summary up front, I think being the Premier Society is a combination of three things:
- Our reach – the breadth and diversity of our members
- Our significance – our ability to innovate and meet the changing needs of members
- Our opportunities for individuals to continually learn and grow
I’ll talk about these in reverse order!
Opportunity for individuals to learn and grow: I grew up in a small town in northern Australia – the first in my family to complete university, and where I progressed through to a PhD in science. Like many of us I fell into research administration – an office of one person! Me! Over the next 20 years the office grew to 40 people, and I grew with it as the Director. This gave me a great “on the ground” perspective of issues in research administration as well as management and leadership issues.
I decided to get more heavily involved with SRAI in 2011 because of its global reach. By saying “yes” as a volunteer, I have been Co-Chair of the Orlando Annual Meeting (2012), President of the International Section (2013/14), Chair of the Governance Committee (2013-2015), and Co-Chair of EPDC since 2014. I have been able to reach across international boundaries and helped organise the inaugural SRAI/Australasian Research Management Society conference on Disruptive Trend in Research Management (2019). I’ve been Distinguished Faculty since 2015 and was awarded SRAI’s Herbert B. Chermside Award in 2019. I hope I am an example for individuals to learn and grow and I want to ensure the same opportunities for others.
Our significance: Being the Premier Global Research Management Society involves being the most innovative and the most responsive to member’s needs – being a Society that is professional enables members to continually learn and to be proud of their membership.
In terms of being innovative, my greatest satisfaction comes from chairing the task force that resulted in the LevelUP program. This has set SRAI apart from other Societies and gives us the platform along with other education programs (training intensives, webinars, coffee talks) to meet needs of individual members. We now need to expand this program to include management and leadership modules that enable all our members, US and International, to establish individual career progression pathways.
Our reach: We reach a much broader group of research administrators than any other Society – internationally, and in the US through our Divisions. My desire is that we develop programs so that research administrators in diverse settings and from education, hospitals, government, commercial and international backgrounds see SRAI as the “go-to place” to meet their development needs.
As we progress in these three areas, SRAI will be the Premier Global Research Management Society!
Authored by Mark B. Hochman
Director
Research Management Resources
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