At the end of May, the AMMRF team gathered on the Sunshine Coast for a strategic planning and outlooks meeting. It was the first such meeting since 2009 when we gathered in Fremantle. Our 2012 meeting was extremely positive with strong buy-in and participation from across the Facility’s nodes, Linked Laboratories and Linked Centres. One of the key issues that we discussed most enthusiastically, was the successful integration of our online training resource, MyScope (www.ammrf.org.au/myscope/) to many user-support activities. This online resource was developed with funding from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council to enhance the training of our current and potential future users. The applications of this wonderful project were far more diverse that originally anticipated, and approaches to integrating it further into our practice are continually arising.
Another particularly positive aspect of the meeting was our planning around future microscopy technologies based on the developments in the field and feedback from microscope users. This allows us to be primed and ready to seize funding opportunities when they arise.
The AMMRF leadership, and partiuclarly our board, is also working in earnest to define potential mechanisms that could enable the AMMRF to continue to operate out to a longer time-horizon. It is one thing to build up a facility such as ours, but quite another to ensure that it can sustain itself and flourish in the long-term. There is strong commitment to keep the team together and to continue to “go forth and magnify!”
October 5, 2012
