Celebrating ALT’s Trustees for #TrusteesWeek
It is Trustee’s Week, 6-10 November, and here at ALT, we are celebrating the invaluable work of our Trustees, past and present. ALT’s Trustees set ALT’s direction and are responsible for ALT’s strategy and the overall performance of the Association.
Trustees are an integral part of ALT’s governance and we celebrate and thank them for all they contribute to ALT.
Meet some of our current Trustees and learn what being a Trustee means to them.
Meet David Hopkins
David is the UK Director of Content Services for LearningMate.
How long have you been a Trustee at ALT?
I joined ALT at the beginning of my career as a Learning Technologist in 2007. From attending events and conversing with ALT members on LinkedIn and Twitter over the years I’ve taken a more active involvement, achieving my CMALT in 2013 and joining the group of CMALT assessors simultaneously. Being a committee member for several ALTC annual conferences over the years gave me an insight into the activities behind the scenes and, in 2022 I chose to put myself forward for the post of ALT Trustee and, alongside Puiyin Wong, joined the Board after the membership vote.
What made you become a Trustee?
Having an opportunity to take so much from ALT and the ALT membership over the years through conversations, meetings, tweets, etc has always meant I want to be able to give something back to the organisation and community, and becoming a Trustee was a logical next step for me.
What does being a Trustee mean to you?
A huge amount of trust has been put in me by the ALT community, to help guide their representative organisation, and this is something I take seriously. My activity with and through ALT over the years has enabled me to develop skills and knowledge, about myself and my capabilities, the roles I have had, and those I have worked with. Becoming a Trustee is a different direction but ultimately one that is enabling me to learn new things.
What have you learned about being a Trustee?
It’s still quite early days for me as an ALT Trustee, so I am still learning. I will say that I am very impressed with the governance that ALT operates, and have enjoyed the regular conversations the Trustees have.
What have you gained personally, if anything, from your experience as a Trustee?
I have gained quite a lot from being a Trustee of ALT, along with my previous role as a Trustee of Learn Appeal between 2015 and 2019. My development as a learning professional has seen me move into more senior roles, to my current one as Director of Content Services, and I believe my Trustee status has helped me demonstrate my abilities concerning these more senior roles through the application process.
Meet Puiyin Wong
Puiyin is the Digital Learning Producer at Central St. Martins, University of the Arts London
How long have you been a Trustee at ALT?
About a year, since 7 Sept 2022.
What made you become a Trustee?
The opportunity to represent our members and being able to support ALT with various projects and initiatives etc that leads the development and direction of travel for learning technology.
What does being a Trustee mean to you?
Having the confidence from our members that I can be a voice for the at the Board meetings. A year later, to date, I still get members coming to me to say they voted for me in the election. It’s been a very humbling experience. Also, the support network with the other Trustees and the ALT staff team, I have learnt a lot already.
What have you learnt about being a Trustee?
How important decisions that could affect a large number of people are made. How such a small but well organised team at ALT manages everything so well. Joining the “staff side”, I honestly thought ALT was a big team with dozens of people. So hats off to the hard working staff team! I am only too glad to have the opportunity to work with other Trustees to support what the staff team do.
What have you gained personally, if anything, from your experience as a Trustee?
I think I am probably the most junior person in terms of our day jobs among all the Trustees, so learning from others in Board meetings, leadership and strategic experience has been very valuable. Also, the friendships with other Trustees and the staff team has to be the absolute highlight! :-)
Meet Peter Bryant
Peter Bryant is Associate Dean (Education) and Professor of Business Education at the University of Sydney Business School (Australia).
How long have you been a Trustee at ALT?
Just over six years
What made you become a Trustee?
To help find new connections for ALT within our every expanding and changing community.
What does being a Trustee mean to you?
It means engaging, hearing and bringing together our community through outreach, research, practice sharing and connection.
What have you learnt about being a Trustee?
The challenges of finding commonality, the challenges of recognising our development, fracturing and expansions that came from the pandemic and how different we are from six years ago (and then how different we will be in six year’s time)
What have you gained personally, if anything, from your experience as a Trustee?
I was able to hold a lifeline to people, place and space that for three years felt a long way away (I live and work in Sydney, Australia). I was able to see that the work to support and engage students that we all do transverses the impacts of the crisis and the shrinking of our worlds.