Edinburgh CRF Genetics Team Away Day 2019 – Kirstie Morrice
Spring has sprung here at the Edinburgh Clinical Research Facility and at the Genetics Core excitement grows as that means it’s time for another Team Away Day. Can you hear the groans as the thought of Team Building resonates through the laboratory? Alas! What a great day it was.
Similar to last year, the day was kicked off with a morning session held at 50 George Square. As we all poured into the conference room, Lee Murphy, Genetics Core Manager, was there to offer us an introduction for the day ahead. Following the introduction Lee moved on to the Review of the Year. Here we saw figures from last year; e.g. number of extractions, number of sequencing runs, comparing to the last five years. Busy, busy, busy! One of the main things taken away from this part of the morning was, as a Core we are constantly adapting and growing.
As Lee wrapped up his review, Angie Fawkes, Deputy Core Manager, started her session on training. This allowed the team to put pen to paper and write their individual training needs. Very cleverly timed by management as our Annual Reviews are fast approaching; what a great way to help us plan our development for the year to come. During this training session we worked both individually and discussed as a team how training would help further not only individual development but the Genetics Core as a whole. Before the final part of the morning session, we took some time to stretch our legs and grab a coffee! The sun was still shining so we took that time to sit outside and discuss how the morning session had unfolded. All the while, representing our Gold Sustainability Award in the form of our sustainable coffee cups. I had to squeeze that in somewhere; what an achievement!
The final session of the morning was led by Genetics Core Manager, Lee Murphy. Here, Lee had us think and talk strategy! For us, individually, what is the Genetics Core’s mission, purpose, where do we see the core in 6 months? 5 years? This allowed everyone to reflect back on their time within the Core and the changes they have seen, how much the purpose and mission changed over the years and what progression people envisage for the Core.
Following our productive morning session we wandered along to our lunch venue for the day; Mono Restaurant on South Bridge, where we were joined by one of our Core Directors; David Porteous.
After a very delightful meal, the company wasn’t too bad either, we made our way back towards the Anatomical Museum for our afternoon tour. We were greeted by our tour guide, Ruth, and shown around the building before making our way to the top floor, here, we were allowed to roam inspecting all the items on displays. This ranged from face masks for Phrenology studies, body parts in jars and skeletons. No photography is allowed in the museum, but we did manage a team photo beside the elephant skeletons!
As our day was coming to a close we regrouped at 56 North for a Gin and Tonic, a very refreshing end to the day.
A massive thank you to Angie and Lee for organising the day, as a new member to the team it was a great way to learn more about the Core’s history and future!
Kirstie Morrice is a sample processing technician working at the Genetics Core. Kirstie enjoys staying active with yoga, bouldering and walking Munros around Scotland. Kirstie can be contacted at kirstie.morrice@ed.ac.uk.
Reposted from Edinburgh CRF Genetics Core Blog.
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