A New Start

Today is my first day as OPUS Director. I am excited to be taking on the role and looking forward to meeting and getting to know as many of you as possible in the coming months and years.

OPUS exists to promote understanding of society so it must always be looking outward and trying to make sense of the issues of the day. We should try to bring our distinctive way of thinking to bear on an even broader range of societal dynamics and we should also look for new ways to explain and promote what we uncover to those who are not of a psycho-social persuasion.

However, this is a moment when it is also appropriate to look inward. I want to know what you enjoy about OPUS but also what you think could be improved. As OPUS associates past or present, what’s in it for you? How could we improve our events, our conference, our training, our journal, our listening posts? What is missing – what should we be doing but are not? What other organisations can we learn from? What about our fees, our website, our payment arrangements, our administration, our organisational structure, our modes of communication? Please tell me what you regard as the best and the worst of OPUS, and what you think my priorities should be in the coming months.

I already have some thoughts of my own but, the more views I hear, the more reliable my diagnostic will be. I would like to report back on what you tell me, and perhaps organise a forum of some sort in which we can all continue these discussions together.

Finally, OPUS needs your support as well as your opinions. If you are currently undecided whether or not to renew your membership subscription, or to sign up for the conference, can I urge you to stay and join in with us but also not to be shy of telling me why your decision could have gone the other way. If it helps, we have just extended the ‘early bird’ period for reduced-price conference bookings until 14 August 2016 so please do book a place.

Thank you for helping to make OPUS such an interesting community. I am grateful for all your contributions to its success, both in word and deed, and will try to match them with my own.

Sandy Henderson