The ISSUP team held a three-day staff meeting in Poole, UK from 10 -12 March 2020.
It was great to get the whole team together to share and discuss new ideas for engaging members, making it easier for people to take part in ISSUP, and future training provision for substance use prevention, treatment and recovery care professionals worldwide.
A key focal point of the meeting was conducting a detailed review of our work plan for the next twelve months including preparations for the 2021 ISSUP Annual Meeting in Abu Dhabi (now postponed until 2022 due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions)..
We reflected on how to enhance and further develop the ISSUP Expert Days series and we hope to pilot some dedicated skills development sessions soon. Ideas for new website features were also explored including the roll-out of badges for member profiles and the translation of the site into Arabic and French over the next twelve months.
The National Chapters team provided an update on the work that they have undertaken in the past months and presented the activities and events that are planned for this year. We have seventeen established National Chapters, six in the process of becoming formally established, and have selected eight new countries for next year.
We know our amazing members would love to show when they are supporting us, so we are very excited to announce plans to launch a new range of ISSUP merchandise later in the year!
Finally, no ISSUP team meeting would be complete without a staff challenge! The team was split into pairs and set the task of building the tallest structure they could make in ten minutes, using only whole wheat pasta and marshmallows. Jack and Livia destroyed the competition with their prize-winning entry pictured in the gallery below.
Gallery
