Given that our group has been growing significantly over the last years, annual group retreats are the ideal occasion to get to know each other better and talk about important topics that don’t necessarily find their way in usual working days. So, just recently, we spent a whole day at a beautiful little farm in the outskirts of Amsterdam called “Bomen op Locatie”. Surprisingly, the weather turned out to be amazing, even close to the end of the year, even in the Netherlands.
While the whole village was still asleep, our arrival at the farm was immediately recognized by one of two little pigs that live a happy life on a huge field attached to the farm.
We started our program with one hour of practicing elevator pitches of five minutes per person. The topic was free of choice. Most of us chose an outreach setting, where our group turned into an audience completely unrelated to astronomy. In the end, we spent quite some time on critical mutual feedback, which we all felt as being extremely enriching.
Before the retreat, we collected a number of topics that we wanted to talk about. As you can see on the program in the above picture, I really mean a number of topics. For instance, we discussed academic issues such as the role and responsibilities of co-authors on publications and proposals, collaborating in general, or how to communicate in- and outside of our work environment. Also, many in academia struggle a lot with proper time management. You may sympathize with the fact that the freedom one enjoys in academia can also be a burden. We therefore tried to collect ways to handle this. How can we for instance increase our efficiency, and at the same time attend various meetings, maintain a broad overview also over the literature, and remain competitive by publishing enough papers? Clearly, nearly every researcher struggles with these issues as an individual. We tried to address them as a working group, which helped a lot.
After this exhausting morning, we really enjoyed having lunch. Discussions drifted more towards relaxing topics and the view out of the renovated shelter that you can see on the picture was rather beautiful. I could spend some more paragraphs to describe the amazing and clearly over-average food that was prepared for us. I had to realize quickly that “lunch” in the Netherlands usually means “some bread with a slice of cheese, sometimes with butter and chocolate sprinkles”.
Well fed and motivated, we went back to the meeting room, prepared some delicious coffee for everyone, and continued discussing especially mental health issues. Of course this is an important one, as in research, there is no one telling you when you can afford a break. How can we mitigate stress, how stimulate a better work/life balance? We can’t just have a retreat every week. Also, how can we be better aware of ourselves, discover who we are and want to be, how can we feel more confident of our qualities?
One step is of course to appreciate what the Netherlands provides everywhere: nature, sheep, and different shades of green. See, how this put a smile on our faces:
I can really speak for our whole group, if I am saying that we all learned a lot from each other on this day. This all starts with being aware that we are not alone with issues piling up at work. And it ends with us talking openly about these. We are a very diverse group with members from different backgrounds, so learning from each other was especially fruitful. Clearly, we left this little farm more confident and more as a group instead of a number of individuals.
And because caring is sharing we even had the same bikes. Except of four, two of which even brought helmets!
