3a – Part 1 - Current Professional Networks.

As someone who is currently working within a few areas as part of my professional practice I discovered that in all I have 5 separate networks. Where others have found that their networks may overlap, at the moment I think my areas are a little diverse and so there aren’t really as yet many connections between them. The diagram below is a visual representation of my networks. 

At the moment I have 3 current areas of work, I work within schools as a support to the teaching of creative and active subjects, I teach ballet classes for a local dance school for children and I am a support worker, working with adults with learning disabilities enabling them to engage with the community and access creative and active pastimes.

My other two networks are around the BAPP programme and also my personal support network, of family, friends, and previous teachers and employers that have an impact on my life.

I have taken the idea for my second diagram from the information in Alan's blog  "Mapping our professional networks"  in which he shared an article by Christopher Butler about logging the frequency with which we connect to those in our networking circles "mapping your network" . How often I connect with my networks I think is an important aspect, a network is only useful if you are engaging with it regularly, regular contact means regular sharing of ideas and opportunities for new work, improvement of our current practices, and a way of measuring our progress through reflection from others. 

Those that appear closest to me in this diagram are the people that are currently directly linked with in my working life, people that are having an impact on my professional practice daily, give me feedback and support on how to move forward and improve, or by being the people that allow me to do my job, my students and their families, this to me must be my most important network, as they are the people I work with or for.

The people further away from me that I connect with less regularly are either people who have impacted on my working life but perhaps are no longer such a regular influence, such as previous teachers or employers. These people are still very important to me, and although I do not now rely on them regularly the network is still important as it is access to more sources of information, or potential work as they are aware of my practice.

Also of great importance are those in my more extended network who I would like to work with more, I would see these as people who I am trying to introduce into my closer network, as I am aware that it may hold opportunities for me. An example of this is external agencies that I have some contact with; I am very interested in creative therapies as yet I have not had the opportunity to explore this further, I have professionals in this area as part of my network which mean I can work in making more regular contact and search out possibilities for further education or work.

The people that we have in our networks are there for a reason, there must be something in the relationship for both parties and I feel that this is something to bear in mind. The frequency with which we connect can mean that these people stay with us or do not, this will always be fluid as we change jobs, or roles and we need to stay connected and be available to those who are most important to keep those relationships alive, maintaining networks is vital.