There are lots of professional communities at Oxford so explore the Professional Communities Directory to find out more about them.
If you’re unable to find a professional community that supports your profession, role or work-related field of interest, why not consider involving colleagues with similar interests and set one up?
Some of the key questions you’ll need to consider when starting a new community include:
- Who is the community for?
- What are the initial priorities for the community? How will members benefit from taking part?
- How does the new community fit with existing professional communities?
- How will the community reflect Professional Services Together’s principles of people, quality and collaboration?
- Who will help you set this community up?
- How will you reach out to and attract potential members to your new community?
- Would the community benefit from the support of a senior leader as sponsor?
People and Organisational Development (POD) has developed two toolkits to support staff with setting up new professional communities:
The Professional Networks Toolkit
Provides guidance on setting up a community to connect staff around a shared area of interest.
Staff may work in significantly different roles but share a common interest or responsibility which they would benefit from sharing information or good practice.
Examples of networks include the FM Forum Network.
Go to the Professional Networks Toolkit
The Communities of Practice Toolkit
Provides guidance on setting up a professional community to connect staff that share a particular profession, role and similar work-related activities.
Existing examples of Communities of Practice (CoP) include the Executive/ Personal Assistant CoP and the Oxford Video Makers CoP.
Typically, communities of practice offer more opportunities for their members to solve common challenges and work on joint projects to improve efficiency and quality than networks.
Go to the Communities of Practice Toolkit
In all cases, if you are interested in setting up a new professional community, please contact POD for advice and support on next steps.
