Eight Weeks to Associateship - Week 1

Welcome to the "Eight weeks to Associateship" series.

2010 is a great year to apply for an associateship. It's the 100th anniversary of LIANZA, and what better way to celebrate than by recognising your achievements and seeing how far you've come?

The aim of this series is to break the process of applying for an associateship up into easy chunks, a little bit each week. You may also want to find yourself a buddy or mentor (maybe your manager, another applicant, or a person who has their associateship already). It's always good to have someone to bounce ideas off.

Week 1: Gathering yourself

There are three tasks to do this week:

1. Read through the associateship documentation


2. Start assembling your evidence


3. Decide on your referees

Step 1: Read the documentation
The application process is well documented on the LIANZA website. Have a good read of the definition and requirements to make sure you fulfil the criteria, as well as reading the Information and Application form to see what kind of information you need to supply (you may want to read this one twice!) Also take a look at the Guidelines for Referees - this should help you choose who you'd like as your referees.

Step 2: Assemble your evidence
Evidence here is not just the 'publications' that you might include with your application, but also the documents that will jog your memory as you write everything up. That could include your CV (new and old), job descriptions, performance reviews, certificates or notes from training courses, as well as documents that you've written in the course of your job. During the week, keep a notebook next to your desk and jot down any other 'evidence' that comes to mind, for example committees you've been on, awards from inside or outside your institution, achievements you've been particularly proud of, and so on.

3. Choose your referees
The associate application requires reports from three referees. Think about who might be suitable as you're reading the Guidelines for Referees, and choose these early on. You may want to approach them first to explain the process and see if they are willing. The referees reports have a later deadline than the associateship application, but do make sure that you give them plenty of time to write up the report.

While the first week requires a bit of hunting around for documents and brainstorming, next week we'll get into the nitty gritty of addressing the Application Form - one step at a time!