7 February 2017, 3.30 pm
Mr Davies, Mr Lampert, the Onssek and I go looking at potential new offices, for when CIPA moves house. The Onssek’s job is to make sure each premises has somewhere we can hold Council meetings. This is a Very Important Job. Mr Davies’s job is to give the impression that at least one of us knows what we are talking about: in order to do this, he has brought with him his special taser-powered Length Measuring Means. The illusion is shattered somewhat by the mad hat, and also by the fact that the taser is running out of batteries. Mr Lampert is in charge of the artistic side of things, for example Natural Light and Karma. I am not in charge of anything. So I do crucial stuff like checking there is a phone signal and counting the number of toilets. All three of the properties we look at are incredibly empty, which is lucky, because it will be easier for us to move in that way. We have to use our imaginations about how we would divide the space to fit CIPA’s purposes, ie so as to provide somewhere to hold Council meetings and somewhere to put the board of Past Presidents. Mr Davies bounces around tasering the skirting boards and talks about namby-pamby things like open plan workstations and demountable partitions. Inspired by what he sees in an adjacent, occupied floor of one building, he decides that we are going to have elegant curvy partitions, and hot-desking booths with comfortable chairs and a "coffee-shop feel". You might just about get away with the hot-desking booths, I think to myself, but good luck getting Council’s permission for a non-rectilinear floor plan.
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7 February 2017, 12.30 pm
I say my goodbyes to Unlucky Gary. It is a sad moment. We agree to keep in touch. I think it will comfort him to hear what is going on at CIPA; it will remind him how lucky he is to have escaped, which will help him to settle in better at the new place. It does not seem two years since Gary joined CIPA. A lot has happened. Unfortunately, the lot that has happened has still not included making Council meetings more fun, or more efficient, despite our best efforts. I now look much older than I used to, by roughly a decade. Unlucky Gary does not look any older. But I suspect he sighs more than he used to, and he used to sigh a lot even at the start. Mr Davies is busy briefing his new PA. He has worn his mad hat today, specially, so that she is under no illusions about what she has let herself in for. In front of them is a sheet of paper with the heading “Council” on it. I cannot see what the new PA has written, but I doubt Mr Davies will have told her the whole truth on her second day in the job. She will see for herself soon enough. 7 February 2017, 10 am
At our third annual diversity round table, we talk about what IP Inclusive is going to do in 2017. One of our intentions is to get a more formal and transparent and accountable structure, because it is no good having one person in control of everything, especially if that one person is a mad woman. The only trouble is that nobody else has time to organise the more formal and transparent and accountable structure, so it is going to have to be organised by the mad woman anyway. Which kind of defeats the object. Thus, a great deal of what IP Inclusive is going to do in 2017 boils down to what I am going to do in 2017. The people round the table are most helpful, and also most definite, with their suggestions, as though IP Inclusive were a machine you can programme to get on with things during the night while you sleep. It is like when Council members decide we should have better biscuits and then wait for the Biscuit Pixies to be psychic. I think they are missing the point when I say I. Do. Not. Have. Any. More. Free. Time. I take notes about the things I have been told to do, and hope that I can get in touch with the Diversity Pixies when I get home. 6 February 2017
I speak on the phone with a very senior patent attorneyette who is passionate about supporting Women in IP. She says we must get more women into senior roles. This sounds reasonable. She says: But first, women have got to put themselves forward for the senior roles, and not just stand back saying they are not sure they are up to it. She says: Men never worry about whether or not they are up to it, so why should we? So, she says, women must persuade other women to stand for senior positions and accept speaking slots and take on new challenges. Although this also sounds reasonable, on one level, on another level it sounds a little bit scary. Still, having myself been persuaded to stand for the role of CIPA Pee when I was convinced I was not up to it, and indeed quite a few other people were convinced I was not up to it too, and having subsequently discovered that the senior ranks of the world are, after all, full of people who are not up to it but do not seem to be losing any sleep over the fact, perhaps the senior patent attorneyette has a point. So, for those women who are nervous about putting themselves forward for something they think they are not up to, here are some questions you should ask yourself, to help convince you to take the plunge.
Remember, ladies, you do not need to build your CV before you take on important roles. You build your CV using the important roles. This is a crucial piece of advice, gleaned from many years of looking at senior men and wondering how on earth they happened. |
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