The CIPA Informals, a network for trainee patent attorneys, have been doing a lot of work to improve the wellbeing support available to their members. They’ve established a Welfare and Wellbeing tab on their website, and appointed a Welfare Officer, Jonathan Foster. Another fabulous new project is their “Wellbeing Coffee Club”, which they’re now kindly opening to other trainee IP professionals. Jonathan and his colleague Kathryn Taylor (the Informals’ Blog, Website & Social Media Editor) tell us more.
They write:
The Informals Wellbeing Coffee Club is a chance to have an informal (and virtual) coffee break with other trainees around the UK. While doing this, we also try to promote discussion around different health and wellbeing topics each time.
The Wellbeing Coffee Club was primarily aimed at trainee patent attorneys, but is open to all; especially those training and working in trade marks.
Each Coffee Club will last just 30 minutes, with a quick intro in the main room, followed by two 10-minute conversation sessions in breakout rooms with 2–3 other trainees, and a quick round-up at the end. Each Coffee Club will have a rough topic for people to discuss, such as coping with the darker days, dealing with stress, work/life balance etc, but ultimately, it’s up to each group what they want to talk about.
The next Wellbeing Coffee Club meeting will be on Thursday 1 April, at 3 pm. Please add this to your calendars so you don’t forget! Click here to request a calendar invitation that will add the whole series into your calendar, without any hassle!
If you have any suggestions for questions or topics to discuss in Wellbeing Coffee Club, please let us know. Meanwhile you can read our report of the first event here.
On a personal note, we are delighted that so many people have been coming to and enjoying Wellbeing Coffee Club (we got some great feedback from attendees), and we are really looking forward to the next one!
Editor’s note
IP Inclusive is grateful to the Informals for working with us on a joint masterclass, “Taking back control & redefining failure”, on 16 March 2021. This gave valuable advice on coping with exam-related stress, which is likely to be helpful to pretty much all trainees. We’ll be publishing a report and recording of the event soon.
Page published on 17th March 2021
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