The first Annual Staff Meeting

The first Annual Staff Meeting as EISCAT AB took place second week of October. All EISCAT staff got together in Bjerkvik, Norway.

The software team took the opportunity to go a day early to focus on software development. The software team is spread across Sweden and even has a colleague in Japan (who did not attend this time). The annual meetings are one of the few occasions when everyone is in the same place and in the same time zone at the same time. The rest of the EISCAT staff joined on days two and three.

Talks and discussions

The most important thing about these meetings is to get a better picture of what is happening at the sites and in the different departments. The staff at Svalbard informed us about the latest developments in Svalbard. Both big and small things to deal with, such as snow clearing and cars.

In Tromsø, it is a little different. It is still water in pipes where there should be no water, and some paint work needs to be done. The future of the site was discussed, as the antennas are getting old. A few exciting research opportunities will arise when EISCAT 3D is up and running, so we need to plan accordingly.

From Kiruna’s side, our new CEO Philip, got to share his views of the future of EISCAT with all the staff. And most important everybody got to meet him. EISCAT is still in the phase of transitioning from the Scientific Association to the AB, and interesting topics and discussions poped up.

But we don’t just talk in these meetings, we also celebrate.

Celebrations

Pins for 2 and 5 years in the company are awarded to the employees who deserved them. Then one of us was celebrated for 40 years at EISCAT. That is really something.

And last but not least two retiring employees were thanked for their contributions to the company. One was with us for 31 years and the other for almost 40 years. Both will probably hang around for a while. Their knowledge are a tremendous loss for us, so we are very happy that we still can get some advice when needed.

Over all it was a very much needed meeting this year.