One less ball to juggle… Dropping an Editorial Board role

Three years ago I was appointed as an honorary member of the Editorial Board of the Australian Family Physician, the journal of the Royal Australian College of General Practice. This journal is widely read, mainly by GPs in Australia, but also by other medical specialties in Australia and overseas. I have published several papers in it and was once even contacted by a family friend of my father’s, someone I had never met, who had read my article.

The Editorial Board position involved quarterly teleconferences, on a Tuesday at 8pm, and initially this was certainly within my capabilities. However I then fell pregnant, had a baby, and enrolled in a PhD, and suddenly the one hour every three months was just a bit too much to juggle with everything else going on in life. During my last teleconference my toddler decided she did not want to go to bed, thank you very much, and poor hubby had to spend the hour placating her so that the teleconference would not be punctuated by wild screming. I declined the offer of continuing after my three year term was over and the lovely editor Carolyn O’Shea sent me a very nice letter of thanks – here it is.

I am not sure how many “balls” I can juggle but am relieved that there is one less little ball to catch.