Renewal funding - Departmental support

[justinmillar]

Currently the funding for UF's Gold Membership to The Carpentries is being fully supported by just a few parties. In order to make this burden more equitable, we need to seek support from other departments/individuals who have benefited from our activities.

To-do list:

• [x] Define what were are looking for in support commitment
• [x] Decide what we what to offer to supporting members
• [ ] Meet with the current supporting members to determine needs moving forward
• [x] Identify departments to approach

[gklarenberg]

I think Ag & Bio Engineering might be a good fit. They offer a certificate in Biological Systems Modeling, and a number of courses that require R (or other programming languages), and I feel a lot of these classes would work better for a lot of people if they've had some Data or Software Carpentry classes. However, not sure what the time line would be since the Chair just resigned on May 1st, and there is no replacement yet. I'm quite sure that the Interim Chair would be supportive but I doubt he'll be in a position to make long-term decisions like this. Also - is there a list somewhere of current membership and the support they provide?

[ha0ye]

After some lengthy discussion at the most recent meeting, some actionable items:

• [x] Contact Ethan White to see what his preferred level of commitment is for the future and his thoughts on sustainability. (@mjcollin may have notes from his previous meeting with Ethan about this subject)
• [x] Get list of workshop participants and waitlisted participants to identify departments who may be interested in supporting UF Carpentry in exchange for reserved spots / other benefits?
• [x] Get board together to discuss what kind of benefits we can offer
• [ ] Collect data (where possible) on benefits to participants of the workshops (selling point for above)
• [x] Contact Dan Maxwell at the library as a possible central POC for Carpentry membership.

[stuckyb]

To further summarize yesterday's meeting, we discussed several ideas re: benefits of sponsorship. Options include one or more of:

• Sponsor departments get a guaranteed number of workshop seats. These guaranteed seats could also be at a discounted (or free) rate.
• Sponsor departments get a discounted rate for workshop seats.
• Sponsor departments get a guaranteed number of instructor training workshop seats.

There was a general consensus that either of the first two options would be easier to sell than the last, simply because the benefits are probably more obvious for most departments (i.e., departments need people with certain skills more than they need certified Carpentries instructors).

If I am forgetting anything, please add it.

[ha0ye]

Thanks @stuckyb.

re: instructor training workshop seats -- if we could get it recognized as replacing one of the standard TA trainings, that is a slight incentive. There's also the job Tracy mentioned as wanting Carpentry instruction experience: https://jobs.illinois.edu/search-jobs/job-details?jobID=94272&job=research-it-training-specialist-office-of-the-cio-a1800271

Though that supposes that a department is incentivized to help their students with job prospects...

[mjcollin]

Draft email for departments in progress at this Google doc:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p5PCwEB0OKm4o-LDIQWKFBYchhcYf8T8cRtkpbRNwmc/edit?usp=sharing

(email me your gmail account to get edit access)

[mjcollin]

iDigBio is offering $3750 in support for the membership as well.

[stuckyb]

One other thought here re: convincing departments that carpentries is a valuable investment for them. Would it be worthwhile to try to find some comparable, commercially offered workshops, and see how much they cost per seat? That might make it pretty obvious that 6 guaranteed seats for $1,500 is bargain.

[ha0ye]

@stuckyb, some examples:

• 7-day workshop, ecology & R (252 CAD for locals, 795 CAD for non-locals)
• 14-day workshop, bioinformatics & Python (850 US)
• 4-day workshop, ecology & R (480 euros)
• 1-day workshop, stats & R (100 US)
• 5-day workshop, bioinformatics & Python (150 euros)

[Cactusolo]

Good thoughts guys! These are really convincing examples!

If their students got trained outside UF, could be pay even more, considering travel and accommodation。

Hao Ye notifications@github.com 于2018年6月20日周三 下午4:06写道：

@stuckyb https://github.com/stuckyb, some examples:

• 7-day workshop, ecology & R (252 CAD for locals, 795 CAD for non-locals) http://poisotlab.io/springschool/
• 14-day workshop, bioinformatics & Python (850 US) http://ivory.idyll.org/dibsi/
• 4-day workshop, ecology & R (480 euros) https://www.transmittingscience.org/courses/statistics-and-bioinformatics/r-without-fear-applied-r-biologists/
• 1-day workshop, stats & R (100 US) https://www.lacawac.org/r-workshop.html
• 5-day workshop, bioinformatics & Python (150 euros) http://www.prinformatics.com/course/introduction-to-python-for-biologists-ipyb05/

— You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/UF-Carpentry/Coordination/issues/24#issuecomment-398879406, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AHczAKgXSxoW87o7rDuO1dH1d9PLOnzlks5t-qtHgaJpZM4TiV6S .

-- Dr. Miao Sun Tel: 352 (284) 0928 Email: cactus@ufl.edu Solti Lab, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida Dickinson Hall, 1659 Museum Rd, PO. Box 117800, Gainesville, FL 32611-7800, USA.

[stuckyb]

Thanks, @ha0ye -- that was some fast research! Some of those are run by academic entities (examples 1, 2, and 4), so it's a little hard to tell where they fall on the academic <-> commercial spectrum; I would expect academically-affiliated offerings to be less expensive. That said, I will admit that I am surprised by how inexpensive some commercial courses are. E.g., the 5-day workshop from PRInformatics is only 150 euro, which one could argue is a better value than our workshops (evaluated purely on a cost-per-day basis with no regard to content or delivery). As @Cactusolo pointed out, though, none of these workshops would be on-site and so would require additional travel/lodging expenses.

[mjcollin]

Pam from the Biodiversity Institute also says they'll continue their support.

[ha0ye]

I've added my notes on the google doc email draft.

[KristinaRiemer]

I also added a couple of comments to the draft.

[ha0ye]

Some notes from the mothership: https://github.com/carpentries/commons/blob/master/carpentries-one-pager.md

[stuckyb]

And I added some comments and additional content. Nice work on this, all -- I think we are getting close.

[KristinaRiemer]

I added a couple of small edits, I think this is looking good!

[stuckyb]

Okay, so the person to contact in Biology is Marta Wayne: https://biology.ufl.edu/mlwayne/. She is chair of the department.

[PunamA]

@stuckyb I will contact Marta via some of her students whom have taken the instructor training.

[mjcollin]

UFII will support, needs proposal #44

[mjcollin]

Hi Matt,

I am happy to fund for the coming yr at the requested amount of $3,750 the Carpentry Club.

best, George

[mjcollin]

Hi all,

Simona and I spoke with Eric Hellgren (WEC department chair) and he's committed to chipping in for a $1500 increment.

Best,

Hao Ye

[Cactusolo]

hooray!!! Great news!

On Fri, Jul 27, 2018 at 3:14 PM Matthew J Collins notifications@github.com wrote:

Hi Matt,

I am happy to fund for the coming yr at the requested amount of $3,750 the Carpentry Club.

best, George

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/UF-Carpentry/Coordination/issues/24#issuecomment-408513793, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AHczALQAx_pAKcTOPqtB6taGGOinIYSyks5uK2aUgaJpZM4TiV6S .

-- Dr. Miao Sun Tel: 352 (284) 0928 Email: cactus@ufl.edu Solti Lab, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida Dickinson Hall, 1659 Museum Rd, PO. Box 117800, Gainesville, FL 32611-7800, USA.

[mjcollin]

If anyone is planning on emailing a department to ask for support, today is a great day to do so!

[PunamA]

Hi all, sorry for the delay. I have sent out an email to Marta Wayne from the Department of Biology. cc'd @mjcollin into it :)

[gklarenberg]

Ag and Bio Engineering just had its new chair appointed. I think she might be interested. I can check with her about support (though I know that this week she's at our society's annual meeting). Do I use the email that's at the top here?

[mjcollin]

That email is a good start. Feel free to customize it if you want for the audience. There have been 8 people from that dept attend including 2 faculty.

[mjcollin]

"we are willing to contribute $1500 toward continuing the UF membership in the Carpentries Workshops. "

Doug @ FLMNH

[mjcollin]

This year is funded, closed in favor of #5