REC workshops program

[picardis]

I would like to start an official program for offering workshop to RECs and other off-site locations (any UF institute out of Gainesville. Listed here: https://research.ifas.ufl.edu/main-menu-tab/about-us/research-facilities/).

I think a good start would be to make sure there is a workshop offered every year in one off-site location. With last year's at FLREC and this year's at TREC, we are on track for this medium-term goal. On the long run, we may want to aim for one workshop every semester, rotating between locations (conditional on student turnover rate at RECs). Hopefully this goal will become more achievable as people start to get involved locally.

To make this official, I'll come up with a name for the program and we can add a page to our website describing the program and its mission. Anything else you think I could do to promote it? For example a logo, or a twitter account, or some other advertising channel? Or maybe an event or an official communication to launch the program?

Any ideas are welcome!

[stuckyb]

This is a great idea, @picardis . As we discussed at the meeting, all (?) of these off-site locations are run by IFAS, so they would be the primary institutional beneficiaries of this program. Would it be too early to start discussing this idea with IFAS personnel to gauge their long-term interest and potential support? For instance, it would be really helpful if they could commit to help cover some travel expenses for instructors who facilitate these workshops so that we don't have to self-fund this through travel awards (which I don't think is exactly the intention of the travel awards, anyway).

[gklarenberg]

@stuckyb So I am not exactly sure how IFAS is structured, but I know Jeanna Mastrodicasa quite well (Associate Vice President for Operations). I could see if she's willing to meet with us to at least get a conversation started?

[picardis]

Sounds good! How about we contact her after the holidays? I'm thinking I would like to come up with a name for the program (I've been calling it REC Carpentries program in my head) and maybe add something about it on our website so that we can go and talk to IFAS with something a little more official-looking in hand. Also we should probably discuss among us what we want our strategy to be for this program - aiming to involve people locally so that the REC communities become not only recipients but also an active component of how the program is run, vs. keeping support from Gainesville as a major component. The need for travel funding would shift accordingly. I personally think that using the program as an attempt to promote local community building has an added value compared to just delivering workshops. In that case we could maybe think of other needs for funding that might get priority. However, we might still need some help from Gainesville until things are fully fledged. Either way, something I would like to discuss with everyone.

[stuckyb]

@gklarenberg and @picardis -- All sounds great to me. If we have an "in" with Jeanna, that is probably a great place to start. And I agree that initiating this after the holidays would make the most sense.

[gaurav]

I think the plan was to modify our charter to explicitly list this as one of the responsibilities of the outreach board member. Is that right? Should we create a new page on our website to document this program?

[ha0ye]

I think the plan was to modify our charter to explicitly list this as one of the responsibilities of the outreach board member. Is that right? Should we create a new page on our website to document this program?

My recollection was that the charter doesn't dictate our "day to day" operations so much as our governance structure. This distinction makes sense in allowing our charter to remain as a more rigid and codified document, while our operations can adapt more flexibly to the need for workshops, events, etc.

Codifying our workshop (and other) obligations in terms of annual objectives list would work to meet the need to write down what we want to do, and facilitate reporting to sponsors.

[picardis]

Finally drafted a blurb for the REC program to put on our website! Here is a draft, please feel free to comment and edit:

The Carpentries REC Program (CaRP)

In 2018, the UF Carpentries Club launched the Carpentries REC Program (CaRP) to facilitate exchanges between the main campus in Gainesville and Research and Education Centers (REC) across the State.

In case you did not know that, UF has 17 off-main campus facilities outside of Gainesville, 12 of which are RECs and 5 Research and Demonstration Sites (including 2 Biological Stations). Just like the main campus, these facilities have faculty members, staff, and graduate students. But grad student life at a REC is a whole different story than grad student life in Gainesville: both curricular and extra-curricular learning opportunities are limited, and because only a small number of people are employed at each facility, students at RECs miss out on the possibility to have frequent interactions with many different peers and faculty like students in Gainesville can do. This is what sparked our interest in launching an exchange program: by offering Carpentries workshops at different RECs across the State and bringing students from RECs to Gainesville to become trained as instructors, we hope to expose off-main campus students to valuable learning and professional development opportunities. The program is also a way to raise awareness among Gainesville students about RECs: we found that many on main campus are not even aware that these facilities exist and are an active part of the UF community.

We officially launched the CaRP in April 2018 by offering a Data Carpentry workshop at the Fort Lauderdale REC. The staff involved four instructors/helpers, of which 2 from FLREC, one from the Tropical REC in Homestead, and one from Gainesville. After that successful first experience, we offered another workshop in 2019 at the Tropical REC, this time with a team of all REC-based instructors. We plan to continue to offer one workshop per year in a different REC location in upcoming years.

Due to both the location and mission of RECs, which is strongly focused on extension, workshops held in these facilities are also great opportunities for outreach. So far, besides UF students, we also trained 27 students or professionals from neighboring universities and federal agencies, including USGS, USDA, USFWS, Nova Southeastern University, Florida Atlantic University, and Florida International University.

Starting in 2020, the CaRP will be sponsored by the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. Thanks to the generous support of IFAS, we will be able to cover travel of 2 certified Carpentries instructors from Gainesville to an REC for our annual CaRP workshop and travel of 2 REC-based students to Gainesville to attend our annual instructor training workshop in Gainesville.

Each year, in our annual Board elections, we elect an Outreach Board Member who is responsible of managing activities of the CaRP. This Board position was created to ensure long-term continuity of the program so that the UF Carpentries Club can continue to promote interactions among different institutes in the UF community.

[picardis]

This could be the official logo :rofl: : https://www.onthewater.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/LongIsland-Carp.jpg