Intro Routine at Our Sessions

[linamnt]

We talked a bit about having a consistent intro to our sessions at UofT Coders to get newcomers oriented and feel welcome, to remind people about our code of conduct, to plug our gitter channel for webinar style recordings etc. before we start into introductions.

I think it can be a valuable thing to have this opening routine but would like to hear your thoughts etc. We can of course rotate the Speaker at our sessions too.

Here's how I think it could be structured, feel free to add, edit things you think are important!

• Welcome everyone, and remind people what UofT Coders is (a student group aimed building a community for sharing programming skills for research, we hold weekly sessions, everyone welcome etc.)
• Thank MADLab for hosting us (Mobile App Development Lab, with 3D printers and VR Set)
• We have a Code of Conduct which can be found on our website
• Invite people to join our Gitter and post questions/comments during the lesson, and remind them to sign the attendance sheet
• If people would like to instruct or get involved, they can talk to the Intro Speaker.
• Lead into introductions, start with yourself and go around the room.

[mbonsma]

I really like this idea! I think it's fine to just mention that we have a code of conduct and it's in the studyGroup repo. (Should we add a link to it from the website directly?)

What do you think about also mentioning that if people are interested in teaching or getting involved in leadership to talk to the intro person?

The sequence you have above looks great.

[linamnt]

Ya that's a great idea re: instructing/getting involved!

The code of conduct is on the website at the bottom near the Mozilla logo, but we could make it more prominent.

[joelostblom]

Naturally, I think it is totally acceptable to discriminate both based on choice of operating system and text editor... Other than that I like your intro, great job!

Regarding CoC, maybe you can say something like "We're dedicated to providing a harassment-free/engaging/productive learning experience for everyone. Participants at our event are expected to follow the code of conduct available on our homepage, which essentially boils down to being respectful towards each other."

Also, does our CoC say "race"? Wouldn't it be clearer to use "ethnicity" instead?

[linamnt]

Ya that would work and is short and succinct.It does currently say "race" but we can change it.

Also along the lines of lesson timing etc, it's best maybe to do this about 6:05 or so depending on how many attendees there are (re: introductions)? It doesn't take too long (I timed myself and it's about 1-1 1/2 min depending how you say things) but then introductions can take a while to go around the room if we ever have 31 ppl in the audience again (woot!) and then the lesson can start promptly at 6:10.

[mbonsma]

Because I think the intros are so important, I would actually prefer to wait until 6:10 to start the introductions, that way most people will be included in them and people don't feel like they're barging in on something when they come on time.

[linamnt]

See #246 , we can reopen if we need to change the routine in the future :+1: