Outreach and planning for September - December

[mbonsma]

The new academic year is almost upon us! This issue is a place to discuss, plan, and share strategies and materials for getting the word out about the Study Group.

In June, many of you got an email from your department with a link to the repo and issue tracker and a link to this survey.

I also posted an announcement similar to the one below to the GSU mailing list which goes to all grad students:

Mozilla Study Group: Thursdays at 6 pm The Mozilla Science Lab has started a series of meetup groups for scientists and researchers to get together, share coding skills, and help each other out with the programming many have to do as part of research. Topics from across the spectrum of scientific computing are covered. The study group meets on Thursdays at 6:00 pm in MP408. To receive updates on future sessions, follow the UofTCoders Events repository on Github (https://github.com/UofTCoders/Events) or send an email to Madeleine at m.bonsma@mail.utoronto.ca

Questions for you:

1. What changes (if any) should be made to the survey?
2. What changes should be made to the email or GSU announcement?
3. What other avenues of communication should we explore?

PS. New meeting time for late September - December: fill out the Doodle poll!

[mbonsma]

Check out the Mozilla Study Group Handbook's outreach templates: one to get the word out, and one to call for instructors.

[bkatiemills]

Yes - and feel free to send me comments on those templates too! Would love to learn from how U of T is executing on this, and have your experience help shape the Handbook.

[abbycabs]

Sorry I missed the planning session, but have you looked at UofT's clubs day / street fest?

http://www.orientation.utsu.ca/#!clubs-registration/c6x0

This may be more frosh oriented than your audience, but I've always gotten a good amount of contacts there.

[mbonsma]

That's a great idea!

[lwjohnst86]

At this point we won't be able to do the Club's day because we are not a recognized UofT group. Only those who are recognized can register to be part of the club's day. Given the timeline, it might not be feasible this year to do it, but later years we should definitely do this.

[mbonsma]

Agreed. If anyone is interested in helping with recognition and funding applications, check out issue #6.

[abbycabs]

They usually have another clubs event in January :) Getting group status is probably a good route.

[mbonsma]

Reminder! If you emailed your departmental mailing list with an announcement about the group, comment here so that I don't repeat your department when I send out more emails on Monday.

[lwjohnst86]

Thanks for the reminder. I've sent it to the Department of Nutritional Sciences.

[cczhu]

I've sent one to Astronomy & Astrophysics.

[linamnt]

Physiology has received the email as well.

On Mon, Sep 14, 2015 at 2:14 PM, Charles Zhu notifications@github.com wrote:

I've sent one to Astronomy & Astrophysics.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/UofTCoders/studyGroup/issues/42#issuecomment-140164132 .

Lina Tran MSc. Candidate | Frankland Lab Department of Physiology University of Toronto

[mbonsma]

Okay great. This morning I emailed these departments:

Physics Biochemistry CSB Chemical Engineering Chemistry Computer Science Earth Science EEB Economics Geography Immunology Lab Medicine and Pathobiology Linguistics Materials Science & Engineering Math Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Medical Biophysics Medicine Molecular Genetics Pharmacology and Toxicology Ophthamology & Vision Sciences Physiology Political Science Psychiatry Sociology Statistics Anthropology OISE Applied Psychology and Human Development (under OISE) Astronomy and Astrophysics Chemical Engineering Classics East Asian Studies ECE English Germanic Languages and Literatures History Art Italian Studies Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations Occupational Therapy Philosophy Rehabilitation Science Religion Slavic Languages & Lit Spanish & Portuguese Speech-Language Pathology