03 Cohort Call Digest [ 2023-SWRCB ] #3

[DevanBurke]

Hi @Openscapes/2023-swrcb-cohort

Thanks for a great third session last Wednesday. Our team commented on how engaged everyone was, especially during the outstanding presentation about Documentation from Dr. Corey Clatterbuck. We heard recurring themes of wanting and needing consistency in file naming conventions, collaboration, and documentation as a core foundation. Below is a light digest of Call 3, including a reminder for your Seaside Chat and additional Co-Working times before our Call 3 on September, 27th. Looking forward to seeing you then!

Have a good week,
Tina, Devan, and Anna

Digest: Cohort Call 3 [ 2023-SWRCB ]

• Cohort SharePoint Folder - contains agendas, slides, recordings and the Pathway template
• Cohort GitHub Repository
• Cohort Webpage
• Water Boards' Openscapes Teams Channel - connect with all Openscapse Champions cohorts at the Water Board

Goals: We practiced using GitHub from the browser to support publishing and documentation, to get hands-on experience and to experiment. We also explored how documentation is a key component of a team’s foundation and function, and discussed a few ways to name files and intentionally document e.g., flow charts, excel, Github.

Task for next time:

• Continue having Seaside Chats with your cohort!
• If you haven’t already, begin your Pathway (focus on Now: your Trailhead)
• Pathways spreadsheet (Make a copy in the PathwayShare Folder via File > Make a copy)
• Note: teams can approach this differently. Maybe the team has one pathway or multiple tabs for different sub-teams.
• Onboarding/how-we-work examples

Upcoming OPTIONAL Cohort Co-working Session: Thur., Sep. 21st, 2:00-3:00 pm.
This is a time to come work on your own things, but also be able to talk things through and screenshare to get help from others.

Slide Decks:

• Intro to GitHub for Publishing
• Documentation

A few lines from shared notes in the Agenda doc:

• Love the idea of creating an onboarding document to help new and existing staff understand how the program works +1+1
• Love the suggestions for a file naming convention +1+1+1!+1 +1+1
• Documentation as a foundation for on-boarding is really important especially in an environment like ours where we have short term internships and fellowships that come and go and are looking for out of the box projects to orient and jump into. +1
• Making a flow chart of a process. Not for everything, but maybe for certain tasks that have to be done monthly or annually it would be great
  • Or if it’s a process that multiple people are part of – so everyone knows where they are in the process and who to communicate/work with – also helpful for onboarding someone new, even if the process is “common” in your view
  • Additional flow charts could be good way to communicate steps to non-coders