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Projects Discussion | Ticket assignment pairing new + old members to work together was good new recruitment process helped filter members Specifically assigning someone in charge of a ticket, assign someone to help might be helpful Might be better to ping people (respectfully) on the shared channel, but DM is still good At start of semester, should identify 2-3 big ticket things to complete in first part of the semester (ideally) People often don’t know how to address a new ticket, could allow time in the meeting to start on a ticket in pairs to get over the initial difficulty Break down every task into smaller tickets, ideally give some difficulty weighting to them. Helps to keep people from being overwhelmed. Tickets can be proposals/research, not just “work” Do not assign big tickets at the start, even for experienced recruits. If they move fast, give them big(er) tickets People don’t ask for help, so leads need to reach out to people first
Meeting structure ask people about their through process, show ticket in front of room to discuss as a group. Be direct. Lead is guiding the conversation, but allowing team member to talk through it. This worked well to increase engagement Hangout before/after meeting helps the team to connect Virtual meetings had less attendance - people have more incentive to show up in person. Expectation to be there physically. Active contributors was same across virtual/in-person approach. Spring Semester is typically busy for contributors, lower output is expected. Higher recruitment second semester may have helped. Meeting outline ahead of time helps meetings run more efficiently. Especially important for design discussions. Ask team to add to the agenda Meeting notes outline 1 day ahead of the meeting could be helpful as a standard practice Can lean into a more async approach - most of our work is outside of meetings
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Recruitment retro
| Can only support a certain number of people More experienced designers could help Separating division/project recruitment strategies helped Recruitment process 1:1 meetings with candidates worked well to build rapport and understand who candidates are. We should have a standardized question list. Discord - Group Chat That’s All Fun & Games Suggestion: do kickoff on week 2, have two weeks for both social meetings and project meetings When leads can’t make it to social events, we lose out on that opportunity Intro sessions were more efficient/direct than social approach. We should make interest sessions the main approach?
Meeting times Retention Product was inconsistent Why are people leaving? Team meetings are critical - need to be solid. How do we make Nebula work more manageable - overarching idea Honors students tend to be better candidates for staying involved. Could talk to CV honors. they have an email list
semi-professional approach was good If people are looking for something else, we can’t do much to change it, but we can improve our image so recruits know what we are about Competing with ACM Projects - Finished project (ACM) vs a longer process that’s less instantly gratifying slow progress is intended to build better products
Messaging Product team Average product recruit is very academic, does not have real-world product experience. @Frances Hill We could have Marketing team include Product work. (user interviews, data analytics) We do not need/want people with product-specific experience It’s critical to get a good division head here
One idea was to have a freestanding design team that could service all projects, but this requires skilled designers with commitment, which did not work out. The conclusion is that embedding design within teams was better, having them work as a full team member. Head of Design could then approve design work before it goes out. We need to find a good head of design
Could have a publicized invite to have people sit in on meetings around November Discord onboarding needs to be better. Inexperienced but excited candidates they need to be able to independently learn (and want to). We should only give them a push and suggestion to learn. Critical problem is that we don’t have leadership to drive education initiatives BUT, we shouldn’t turn away people who are VERY interested and can and will learn on their own
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Marketing | Communication with leads Need to let leads/projects submit stuff to marketing Idea: use threads in the projects channel Idea: could have separate versions of the division channels Some people don’t have discord notifications. We should draw a line on that.
Splitting up Marketing Marketing is doing a lot, and wanting to do more. Events division might be helpful, but not for recruiting. Unclear what the org actually needs from marketing (events, requirement, planning, etc) Marketing team is overwhelmed, could expand leadership to help We should be cautious about making formal organizational splits, better to have internal teams within the existing division.
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Project Lead Role | It’s about people, not just the product People should be learning and enjoying their time, along with making progress on tickets Should be a peer, not a manager Your vision (and teaching) gives the team structure
Outside of meetings, lead office hours may help to be available, and use the time to reach out to people Should share insights with other leadership
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Division Head Role | Ideally, communication flows from officer team to division head Education for members is important Also manages tools/organization. Ex: Head of our GitHub/Vercel/Figma/etc
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Summer Plans | |