03 Cohort Call Digest [2024-SWRCB-Fall]

[tures23]

Hi everyone @Openscapes/2024-swrcb-fall-cohort

Thanks for a great third session on Wednesday September 4th! Thank you, Anna, for guiding us through the practice of using GitHub from the browser to support publishing and documentation, with the growth mindset. Everyone got to practice editing and committing files in our cohort repo. Thank you to our guest speaker, Dr. Corey Clatterbuck, for showing us some examples of how to do documentation effectively. Lastly, we took a virtual cohort photo. Look at all the smiles!

Below is a light digest of Call 3, including a reminder for your Seaside Chat and additional Co-Working times before Call 4 on September 18th. Looking forward to seeing you then!

Have a good week,
Val & the rest of the Mentor + Instruction Team

Digest: Cohort Call 3 [ 2024F-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 Openscapes 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 in our cohort repo. We also explored how documentation is a key component of a team’s (and our own!) function and discussed a few ways to name files and intentionally document e.g., flow charts, excel, GitHub. We also each shared a personal goal for documentation.

Task for next time:

1. Continue having Seaside Chats with your cohort!
2. Think about the documentation choice your team would like to use, GitHub or other choices. It is a process and please take your time to pick the one that works best for your team. Additional GitHub links: CA Water Boards Organization on GitHub and Get Started with GitHub Docs.
3. 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: Weds Sept 11, 10:30 - 11:30 am.

• 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.
• Group may walk through working on GitHub through desktop app or R

Slide Decks:

• Intro to GitHub for Publishing
• Documentation

A few lines from shared notes in the Agenda doc:

Having a Growth Mindset to embrace challenges!

Learn anything cool? Share with us!

• you can copy or download someone’s github file and put it into your repo as your own file so that you don’t have to start from scratch

This meme in documentation resonated with folks – it got a few laughs and comments:

The topic of onboarding was a source of discussion with many looking to replicate the examples in their groups.

Some highlights from the prompt: How do these documentation topics resonate with you?

• I am currently trying to replicate about 66 sql queries that someone did in 2020 and need to be re-done every four years, but no one knows who did it last time or where those queries are..... so yeah..... we need this documentation BADLY in my group. +1 🤦
• Documenting is also good for when people start asking you really intense questions about the project and you haven’t thought about it in 3 months, it helps remind yourself!
• Good documentation will prevent a lot of repeat work +1+1 +1 +1+1
• Confirms that good documentation is useful and needed, but establishing good processes and tools can be complicated! +1+1 +1 +1
• Documentation contributes to more efficient work – over time, but we first need to take the time to write the documentation....so it can feel less efficient at first. BUT! If we can push through that then we will experience the efficiency over the longer term! +1

Discussion on What is one thing you want to document right now?

• SOPs / protocols
• Onboarding
  • Consider copying the SWAMP Manual as a starting point: https://cawaterboarddatacenter.github.io/swamp-manual/contribute.html
• Internal software how-tos from TJ: Office365 (sharepoint.com), web link: Office365 (sharepoint.com) (request permission, and it will be approved)
• Handbook on recommended processes/guidance
• Project management workflows +1 +1 +1
• Documenting institutional knowledge from folks that might be leaving/retiring/going on extended leave soon +1
• Consistent naming convention (Specifically with dates) +1
• Version control for project management docs, archive versions of things, etc.
• Less about what we’re documenting – and more about making sure we’re all documenting in the same way +1
• Restoration plans – with a bunch of collaborators working on different components of the same project/plan +1
• Webpage that outlines where different things are located, where to put data once it’s collected
• Tracking system for permit requirements/conditions, etc.

Don’t forget to keep working on your Pathway!