A mid-year update from CSCCE!

This month’s edition of the CSCCE newsletter is jam-packed with news and updates – it’s been a busy couple of months for us, and we’re excited to be back in your inbox with several important updates.

In today’s newsletter, you’ll find news about:

Our new, homegrown digital badging platform, Credible
The pilot cohort of the Birdaro training program and its impact on scientific open-source projects
Upcoming multi-week training courses on project management and creating community playbooks (which are filling up quickly!)
And community updates, including Tools Trials outcomes (Zulip and CiviCRM) and recent Certification Program graduates

Since we last sent you a newsletter, we’ve also delivered two private cohorts of our Project Management for Scientists Bootcamp, convened participants in our Community Manager Certification Program for two invite-only Quarterly Skills Share sessions, hosted two general registration courses (Scientific Community Engagement Fundamentals and Content Design), run Mini-workshops on giving and receiving feedback and creating core values, and worked with several clients to support their community-engaged projects. Phew!

If any of the content in today’s newsletter resonates with you, or you have questions about CSCCE trainings or consultancy, please let us know: info@cscce.org.

News from CSCCE

A screenshot of Credible, a new digital badging platform from CSCCE.

Credible: a new digital badging platform

Credible is a new digital badging platform built and hosted by CSCCE. Since 2022, we’ve awarded digital badges to all graduates of CSCCE multi-week training courses and programs that recognize individual achievements and elevate the role of the community manager in STEM. Find out more about the new platform, and some of the features that are “coming soon,” in our latest blog post.

The Birdaro logo in white, on a blue to violet gradient background with a murmuration of birds in silhouette.

How did the pilot Birdaro training program go?

For 12 weeks at the end of 2025, CSCCE hosted a pilot cohort of a new online training program for leaders in scientific open-source projects. The Birdaro training program set out to address some of the human challenges related to the sustainability of OS projects and how they scale; interpersonal dynamics, documentation debt, governance, and more. In a new blog post, we share participant feedback and outputs from the program.

A collage of OS project logos representing the participants in the pilot cohort of the Birdaro training program.

Working with OS projects to reduce their documentation debt

As part of their training, Birdaro participants spent time developing a playbook for their projects. These playbooks (a.k.a. contributor guides, user handbooks, etc.) are already having a positive impact, by reducing documentation debt and supporting user and/or contributor engagement. In a two-part blog post, we discuss our approach to creating community playbooks and the different ways the Birdaro participants applied CSCCE’s framework. Then, we highlight some of the publicly available playbooks they created.

Trainings open for registration

The digital badge image for Creating Community Playbooks (PBK) is a mint green circle with a white center. “PLAYBOOKS” spelled out in white, over the top of the mint green circle, and a mint green umbel design is overlaid in the white center. At the bottom right, on the outside of the circle, it says “CSCCE Training Course” in two shades of teal.

Creating Community Playbooks

If you’re inspired by the impact playbooks are having in OS communities via Birdaro, we’re offering a general registration cohort of our Creating Community Playbooks (PBK) course in September! Join us to create a playbook of your own, connect with like-minded STEM community managers, and explore new ways to support your community members.

PBK26F will run on Tuesdays and Fridays beginning Tuesday, 15 September until Friday, 30 October 2026. Registration will close on Friday, 28 August 2026. Space is limited.

The digital badge image for Project Management for Scientists (PMB) is a blue circle with a white center. PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR SCIENTISTS is spelled out in white, over the top of the blue circle, and a blue umbel design is overlaid in the white center. At the bottom right, on the outside of the circle, it says “CSCCE Training Course” in two shades of teal.

Project Management for Scientists Bootcamp

We’re also offering a general registration cohort of our popular Project Management for Scientists Bootcamp (PMB), which is a fast-paced, lightweight, STEM (and STEM-adjacent) focused training for anyone looking for help managing complex and collaborative projects.

PMB26F will run on Mondays and Thursdays beginning Monday, 21 September until Thursday, 22 October 2026. Registration will close on Friday, 28 August 2026. Space is limited.

Financial aid and sponsorship opportunities

CSCCE offers a limited number of discounted places for our training courses, but availability depends on other participants purchasing a place at the supporting rate. If your organization is interested in sponsoring discounted (or even free!) places in our training courses, please let us know by emailing info@cscce.org.

To apply for financial support to participate in PBK or PMB this year, please complete our course discount request form.

Community updates

Congratulations to Jody Peters, Pooneh Sabouri, and Tajuddeen Gwadabe, CSCCE-Certified Community Managers!

Each quarter, we celebrate the participants who recently completed the CSCCE Community Manager Certification Program. As a modular program, individuals graduate on their own timelines. In Q1, we celebrated two people who progressed through their requirements side-by-side: Jody Peters (University of Notre Dame / Ecological Forecasting Initiative) and Pooneh Sabouri (Florida International University / STEP UP). And then in Q2, it was time to celebrate Tajuddeen Gwadabe (OLS / Masakhane Research Foundation).

Read more about Jody and Pooneh (plus an early look at data on the Certification Program’s impact)
Read more about Tajuddeen (plus more about our Quarterly Skills Share sessions)

After a successful Tools Trial, CSCCE community members collaborated on a Zulip Quick Start Guide

In January 2026, we hosted a community Tools Trial on the open-source community platform Zulip, which some communities are using or considering as an open-source alternative to Slack. In the weeks that followed, Tools Trial presenters Samantha Wittke (CSC-IT Center for Science) and Danny Garside (Digital Research Academy) worked with us to create a CC BY Quick Start guide that anyone using Zulip can adapt to support their members. Thanks to community members Philip Durbin (Dataverse; Tools Trial presenter), Rebecca Hartman-Baker (NERSC; Tools Trial participant), and J.C. Subida (Northwestern University; Tools Trial participant) for reviewing the guide prior to publication.

CiviCRM Tools Trial Recap: Curate your data to nurture your community

In March 2026, Lauren Collister (IOI) and Yo Yehudi (OLS) joined members of our community of practice to share how they use CiviCRM to support their community management work. CiviCRM is an open source Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) system that was built as a more flexible and affordable alternative to proprietary CRM systems. Together they highlighted how the system can be managed to support effective community engagement

Read more about the CiviCRM Tools Trial (and watch the recap videos)

CSCCE

c/o Community Initiatives,
1000 Broadway Suite #480,
Oakland, CA, 94607, USA
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info@cscce.org

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