CSCCE Blog Editor, Author at CSCCE

October’s community call recap – Supporting community champions and running champions programs

Our October call focused on the role of community champions in creating engaged, welcoming, and productive communities. This post includes a summary of the call, as well as video clips of presentations from Vanessa Fairhurst (Crossref Ambassadors program), Iratxe Puebla (ASAPbio Fellows program), and Ailís O’Carroll (eLife Community Ambassadors program).

Our next call will take place on 17 November 2021 at 4pm UTC / 11am EST (note: upcoming daylight savings time changes may affect the time of this call in your region). We’ll be focusing on community governance models. iCal | Google Calendar

Inclusive language in community building: A recap of our Inclusive Sci Comm Symposium session and an opportunity to help refine a new glossary

Last week we took part in the 2021 Inclusive Sci Comm Symposium (ISCS21), and Katie and Lou hosted a session focused on using inclusive language in STEM community building. In this post, we offer a short recap of that session, and also highlight a new effort we’d like your help with: A glossary to help support community managers as they work to build inclusive, accessible, and engaging communities in STEM.

Photo by Volodymyr Hryshchenko on Unsplash

We’re hiring again! Learning program manager: Design an expansive learning program for community managers in STEM

We’re looking for an experienced trainer who’s ready to flex their creativity and knowledge as we build out a holistic learning program for community managers in STEM. Interested? Then read on to find out more about the role. Not so sure but know someone who might be great at this job? Please spread the word!

You can find the full job description here, and if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us by email or set up an informal coffee chat: info@cscce.org.

October’s community call: Community champions programs

This month, we’re considering the role of community champions (also known as community ambassadors or, sometimes, fellows) in successful community management, and how community champions programs can intentionally work with emergent leaders to meet the needs of a community or organization.

Join us for our monthly community call on Wednesday, 20 October at 3pm UTC / 11am EDT to learn more about champions and some of the programs that already exist – or are being planned – within the STEM ecosystem. [Add to iCal or Google Calendar]

Our October call will focus on the role of community champions and how community managers can support and empower them through intentional programming. Image credit: CSCCE

We’re hiring! Part-time communications assistant: Learn about community-centric communications with us as you start a new career

Are you interested in a career in STEM communications and/or community management? Then read on, because we’d love to hear from you!

We’re looking to hire a temporary, part-time communications assistant to help us as we enhance our member engagement infrastructure. This is a great position for someone who is looking to transition out of academia, or would benefit from flexible working hours. And while this is an entry-level role, we’re definitely open to applicants with more advanced qualifications but who see value in learning new skills in community-centric communications.

Coming up over the next few months – CSCCE Community of Practice programming update

We’re really looking forward to some new programming offerings we’ve put together for the rest of the year! Read on to find out what’s coming up and how to get involved. If you’re not already a member of our community of practice for community builders in STEM, you can request to join our Slack workspace here.

New CSCCE resource explores the role of champions in building and sustaining communities in STEM

Our latest guidebook explores the importance of supporting and encouraging the work of community champions, emergent leaders who take on additional roles within a community to ensure its success. The guidebook builds on our Community Participation Model, which describes how community members engage with community programming and the ways community managers can design activities and events that meet members where they are. It forms part two in a growing series of foundational resources, with more to come later this year.

What is a community champion?

We define a community champion as:

An emergent leadership role within a community in which a community member takes on more responsibility for the success, sustainability, and/or running of the community.

Welcome to Donna Okubo – CSCCE’s new Membership Director

This week, we welcomed Donna Okubo onto the CSCCE staff team. Donna joins us as our Membership Director, and will play a key role as we pilot an institutional membership program next year. We’re delighted she’s decided to share her considerable experience with CSCCE and hope you’ll give her a warm welcome, too.

About Donna

Donna brings more than 14 years of experience in open access and open science to the role of CSCCE membership director. Before joining us, she spent more than a decade working for the Public Library of Science (PLOS), building their 150-member organizational membership program from the ground up. Her talent for seeking out and maintaining partnerships across a diverse range of academic, infrastructure, and industry organizations will be pivotal as CSCCE builds its own institutional membership program (more on that in the coming weeks).

“I’m so excited to join CSCCE at such a dynamic moment in the organization’s development,” she said. “I’ve always loved the start-up spirit, and the CSCCE team is clearly making a vital impact on the way science is done today.”

September’s Community Call – Quarterly Programming Update

We’re excited to share some new programming options for community members coming up over the next few months, as well as other CSCCE behind-the-scenes news, and so we hope you will join us on Wednesday, 22 September 2021 at 4pm UTC / 11am EDT for our quarterly programming update.

Note that this call will not be recorded, in order to facilitate frank discussion.

The September 2021 CSCCE Community Call will give an overview of our upcoming community programming, ways that you can get involved, and a sneak peek behind the scenes. Image credit: CSCCE

July’s community call: Adding to the collection of CSCCE community profiles

Our July community call focused on one of CSCCE’s ongoing research projects: Creating scientific community profiles. We heard from Lou Woodley and Katie Pratt, who led the project, as well as three of the scientific community managers who took part in the project. In this blog post we briefly recap why we’re doing this work, what’s coming in the next few months, and share videos of the three community manager presentations.

If you are interested in creating a profile for your community, please let us know by filling out this short form.