community potluck Archives

December community call recap: An online potluck filled with reflection, (re-)connection, and…cats!

To close a turbulent year for many STEM community managers, we hosted our seventh annual end-of-year community potluck on Tuesday, 16 December 2025. Lou and Katie lightly scaffolded the call in our usual “appetizers, main courses, and desserts” format, and we are grateful to everyone who attended and shared so generously.

This blog post is a brief summary of the call – although we are being mindful not to share any personal information. We do not record calls like these to protect the ability of participants to be open about their experiences, if they want to. If you’re curious to learn more about how we facilitate community calls, send us an email – we’d be happy to chat!

December’s community call: Seventh annual CSCCE community potluck

As the end of 2025 draws near, we’re planning a gathering for the CSCCE community that recognizes the ups and downs of the last 12 months, and offers an opportunity for community connection and care.

As in years past, the call will be roughly divided into three “courses,” with participants encouraged to “bring a dish to share” – in other words, our collective contributions will create a unique gathering, which you can expect to include reflection prompts, gentle activities, and opportunities to discuss and set intentions for the year ahead. We’ve included an outline of our plans for facilitating this year’s event below, but we’re always open to your suggestions, so please reach out to Lou, Katie, or info@cscce.org if there’s something you’d particularly like to talk about or share.

This call is for:

Members of the CSCCE community of practice – current and future! (if you’re not already a member of our free Slack-based community of practice, you can request to join here)
Anyone working in STEM and adjacent fields whose role involves collaboration or community building
Anyone who would appreciate a community space in which to mark the end-of-year transition in an intentional way

Date: Tuesday, 16 December 2025 (please note the day – CSCCE community calls have historically taken place on a Wednesday, but due to conflicting client work, we’ll be meeting on a Tuesday for this session!)

Time: 11am EST / 4pm UTC

Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88123402630?pwd=wAWBFiikRLnFyZIAj6b3KwRvUxdwRb.1

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December 2024 Community Call Recap – Cooking up connections at our annual potluck!

On Wednesday, 18 December we held our sixth annual community potluck – an opportunity for members of the CSCCE community of practice to come together for a laid back hour or so of conversation, connection, and reflection.

Every year for these events, we use the metaphor of a potluck dinner party to scaffold the call. At a potluck, guests bring a dish to supplement the host’s plans. Similarly, at CSCCE’s annual potluck, everyone is invited to bring something to share, although it’s never food! This year, we asked our guests to bring appetizers of resources and community management stories from 2024, while we “fired up the grill” in Mural for the main course. And to round out the meal, we celebrated with a chatterfall “digestif,” each sharing three words we hope to embody in 2025.

In this blog post, you can find out a little bit more about how we facilitated the call, and check out a word cloud of our 2025 intentions!

December Community Call Recap – Reflecting, connecting, and looking ahead at our annual community potluck!

On Friday, 15 December 2023 we convened our last community call of 2023 – a community potluck for members of our community of practice to take a moment to look back on the highs and lows of 2023, and think a little about what’s coming up next year.

This was our fourth annual community potluck, and this year’s gathering was as kind and generative as always. A big thank you to everyone who came and shared a dish (which took the form of a reflection or a learning)! In this blog post, you’ll find a taste of what we talked about – including some suggestions for your own end-of-year reflection.

A screenshot of the gallery view in Zoom, where everyone is smiling and some people have added visual effects to their video so they have festive hats or accessories. — *A screenshot of some of the potluckiest STEM community managers around! Image credit: CSCCE*

December’s Community Call: Join us for our annual community potluck!

Every year, we host an end-of-year virtual “potluck” for our community of practice. It’s an opportunity to reflect on the year’s successes, share some of the things we’ve learned over the past 12 months, and look ahead to what’s coming up after the holiday season. Since it’s a potluck, everyone is encouraged to “bring along a dish,” and in this blog post we have a few suggestions!

This year, we’d also particularly appreciate your feedback on the types of programming you’d like to see more of in the community of practice. We’ll take some time during the potluck for a brainstorm together, and hopefully prioritize activities that would best support you next year.

If you’re curious about previous potlucks, check out these blog posts from 2022 and 2021. And don’t forget – festive hats, sweaters, and/or mugs are encouraged!

Date: Friday, 15 December 2023

Time: 11am EST / 4pm UTC

Zoom link to join

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December Community Call: Our Annual Potluck

We like to send the year off with a little bit of fun, mixed with some contemplation and so for our December community call we’ll be hosting our fourth annual end-of-year potluck. This year, we’ll be focusing on tech tools for supporting community management on a shoestring budget!

As with most CSCCE events, this call will with be an interactive opportunity to:

Try out some new ideas and/or tools that may be relevant for managing your own community
Meet and connect with other STEM community managers to learn from one another
Take an intentional moment in busy schedules to reflect and identify progress made and potential next steps in your own work

Rather than everyone bringing a dish to share, as is typical at most potlucks, all participants are welcome to bring examples of tools that they’ve used to solve specific problems – or problems in search of a tool! We’ll structure the meal (see below) so there’s time to share and time to learn.

Join us via Zoom on 14 December at 11am EST / 4pm UTC, and feel free to wear a festive hat or sweater to liven up our Zoom screens 🙂

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This month’s community call will be a virtual potluck. Attendees are asked to bring a low-budget tech tool to share – or a scenario they’ve encountered that they are looking for a tool to solve. Image credit: CSCCE

Happy holidays from CSCCE! A community potluck to wrap up 2021

Our December community call is traditionally a community potluck, with everyone contributing a little something to the call. We hold space for reflection, make time for intention setting for the new year, and have a little fun! This post shares a short recap of what we did this year, as well as best wishes for the holiday season from the staff team here at CSCCE.