03 Cohort Call Digest [ 2024-SWRCB-Spring ]

[DevanBurke]

Hi @Openscapes/2024-swrcb-spring-cohort,

Thanks for a great third session last Thursday, April. 25th. Thanks to Anna for guiding us through the practice of using GitHub from the browser to support publishing and documentation, with the growth mindset. Also thanks to Devan 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 May 9th. Looking forward to seeing you then!

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

Digest: Cohort Call 3 [ 2023-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 Openscapse 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. We also explored how documentation is a key component of a team’s foundation and function, and discussed a few ways to name files and intentionally document e.g., flow charts, excel, Github.

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: Thur., May 2nd, 1:30 - 2:30 pm.
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:

• Collaborative platforms are useful.
• Growth mindset!
• Cohort shared many experiences and tips regarding how to make documentation useful
  • Naming convention is super important, check out Naming Things for some inspiration +1 <3
  • Having readme files for all of our unit processes would be so helpful. +1+1+1 +1 +1+1
  • Documentation is not busy work it makes your work less busy. +1+1 +1
  • Tracking to do lists and who has done what. There are many tools but it is hard to get everyone on board to implement. +100000000 +1+1 +1
• Folks also shared documentation goals that they hope to implement:
  • Creating manuals as step by step guides in addition to creating calendars for deadline specific projects. +1+1+1 +1
  • I tend to start documentation projects that only I use, and everyone else has their own method. My goal is to find a way to get everyone working in the same document. Github is nice because it highlights “new stuff”. +1 +1+1 +1
  • Request for peer assists:
  • ‎Has anyone else used Microsoft Lists to help organize a SharePoint site/libraries? I’ve been learning a lot on my own for our unit and it seems like a good tool, I can teach what I’ve learned/would appreciate help if anyone’s interested

[AHolder1]

Awesome - thanks for the summary @CitrusDanWang !