---
# System prepended metadata

title: September 2022 SSI Fellows Community Call
tags: [SSIFellowsCommunityCalls]

---

# September 2022 SSI Fellows Community Call

:::info
* Friday, 30 September 2022, 15:00-16:00 BST
* Link to this docuemnt: https://hackmd.io/@ssi-fellows-calls/2022-09
* Fellow's Update Recording: [Stephan Druskat](https://youtu.be/13iQnSxyh_o)
* Previous calls: [https://bit.ly/3eu7NjT](https://bit.ly/3eu7NjT)
* Summary: We heard a Fellows’ update from Stephan Druskat (2018). In breakout rooms, we discussed sustainable career development discussion topics for CW23 and professional goals for the next year.
:::

[toc]

## Agenda
Times in BST ([check your time zone here](https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=SSI+Fellows+Community+Call%3A+September+2022&iso=20220930T15&p1=302&ah=1))

15:00 - 15:10 Welcome
15:10 - 15:20 Fellows’ update
15:20 - 15:50 Breakout room discussions
15:50 - 16:00 Closing


## Roll call
_Name / Cohort year / Affiliation / Location / Pronouns / Social media_

* Rachael Ainsworth / 2019 / Software Sustainability Institute, University of Manchester / Manchester / she,her / t: [@rachaelevelyn](https://twitter.com/rachaelevelyn)
* Sarah Gibson / 2020 / 2i2c / London, UK / she, her / gh: sgibson91, tw: drsarahlgibson
* Colin Sauze / 2021 / Aberystwyth University/Supercomputing Wales / Aberystwyth / he,him / gh: colinsauze 
* Shoaib Sufi / SSI Staff / Software Sustainability Institute, University of Manchester / Actually at the University physically today! / @shoaibsufi 
* Georgina Al-Badri / 2022 / UCL / she/her / t: @georginaalbadri
* Patricia Herterich / 2019 / n/a / Edinburgh / she,her / @pherterich
* Alison Clarke / 2021 / Wellcome / Durham / t, gh: @alisonrclarke
* Iain Barrass / 2021 / University of Glasgow / Salisbury / he, him /
* James Davenport/ 2016 / University of Bath / Bath / he, him /
* Xenia Perez Sitja / external / University of Bradford / Macclesfield / she,her / @PerezSitja
* Stephan Druskat / 2018 / German Aerospace Center (DLR) / he, him / @stdruskat


### Check-in
_Include your name and answer any of the following prompts: How are you today? What are you working on? Where do you need support?_

* [name=Sarah] Recovering from jet lag after visiting San Francisco. I need to write up a blog summarising the mini-workshop I ran at CW22, but struggling to start what with all the other things going on!
* [name=Patricia] Better now that it stopped raining, had a nice chat this morning though, feels like my random thoughts are slowly becoming clearer.
* [name=Shoaib]Been rained on in Manchester without a coat (I should not be surprised : ) - working on the WoSSS21 report (www.wosss.org) (getting there with the last draft)
* [name=Georgina] Thesis corrections trying to find out how to solve singular matrices faster in Python... Also planning a blog post from RSECon22 and Carpentry Training Workshop
* [name=Alison] Have just been given the afternoon off for the end of the quarter :) Have just had a 'firebreak week' which has given me the chance to do some work I've wanted to do for a while, auto generating OpenAPI docs for a REST API and rendering them using redocly.
* [name=Colin] Catching up on everything I've not done in the last few weeks with lots of travel and in person events. Also avoiding going outside due to very heavy rain.


## 1. Welcome - 10 min [15:00 - 15:10]

### General Guidance

* 🤝 Please follow the [Code of Conduct](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eQu4EKHKbL-EMCwbwy7F_YGCOFhBcpBbwsET7QAvA1U/edit?usp=sharing), report any issues to [Rachael](mailto:r.ainsworth@software.ac.uk) or [Shoaib](mailto:shoaib.sufi@software.ac.uk).
* 📹 The Fellows Updates are being recorded and the videos will be made available on the [SSI YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/user/SoftwareSaved) after the call. 
* 📝 This document is for SSI Fellows only, so please do not share the link publicly. Feel free to take notes, ask questions, add friendly comments, +1, etc. 
    * Outputs such as blog posts or guides may result from the discussions and shared insights. We will not share any personal information, but if you would like to be contacted and included as a contributing author on any outputs, please include your full name as part of any shared insights.


### Goals of these Community Calls
* Facilitate community building and encourage collaboration within the SSI Fellows community.
* Check in with the Fellows and community care - What are the Fellows up to? How can we support them?
* Provide a welcoming and inclusive space for Fellows to share and explore topics of interest and network with others.

### Breakout room discussion topics 
Feel free to add your own and include your name:
1. Sustainable career development discussion topics for CW23 (Rachael Ainsworth)
2. What are your professional goals for the next year? (Shoaib Sufi)



## 2. Fellows’ update - 10 min [15:10 - 15:20]
_This is an opportunity for Fellows to share/show and tell during our community calls. During each call, we can accommodate 2 Fellows who will each have 7 min (+ 3 min Q&A) to introduce themselves and share any updates to the network, such as:_
* _Your Fellowship plans, demos of projects, upcoming events or other activities_
* _Projects for which you are seeking support or collaboration_
* _Life after the Fellowship and how the Fellowship impacted your career_

Timer for speakers: [https://cuckoo.team/ssi-fellows-community-call](https://cuckoo.team/ssi-fellows-community-call) 



### Stephan Druskat (2018) - 7 min + 3 min Q&A
* Recording: https://youtu.be/13iQnSxyh_o
* Useful links:
    * About Stephan: https://software.ac.uk/about/fellows/stephan-druskat
    * Stephan's website: https://sdruskat.net/
    * Citation File Format (CFF): https://citation-file-format.github.io/
* Notes:
    * Early work in de-RSE, WSSPE participant and chair, developer of the very young Citation File Format (CFF)
    * Special Collaborator/Fellowship plans:
      - [ ] Export the SSI
      - [ ] Provide a humanities perspective
      - [ ] Push basic research on software sustainability
      - [x] Organise a hack event around CFF
      - [x] Push internationalization at RSECon18
      - [x] Help with WSSSPE 6
      - [x] Become a Software Carpentry Instructor
    * Lesson 1: Fellowship is a powerful catalys and doesn't stop when the funding does
    * Lesson 2: It's the people that matter!
    * Lesson 3: I'm an SSI Fellow, not an imposter!
    * Impact of Fellowship:
      * Many new collaborations, great international network
      * Found a co-lead for CFF, consulting contract forthcoming
      * Got current job via the Fellowship and started a PhD in software sustainability
      * Boosted confidence and found community!  
* Questions:
    * What's next for CFF?


## 3. Breakout room discussions - 30 min [15:20 - 15:50]
_Please take notes of your discussion while you are in your breakout rooms in the relevant section below for others to catch up with._

### Main Room: Sustainable career development discussion topics for CW23 (Rachael Ainsworth)

The theme of CW23 is Sustainable Career Development for those in the research software community: looking after your software, your career, and yourself. The theme encompasses 
- Technical development: including software sustainability, how to decide what to learn next and where to go for intermediate software development skills.
- Career development: including career pathways related to research software, how to get credit for your work, mentorship, and inclusive leadership to support team work.
- Personal development: including sustaining your mental health, wellbeing and finding community. 

What questions/topics within this theme do you think participants should be discussing at CW23?

* Participants:
    * Colin
    * Sarah
    * Alison
    * James
    * Patricia
    * Rachael
* Notes:
    * 1 RSE who is central, the rest embedded in teams/projects - tips on career development and progression in such a matrix managent structure (issues with academic managers for embedded RSEs who might not understand career progression)
      * Can they be line managed by central RSE group? How can we express this without stepping on others' toes?
      * Birmingham group have a structure - see https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/it/teams/infrastructure/research/bear/rsg/funded-engagements.aspx but Ed Edmondson would be a good person to talk to for more info
    * Sustainable career pathways for free-lance/self-employed?
      * How do we extend path beyond contracts of current company?
      * Career blueprints that you can apply in multiple scenarios? (central/embedded/industy/freelance)
      * Consultancy policy-aligned pathway? Database where we can discuss how to leverage resource in Fellows community?
      * Check with folks who attended RSE pathway sessions at RSECon22 to see if any topics/issues came out of that
      * freelancing on SSI-related topics doesn't have to be technical, and sometimes you want skills of several fellows together but I'm not sure that's easy to figure out
    * RSE is not a broad enough term for research computing/digital agenda - human infrastructure for research
    * Useful conversations around mental health and wellbeing?
    * Building inclusive team culture - we succeed as a group (free to make mistakes without having to worry about your job)
        * Team ethos vs (e.g.) RSE where working as an individual on a project (responsibility on an individual's shoulders)
        * How to build team ethos when you have a group of people working on different projects?
        * How do you build team ethos in remote/hybrid working models when people aren't in the same room?
        * How do you "join" a team if you are a fre-lancer working on your own?
  * Examples of good remote team building activities?
      * 2i2c does this well (no one lives in the same country). Starting to talk about retreats/in-person meetings for all-hands/strategy for things that need high-bandwidth/rapport building that you can't do asynchronously.
      * GatherTown?  
      * Time zones are a challenge and folks are unable to attend synchronous socials.
      * More difficult as remote teams scale - build in the right culture from the start and it should follow you as you grow
          * IOI retreat sounds interesting: https://investinopen.org/blog/strategy-retreat-recap-key-learnings-and-resources/
      * Event on "how you got to where you are now" to hear different stories and career pathways
      * Turing way chat on pathway to open science (e.g. when did you first find out about open science, ssi, etc.) - helps to break down assumptions of others' career paths: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeeRZZ3-Stc
  * 



### Breakout Room 2: What are your professional goals for the next year? (Shoaib Sufi)

* Participants:
    * Shoaib
    * Stephan
    * Georgina
    * Iain
* Notes:
    * Researchers on projects can be focused on what needs to be done for that project, not necessarily for the more distant future.
    * Help doing work - needed to get rid of 'fun' project to focus on higher priorty projects - trying to focus better - sometimes want to do everything - not sustainable when trying to fail - more basic programming language e.g. Rust, worked with Java and Python in the past - not the fastest thing out there - developing skill set would be a next thing - something more C like. 
    * Looking at Jobs - RSE jobs - experience of lot of Python - interested in RSE Fellowships - not as much pressure to do first order papers - but to do papers and middle author papers - and promoting software sustainabilities - all a bit new
    * Dealing with senior management - from leading a small team to starting a new team - previous experience ok with starting a new team - but working with more senior management - business cases etc is a new area. 
    * Researcher by training, did design and animation, then public engagement and now community management
    * Another area collaborative lesson development on carpentries looks appealing
    * Clarity on which direction - more research/policy or more admin
    * How to move forward
    * * talk to people who have the experience
    * * Talk to people in the same situation
    * * EPSRC Open Fellowship existing holders - no fixed deadline to focus mind
    * * Community engagement - know more about programming and coding - learning basics can understand it better - learning things about coding without diving in
    * Continued understanding of computation and computer science

## 4. Closing - 10 min [15:50 - 16:00]

### Next call: November 2022
* Doodle poll to determine time: https://doodle.com/meeting/participate/id/aQ0RK5Le
* Sign-up/register your interest to speak on a future call: https://forms.gle/4YpTTAFUNuA2XyZEA

### Upcoming events / calls
_Event name / date, time & venue / website / description_

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### Requests for peer assists, collaboration and/or support

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### Other updates, shares and shout-outs
_Please feel free to add any updates or thank-yous that you wish to share with the community._

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### Feedback

* What did you enjoy about this call? What worked well?
    * Enjoyed time to chat :)
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* What could be improved? What did not work well?
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* What topics would you like to explore on future calls?
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