# Announcing the US-RSE Local and Regional Working Group

Authors: Rafael Mudafort, Sandra Gesing, Jordan Perr-Sauer, Mahmood Shad, Abbey Roelofs
Date: 7/2022
Venue: FOR PUBLICATION ON THE US-RSE BLOG

The US-RSE Association has grown to become a major resource for people in a variety of RSE-like roles and provides support through monthly community calls and working groups. Because of the distributed nature of the research software engineering community across the United States, exaggerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to remote working styles, most US-RSE activities now take place online. However, co-location and face-to-face meetings have certain advantages for local community building and in fostering social interactions.

During the [2022 US-RSE Community Building Workshop](https://us-rse.org/first-community-workshop/), a working group was established to identify pathways for creating a network of RSE groups based on geographic areas rather than institutions or companies. The working group aims at building a localized social community structure for RSEs, both in person and online, with the aim of connecting research software engineers within local and regional communities. The Local and Regional Working Group are conducting an ongoing experiment in establishing groups in their own areas while also sharing resources, successes and failures.

If you are interested in creating a local or regional RSE group, or you have already done so and would like to share your experiences with colleagues nation-wide, please reach out through the US-RSE Slack channel and share your experience!

The members of this working group and their RSE group location are listed below

| Name | Organization | Area |
| ----------------- | -------------------------------- | --------------- |
| Jordan Perr-Sauer | National Renewable Energy Lab | Front Range, CO |
| Mahmood Shad | Harvard University | New England |
| Rafael Mudafort | National Renewable Energy Lab | New Orleans, LA |
| Sandra Gesing | University of Illinois - Chicago | Chicago, IL |

## Considerations

### Why start a local group? Why would anyone participate?

In a recent informal poll of the members of the `#rg-frontrange` channel in the US-RSE Slack, the following reasons were identified:

- Get to know other RSE's in my area.
- Build my network and make connections.
- Venue for recruiting.
- Learn how to build RSE community at my own institution.
- Opportunities for collaboration, co-working, or a hackerspace.
- Learning from others

These reasons show one theme in common: RSEs desire to be more connected with a professional community. The need comes from the reality that RSEs are often isolated in their organization. A local group can provide an outlet for sharing technical knowledge and resources while bringing people together from those cities and from surrounding cities and affiliations. For example, it can be helpful to learn about how other people use a particular tool like an IDE or which processes are particularly useful at another institution. Even when an organization does have a healthy network of RSEs, socializing with co-workers can have particular limitations. A local RSE group can provide an opportunity to socialize with other people that have a shared experience without the "co-worker" label. A local RSE group is a great way to stay connected to who is doing what in the area. It's an opportunity to create a local community of RSEs who support each other throughout their careers.

## Activities

The US-RSE Association is well-established and has many resources to help in advertising and coordinating local RSE groups. Since the US-RSE community building workshop, the local and regional working group has met regularly and identified the following activities:

### Formation of the Local and Regional Working Group

The working group has been formed and is using the private Slack channel `#wg-local-regional` for organization. The working group meets monthly. If you are interested in joining the working group, reach out to Rafael, Sandra, or Jordan via Slack.

### Support for Local Groups by the Members of the Working Group

Each member of the working group will experiment by forming a local group in their own community. Since this is a new step for US-RSE, we intend to experiment ourselves and share our experience in a future post. Additionally, we will engage with anyone starting their own local group to offer resources and guidance.

### Regional Group Prefixes on Slack
The general US-RSE Slack can be used to host a local-group Slack channel. By convention, these all are prefixed with `#rg-` and then have the name of the location; for example, `#rg-nola` for the New Orleans regional group.

Each local group should have an associated Slack channel in the [US-RSE Slack](usrse.slack.com) team with a `#rg-` prefix.

### Regional Groups Added to US-RSE Map

TODO:
- Add picture of map
- Local groups are displayed in the membership map in XX color.
- Wide reach to the full community
- Digital storage space through Google Drive through US RSE

### Regional Group Listing
The following local and regional groups have been identified through the US-RSE slack channel:

| Location | Slack Channel | Membership |
|---|---|---|
| Arizona | `#arizona-rse` | 17 |
| California | `#california-rse` | 38 |
| Chicago Area, Illinois | `#rg-chicago-rse` | 8 |
| Denver Area, Colorado (Front Range) | `#rg-frontrange` | 29 |
| New England | `#rg-new-england` | 13 |
| New Mexico | `#new-mexico-rse` | 9 |
| New Orleans, LA (NOLA) | `#rg-nola` | 3 |
| Pennsylvania | `#pennsylvania-rse` | 7 |