rcos / rcos-handbook Goto Github PK

Description of Issue:

Our mission statement is very out of date, and does not accurately represent what RCOS aims to achieve.

Proposed Solution:

A while ago we had talked about updating the mission statement. As we are refining our branding and improving our documentation, it is a good time to follow up on this. A draft mission statement should be made, and opened up for discussion.

The current official mission statement, for reference:

"To provide a creative, intellectual and entrepreneurial outlet for students to use the latest open-source software platforms to develop applications that solve societal problems."

Description of Issue:

Currently the appeal form link is broken.
Proposed Solution:

Create a fillable PDF form for grade appeals as detailed in issue #19.

Description of Issue:

Casual coding session documentation is incomplete

Description of Issue:

Previously, we discussed incentivizing tech talks with 1-2 bonus sessions. Those who have given tech talks were often unaware that hosting tech talks counted as a bonus session.

Proposed Solution:

Add bonus session info for hosting a tech talk to the tech talk document.

Description of Issue:

The RPI specific policies are starting to overwhelm the Code of Conduct.
Proposed Solution:

I feel that if the RPI specific policies lived under its own Bylaws document, there would be less ambiguity.

Description of Issue:

These are still marked TODO on our Projects page

Description of Issue:

In branding, all description and usage information is marked as TODO.

Description of Issue:

Currently we are using the standard template

Proposed Solution:

Clarify branding assets/guidelines, use custom CSS integrating RCOS colors

Description of Issue:

Observatory still does not have functionality to request an excused absence. Currently, there is no documentation on how to request an excused absence without Observatory.

Proposed Solution:

Add documentation detailing our current method of resolving excused absences.

Description of Issue:

In Sponsors, we still have "TODO: information regarding sponsors goes here".

Description of Issue:

We don't have any documented time limits for guest speakers / presenters

Proposed Solution:

This was discussed in a mentor meeting on 10/07/18 - we agreed that a limit of 40 minutes for guest speakers was generous and reasonable.

This just needs to be added to the handbook in the section for Guest Speakers on the Large Group page

Description of Issue:

Hosting an event documentation is incomplete.
Proposed Solution:

Outline criteria/requirements

Description of Issue:

Observatory will no longer be responsible or showing RCOS meeting times and presentation schedule - the handbook is a much easier solution for maintaining this data.

Proposed Solution:

We add some links to the home page that directs interested parties towards our calendar of events and our presentation schedule.

Description of Issue:

We do not have a good description for what coordinators actually do, and are not very transparent as to how we select them. Previous attempts had been made to define this, but are incomplete and out of date.

Proposed Solution:

A high level description of what a coordinator is should be added, as well as a more in depth section on how to be a good coordinator, and the types of decisions coordinators should made. We should also provide the general criteria of how we select coordinators, and what types of initiative we look for in potential coordinators. Although coordinators are and should be selected behind closed doors, it is important we are transparent as to how we select them.

Description of Issue:

In our Brand Standards page, both red and gray are defined as Pantone 485.
Proposed Solution:

Edit the gray pantone to be Pantone 424.

Description of Issue:

Under Bylaws in the Attendance section, the link to the excused absence policy points to the old excused absence page, which is a 404.
Proposed Solution:

Point this link to the attendance policy, preferably the anchor of the section that talks about excused absences.

Description of Issue:

It is currently unclear how the Code of Conduct may positively or negatively affect grades.

Proposed Solution:

Add an addendum to the rubric.

Description of Issue:

After PR #51, links to resources under Community Standards no longer work.
Proposed Solution:

Change links to reflect the changes in PR #51.

Description of Issue:

Documentation for Accepted Students Day is incomplete

Description of Issue:

There are still some TODO items on RCOS teams:

• describe purpose of RCOS teams
• document process of joining teams
  Proposed Solution:

Complete the above TODO items as well as any additional documentation.

Description of Issue:

Currently, there is documentation for requesting excused absences, but no documentation for correcting any errors in attendance data (e.g. a student was present but a glitch in Observatory marked it as an unexcused absence).

Proposed Solution:

Add process for resolving attendance issues under grading/attendance.md.

Draft process:

To be marked as PRESENT: Contact one of your small group mentors or, if you attended a bonus session, the mentor(s) who hosted the bonus session. If they verify that you were present, they will then contact a coordinator, who will manually mark you as present.

To be marked as EXCUSED: If you have requested an excused absence, but it shows up as unexcused after [insert time period], contact a coordinator or faculty advisor. They will then review your request, and may then mark you as excused.

Also, we need to determine a reasonable time period to resolve excused absences.

Description of Issue:

Right now, it doesn't show the changes I made on rcos.github.io
Proposed Solution:

Change basePath in index.html to master

Description of Issue:

Tech talk documentation is incomplete

Description of Issue:

Mentor training needs to be completed at the very start of the semester -- we should get documentation on mentor training ASAP.
Proposed Solution:

Propose various strategies for mentor training and write up documentation

Description of Issue:

As our organization grows, we are starting to get more "off-topic" talks. This increases the potential for an inevitable talk on sensitive material, which could ultimately contribute to a hostile environment since students at large group are mandated to attend and thus cannot leave if they feel uncomfortable.

Proposed Solution:

Outline a policy in Bylaws on sensitive topics.

Description of Issue:

We do not have an updated description of what RCOS is and what our mission is

Proposed Solution:

An in-depth high-level description of RCOS should be added to the first page of the docs. This should include the updated mission statement as per #13, as well as a few paragraphs that would give someone who has no idea what RCOS is or why it is awesome a good impression of what we do, and what we aim to do.

Description of Issue:

Currently, we have no protocol in place for when mentors/coordinators leave during the semester.
Proposed Solution:

Create a policy outlining what to do and whether to replace the mentor/coordinator leaving or to move a mentor from one small group to another. This policy may be dependent on:

• Time left in the semester (if there are only 2 weeks left in the semester, action may not be necessary at all and in fact may not be advised. If it is 2 weeks into the semester, we have a lot of flexibility with options)
• Whether the person leaving is a mentor or coordinator (we may be able to move mentors from one small group to another, but we don't exactly have spare coordinators)
• Whether the person was removed or resigned due to violations of our Code of Conduct (if this is the case, they should probably not be able to have a say in who replaces them)
• How many mentors would remain in the small group after the person's departure

Description of Issue:

This is a TODO item in "attendance"
Proposed Solution:

Establish this threshold. Also, figure out how excused absences factor in to this. Do we throw away excused absences and only count % of regular sessions vs % bonus sessions or will excused absences count towards the percentage of regular sessions?

Description of Issue:

Documentation of speed dating is incomplete

Proposed Solution:

Old speed dating document from rcos/intro should be added. The document should be updated with new organization details, and history of why speed dating was created.

Description of Issue:

TODO in coordinating/passwords

Description of Issue:

There are two presentations in rcos/intro that should be migrated over to this repository in Markdown (rather than HTML)

• https://github.com/rcos/intro/blob/master/presentation/presentations.html
• https://github.com/rcos/intro/blob/master/presentation/smallgroups.html

Proposed Solution:

I'll migrate them over shortly

Description of Issue:
The "What are Faculty Advisors?" link points to the coordinators link.

Proposed Solution:

Create a document outlining what faculty advisors do.

Description of Issue:

In the coordinator meetings on August 13 and 20, we discussed a few changes to the agenda so we can have small group meetings start earlier on in the semester.

Proposed Solution:

Keeping this information available only to coordinators and to mentors during the mentor training is against our open-source ethos. We should update the "First Two Weeks" document ASAP.

Description of Issue:

Our press kit is not established yet.

Description of Issue:

We are currently proposing an NRB week event for RCOS.
Proposed Solution:

Flesh out the exact NRB event as well as documentation

Description of Issue: We can't have one mentor managing 10 students on a single project. It makes small group meetings incredibly difficult to manage and students in need of help can't get sufficient attention.

Proposed Solution: We establish a maximum mentor-to-student ratio for individual projects. I propose 1 mentor to 5 students as the maximum allowed ratio without specific permission.

@AdrianCollado @wdturner @Bad-Science @kburk1997 Thoughts?

Description of Issue:

This section is incomplete.
Proposed Solution:

Document RCOS expo

Description of Issue:
After setting up the blog, the handbook URL now points to blog.rcos.io/rcos-handbook.

Proposed Solution:

Change the url to either rcos.github.io/rcos-handbook or handbook.rcos.io.

Description of Issue:

This section is incomplete.
Proposed Solution:

Add some recommendations for setting up:

• Github
• Git
• Text editors
• Terminal stuff
• Booting Linux

Description of Issue:
Under status updates part subsection text for "How are Status Updates tracked?" are repeated twice.

Proposed Solution:
Delete the redundant text.

Description of Issue:

We don't have any documentation about appealing grades

Proposed Solution:

We discuss potential solutions here @AdrianCollado @kburk1997 @Bad-Science

I personally feel one of the following options should be in place:

Option A: An appeal process that takes place after the grade is entered in SIS with a period of X days (i.e. Mon-Fri of the week AFTER grading) to request a grade appeal. We would provide a template for the request to simplify the process.

Option B: We produce an algorithm to calculate a student's grade on-the-fly for an always-up-to-date calculated grade for the class.

Options C: ???

Description of Issue:

We don't have a documented process for a mentor / coordinator leaving in the middle of the semester.

Proposed Solution:

Define the process and any associated restrictions / limitations.

• For example, a mentor deciding to drop responsibilities mid-semester, after the drop deadline.

Description of Issue:

Towards the end of the semester, we discussed that the rubric was starting to go out of date.
Proposed Solution:

Refactor the rubric to include changes made to RCOS in 2018.

Description of Issue:
There are no guidelines detailing submission deadlines or requirements for Status Updates

Proposed Solution:
Add clause to Status Updates section of handbook detailing that submission of empty or functionally empty status update files is not acceptable.

Also make a note that mentors will review status updates periodically throughout the semester to ensure that the updates are being written to an acceptable standard.

Description of Issue:

Some of our old Code of Conduct documentation points to rcos/intro and we will be retiring that repository as the handbook becomes the main source of documentation for RCOS.

Proposed Solution:

Similarly to how we are going to migrate presentations over here, point all CoC links to here, including in templates. Anyone using our template CoC in their project should be notified of this change.

Description of Issue:

The logo at the top of the page has no alt text, and thus the text "RCOS: Rensselaer Center For Open Source" does not render on screenreaders.

Description of Issue:

Right now, we have no documented deadline for requesting an excused absence. This means that theoretically, people can send out excused absence requests en masse at the end of the semester.

Proposed Solution:

Establish a deadline for requesting an excused absence. This may require a distinction between foreseen and unforeseen absences. If this already exists somewhere, document it.

Draft policy:

For foreseen absences (e.g. religious holidays, job/grad school interviews, weddings, hackathons), you must request an excused absence no later than [x] day(s) in advance.

x days can be anywhere from as little as 1 day to 7 days.

For unforeseen absences (e.g. illness, family emergency), you must request an excused absence no later than [y] days/week(s) after you return to RCOS.

y can range from 3 days to 2 weeks.

Of course, we can make exceptions on a case by case basis:

Exceptions may be made on a case-by-case basis, but proper documentation is required.

Description of Issue:

A lot of resources are just for learning how to program
Proposed Solution:

Add more resources on design, hardware, advanced topics, and for underrepresented students in tech.

Description of Issue:

Although the official excused absence feature isn't implemented yet, we should have some documentation on excused absences.

Proposed Solution:

Start excused absence documentation

Description of Issue:

Expand on contributing guidelines added in TODO.