Update README.md

Added MarkDown information

Author: shanecoughlan

README.md

@@ -1,2 +1,43 @@
 # Reference-Material
-This repository contains the reference material related to the OpenChain Project
+This repository contains the reference material related to the OpenChain Project. There are around 1,000 documents in this reference library at the moment. These documents are in various formats.
+
+The OpenChain Education Work Group is working on making it easier to access, convert and share key reference material.
+
+We plan to do this through providing the source material in MarkDown. People can change it into PDF documents, Word documents and other formats from there.
+
+The reason for this change is to allow people to easily contribute to our editing via our Reference Library. This is hosted on GitHub and it favors formats like MarkDown that are basically text. 
+
+Our first step is to convert some existing documents into MarkDown. This will allow us to begin editing and updating them.
+
+There is an online tool to convert Word documents to MarkDown, which is the first step of the process. You will find it here:
+<https://word2md.com>
+
+Our Reference Library is here:
+<https://github.com/OpenChain-Project/Reference-Material>
+
+It contains a lot of documents so we will narrow down the documents we want help with. Let’s start with some Word documents.
+
+Here is our self-certification questionnaire: <https://github.com/OpenChain-Project/Reference-Material/blob/master/Self-Certification-Questionnaire/Official/2.1/en/OpenChain%20Self-Certification%20Questionnaire%202021-11-26.docx>
+
+
+Here is a conformance checklist:
+<https://github.com/OpenChain-Project/Reference-Material/blob/master/Checklists/Official/Conformance-Checklist/2.0/en/Conformance-Compliance-Checklist.docx>
+
+Here is a document about using OpenChain in Mergers and Acquisitions:
+<https://github.com/OpenChain-Project/Reference-Material/blob/master/Guides/Official/OpenChain-in-Mergers-and-Acquisitions/2.0/en/Assessment-Of-OS-Practices-In-Merger-and-Acquisition.docx>
+
+Here is a document to help managers understand OpenChain:
+<https://github.com/OpenChain-Project/Reference-Material/blob/master/Guides/Official/OpenChain-For-Managers/2.0/en/OpenChain%20For%20Managers%20-%20Version%201.0.docx> 
+
+If you convert one of these documents to MarkDown, please open a Pull Request to submit the updated document. If you need help with that, please ask our education work group at this mailing list:
+<https://lists.openchainproject.org/g/education/messages>
+
+Now you can help with updating the documentation! The process is the same. Update the MarkDown and submit a pull request.
+
+There is a small learning curve to take part in this new drive. However, it is quick, easy and free to get a graphical editor for MarkDown. Download it here:
+<https://panwriter.com>
+
+Then download background tools for MarkDown:
+<https://pandoc.org/installing.html>
+
+That’s it! You are ready to help. We look forward to working together to make sure even more people can take advantage of our reference library as they work towards a more trusted, more efficient and more effective supply chain.