Merge pull request #7 from USRSE/jsubida/hugo

Publish first 2 posts

Author: jsubida

content/_index.md

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 The Institutional RSE Networking Affinity Group connects Research Software Engineers (RSEs) who support or aspire to develop RSE communities within their organizations. Whether your institution has an established RSE program or is just beginning to recognize RSE work, this group provides a collaborative space to share strategies and experiences. Our members focus on:
 
-Identifying and connecting with RSEs across institutional departments
-Building sustainable local RSE communities
-Developing effective networking and engagement strategies
-Sharing best practices for community leadership
-We welcome participants at any stage of their RSE community-building journey, from those exploring initial steps to those leading established groups. Through regular meetings, members exchange practical insights on community outreach, event planning, and maintaining active engagement while addressing the unique organizational contexts and challenges each institution faces.
+* Identifying and connecting with RSEs across institutional departments
+* Building sustainable local RSE communities
+* Developing effective networking and engagement strategies
+* Sharing best practices for community leadership
+* We welcome participants at any stage of their RSE community-building journey, from those exploring initial steps to those leading established groups. Through regular meetings, members exchange practical insights on community outreach, event planning, and maintaining active engagement while addressing the unique organizational contexts and challenges each institution faces.

content/posts/2025-04_JD.md

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+---
+title: "Let's Get Them in a Room!"
+date: 2025-04-25T14:38:30-05:00
+# bookComments: false
+# bookSearchExclude: false
+---
+
+By Julia Damerow, Arizona State University
+
+I work remotely for Arizona State University (ASU), but from time to time I get to go back to Arizona and meet people in person. When I went back in April of this year, my colleague Susan Massey and I planned an in-person meeting of RSEs that work across ASU. For context, at this point we have an informal group of people doing RSE work at ASU. We meet monthly and each meeting is usually attended by somewhere between 4 and 7 people. Our network is a little bit bigger than the people who usually show up for our meetings, but it’s still tiny compared to how many RSEs there must be at ASU (which has over 18,000 employees and over 5,000 faculty). Susan and I set out with the goal to make this the biggest RSE meeting at ASU so far.
+
+First, we drafted a description of the meeting and put it on our website (we have an RSE website for ASU at rse.asu.edu!). We asked people to register via a Google form so we would know how many people to expect. We planned to provide some refreshments to entice attendance. We sent the meeting advertisement out to our mailing list of people that have indicated interest in RSE-related events in the past and advertised the event in our ASU-RSE Slack channel. We then drafted personal emails to the RSEs we knew that usually don’t come to our meetings to make sure the event was on their radar. Finally, we employed the brute-force method of searching the ASU directory for “research software engineer” and “scientific software engineer”, which brought up a handful of results each. We emailed all the people with those titles and sent them the meeting invitation (basically saying “Hi, my name is Julia. I am an RSE and I think you are too! You should come to our meeting!”). 
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+Our efforts were met with success! We had a total of 12 people at our meeting and at least 3 of those were new faces. The amazing thing about this group of people was that the situation was different for almost everyone in the room. Some people were of the type “long wolf RSE” that didn't have any other RSE colleagues, while others worked in teams, big as well as small. Some people developed web applications, some worked with LLMs, and some worked on scientific code and HPC resources. So naturally, the experiences of each person differed greatly.
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+To give the meeting some structure, we created a short agenda to make sure everyone was on the same page. We introduced our efforts up to this point, talked about the RSE movement in general (to make sure everyone knew about US-RSE!), and then went around the room for everyone to introduce themselves and their work. Afterwards, we posed a few questions to get a discussion started. We encouraged everyone to share their career path and thoughts on what ASU could provide to make their work better. It was an engaging and very interesting discussion. We talked about the differences between software engineering and research software engineering, the different projects people worked on, and how RSEs at ASU could support each other and connect. 
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+In summary, this in person meeting was a great step forward for the RSE community at ASU. More people now know about our efforts, we have more contacts, and word-of-mouth can spread a little farther than before. 

content/posts/2025-05_JS.md

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+---
+title: "NURSEs.xlsx"
+date: 2025-05-25T14:42:44-05:00
+# bookComments: false
+# bookSearchExclude: false
+---
+
+By J.C. Subida, Northwestern University
+
+In the ever-evolving world of research software engineering (RSE), collaboration and community are key to success. Recently, I had the opportunity to connect with my colleague, Luke Rasmussen, through USRSE’s Slack group. Both of us, working remotely, decided to meet via Zoom to discuss our shared vision for creating a vibrant RSE community at Northwestern University.
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+Our conversation was fueled by a common desire to empower and motivate each other as software engineers. We envisioned a space where siloed developers could connect, share ideas, and contribute to individual grants. This community would not only foster professional growth but also provide a supportive environment for all involved.
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+However, we also acknowledged the challenges that lay ahead. Time constraints, introvert tendencies, and the ongoing debate between virtual and in-person connections were just a few of the hurdles we anticipated. Additionally, understanding and aligning with others’ motivations would be crucial for the community’s success.
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+Despite these challenges, we decided to start small. Our first step was to create a spreadsheet of potential contacts who might be interested in joining our community. We affectionately refer to these individuals as Northwestern University Research Software Engineers, or NURSEs. Once we have compiled a sufficient list of emails, we plan to reach out to them and invite them to be part of this exciting initiative.
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+While we haven’t reached that stage yet, we believe that taking small, deliberate steps, even under constraints, is more productive than doing nothing. Our journey is just beginning, and we are eager to see how our community will grow and evolve. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to build a strong network of research software engineers at Northwestern University.

content/posts/hello.md

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 baseURL = 'https://usrse.github.io/ag-institutional-rse-networking/'
 languageCode = 'en-us'
 title = 'Institutional RSE Networking'
-theme = "hugo-book"
+theme = "hugo-book"
+
+[params]
+    BookSection = 'posts'