All-projects Meeting Survey Results (March 2017)

Contents:

• Executive Summary
• Response details
  • How important is a having regular meeting of NumFOCUS projects to you? and What is the ideal frequency for an all-projects meeting?
  • What are your preferred channels for a REMOTE/ONLINE all-projects meeting?
  • To whom should all-projects meetings be open?
  • To whom should the all-projects meeting notes and/or recordings be made available?
  • What would you like to accomplish at an all-projects meeting?
  • What format would you prefer for an all-projects meeting?
  • What topics would you like to see addressed (over time) during all-projects meetings?

Executive Summary

The goal of the All-projects Meeting survey was to determine what kind of cross-project collaboration would be most beneficial to project leads.

The survey ran from 28 February to 3 March and received responses from 13 of the 18 NumFOCUS member projects (72.2%).

Key takeaways from the survey include:

• Project leads would find it valuable to have a quarterly online meeting, conducted over video teleconference and an annual or semiannual in-person meeting.

• There is interest from some project leads in opening up meeting attendance to a wider audience of all interested project contributors, or perhaps even the general public. There is even greater interest in communicating the results or proceeds of meetings to a wider audience, such as all project contributors and the general public.

• There is a general consensus that all-projects meetings should facilitate:
  • knowledge share,
  • collaboration towards shared resources, and
  • multi-way communication between and amongst NumFOCUS and member projects.
• There is a general consensus that the meeting format should support:
  • timely, structured updates from projects and NumFOCUS staff,
  • discussion about relevant topics, and
  • decision-making as needed.
• Top topics project leads are interested in seeing addressed are:
  • Funding (fundraising, grant writing, etc.)
  • Contributor outreach and on-boarding
  • Governance
  • Infrastructure and shared resources
  • User outreach and on-boarding
  • Building industry relationships
  • Development best practices
  • Metrics and analytics

Response details

The survey received 18 responses out of roughly 30 individual project leads who are members of projects@numfocus.org list representing 13 of the 18 member projects (72.2%).

Projects represented in the results are: FEniCS, Stan, yt project, PyMC3, matplotlib, NumPy, pandas, Software Carpentry, AstroPy, IPython/Jupyter, Data Carpentry, and rOpenSci.

How important is a having regular meeting of NumFOCUS projects to you? and What is the ideal frequency for an all-projects meeting?

Remote (online) meeting:

• 66.7% indicated somewhat important
• 22% indicated very important
• strong preference for quarterly (72%)

Takeaway: Experiment with a quarterly on-line meeting.

Next steps: Christie will lead the organization of an all-projects online meeting, with the first one happening in Q2.

In-person meeting:

• 44% indicated somewhat important
• 39% indicated very important
• nearly unanimous feedback that an in-person meeting should should occur annually

Note: In the comments section of the survey, two people suggested twice a year.

Takeaway: Continue with an annual in-person meeting (such as at the NumFOCUS Summit), and consider growing the meeting to be twice a year.

Next steps: Christie to coordinate with NumFOCUS staff to incorporate an all-projects gathering into this year’s NumFOCUS Summit.

What are your preferred channels for a REMOTE/ONLINE all-projects meeting?

All respondents said they preferred video as the method for online meetings. 33% indicated Skype would also work, and 22% indicated chat.

Takeaway: Video teleconference for online meetings is working for project leads. We should revisit this assessment if the meeting is open to a larger audience such as all project contributors.

To whom should all-projects meetings be open?

• 50% indicated project leads and contributors
• 38.9% indicated project leads only
• 11.1 % indicated everyone

Takeaway: There’s a shared desire to make cross-project collaboration open to contributors, but we need to balance that with needs of project leads who want a more private attendance.

To whom should the all-projects meeting notes and/or recordings be made available?

• 61.1% indicated everyone
• 22.2% indicated project leads and contributors
• 16.7% indicated project leads only

Takeaway: Many leads want to share information about our collaborative work widely. A few are more reserved.

Next step: Explore ways to share different versions of meeting notes and outcomes, prepared with the different key audiences in mind.

What would you like to accomplish at an all-projects meeting?

Top topics (those with >50% responses):

• 88.9% Identify areas where resources and knowledge can be shared across projects.
• 83.3% Make decisions about building and enhancing shared resources.
• 66.7% Learn what other projects are working on.
• 55.6% Learn what NumFOCUS staff is working on.
• 55.6% Provide constructive feedback to NumFOCUS staff.

Takeaway: There is a general consensus that all-projects meetings be used for knowledge share, collaboration towards shared resources, and multi-way communication between and amongst NumFOCUS and member projects.

Note: “Learning and practicing skills related to sustainability and leading of my project(s).” was also important to many project leads, coming in at 50%. There will be at least some time spent at our next in-person meeting to provide focused skill-building related to sustainability.

What format would you prefer for an all-projects meeting?

• 72.2% indicated Round-table discussion about relevant, timely topics.
• 72.2% indicated Brief updates from project leads about their projects.
• 72.2% indicated Brief updates from NumFOCUS staff about their work.
• 50% indicated Facilitated decision-making about how to build or enhance shared resources.

Takeaway: Meeting format should focus on timely, structured updates from projects and NumFOCUS staff, discussion about relevant topics, and decision-making as needed.

What topics would you like to see addressed (over time) during all-projects meetings?

Top responses (>50%):

• 83.3% Funding (fundraising, grant writing, etc.)
• 77.8% Contributor outreach and on-boarding
• 72.2% Governance
• 72.2% Infrastructure and shared resources
• 66.7% User outreach and on-boarding
• 61.1% Building industry relationships
• 55.6% Development best practices
• 55.6% Metrics and analytics

Takeaway: Prioritize these topics while developing skill-building plans.