How do you keep the candle lit and not burn it from both ends (as a community & as a community member)

How do you keep the candle lit and not burn it from both ends (as a community & as a community member)

Jana Makar¹, Aditi Subramanya², Marco de la Pierre², Adam Huttner-Koros³, Kerri Wait⁴, Loretta Davis<sup>5

1</sup>New Zealand eScience Infrastructure (NeSI) New Zealand
²Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre Australia
³NCI Australia Australia
⁴Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG) Australia
⁵Australasian eResearch Organisations Australia

Abstract

Situation
The Australasian Chapter of Women in High Performance Computing (WHPC+ AusNZ) hosts events and creates spaces where community members from all walks of life can feel welcome, connect with others, and contribute to discussions that support diversity & inclusion in our communities. As with any volunteer-run initiative, there are challenges to keeping the Chapter’s activities sustainable while also keeping community membership engaged and on a path of growth. This Birds-of-a-Feather session will explore the balancing act that must be navigated behind the scenes of building, managing, and growing a community of interest.

Task
This session provides a forum for exchanging experiences around building and sustaining momentum or focus for a community of interest/practice. Through sharing of examples and follow-up discussion, we hope community organisers and individual community members will find shared commonalities, helpful advice, or new ideas for engaging their communities.

Action
This session features three phases:
Phase 1 is a brainstorming exercise to crowdsource 2-3 specific challenges or opportunities related to community management.
Phase 2 divides participants into breakout groups that delve deeper into their topics.
Phase 3, the final 30 minutes of the session, sees participants sharing highlights from their breakout discussions, and addressing any remaining general questions or discussion.

Result
Participants in this session will have a chance to learn from other community organisers and seek advice on how to support community engagement and growth in a sustainable way.

Biography

Women in HPC – Australasian Chapter (WHPC+ AusNZ)

The Australasian Chapter of the global organisation Women in High Performance Computing (WHPC) is a collaboration between New Zealand eScience Infrastructure, NCI Australia, Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre, Monash University, and Australasian eResearch Organisations (AeRO). For more information, visit https://aero.edu.au/whpc/.