Meeting reminder: Tuesday, 9/24 @ 6:30

[Melissa Xie]

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to send a quick reminder about our next meeting! It's happening this upcoming Tuesday, September 24th at 6:30pm, located at MeYou Health (1 Appleton St, Boston) again.

We'll be doing 5-minute lightning talks about whatever topic we'd like, e.g. maybe just introducing yourself! You don't have to have slides, but we'd love for everyone to get up and talk!

Hope to see you all there! And bring a friend too if you can!

-- Melissa

[Janet Riley]

On Saturday, September 21, 2013 7:25:58 PM UTC-4, Melissa Xie wrote:

We'll be doing 5-minute lightning talks about whatever topic we'd like, e.g. maybe just introducing yourself! You don't have to have slides, but we'd love for everyone to get up and talk!

Thanks for the reminder, I'd forgotten this part.  

Were we going to do another iteration on what direction the group might go?  I like some of the things that Women Who Code does. The main chapter's page is at  http://www.meetup.com/Women-Who-Code-SF

From their About section:  

 

"  We are women who code  * in any framework  * any level of experience * any size of company  * or just code for fun!  We meet weekly for technical study groups and monthly for larger format events including tech talks, career trainings and hack nights.  Current and aspiring coders are welcome. 

I like how they phrased this - very open, no really you don't have to be an expert.  I also like what they do: study groups, tech talks, career talks, hack night.  They encourage tech talks as an avenue to more visibility and bigger talks in the wider tech community. 

( The mind boggles at a big enough community to meet weekly...  and a big enough ecosystem of tech companies to host weekly...)

I'm keen to do an online study group like Boston PHP, where they work through a book a chapter at a time.  See http://www.meetup.com/bostonphp/events/130131632/ for their current PHP group   This could be especially good for women in the rest of New England who don't have a big local tech scene.   I can't bring myself to go through the Hartl book again, but would do something else.  I got some pointers from one of the the Women Who Code study group organizers.   I'm trying it out on Boston Pyladies; we're following along with Coursera's upcoming Intro to Interactive Programming with Python class.

The WWC organizer initially misunderstood me as asking about starting a WWC chapter. It's an interesting idea.  It would be less focused on Ruby, but would tap into a bigger group, which might be more sustainable.  This group wasn't my idea, and I'm not attached to either direction.  I'm tossing it out for thought.

I'm at a (non-software) client site with a lot of women employees - you know, a normal gender breakdown.  It may have been the first time in my career I've had to wait in line at the ladies room.  Not joking.

Look forward to seeing you tomorrow-

Janet

 

[Janet Riley]

I'll do a lightning talk on Message Oriented Architecture.  I've been hearing that term a lot, and it seems like a perfect opportunity to do a little research.

Janet

[Melissa Xie]

I didn't get a chance to look at the WWC site you mentioned, but depending on time, I think it'd be nice to have another iteration on where we'd like to go with this group!

I think I'm going to give a talk on Alfred.

[Louise Rains]

Is there inexpensive parking nearby?

Thanks!

Louise

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[Liana Leahy]

Louise,

There is a perking garage behind the Calderwood Theatre, but in the late afternoon you will likely find a parking spot in Tremont Street close to the Pike.

Best,

Liana

[Melissa Xie]

Hey everyone,

I am *so* sorry I dropped the ball on sending out the meeting notes from the last meeting. It's been a crazy month and so it had totally slipped my mind.

In any case, we didn't end up doing lightning talks since there were only 4 of us there. We decided to continue the discussion of what we'd like the group to be, so here's what I have for notes:

* Possibility of making this a more general group for women in tech

- people naturally can form into subgroups as they see fit, e.g. a Rails study group, a group project, etc.

* How to decide on a talk topic?

- hold a conference/workshop much like WriteSpeakCode (http://www.writespeakcode.com/)

-- I can talk to my friend Rachel Ober, who helped organize that event, to guide us

- recap on weekly activities

- start off with writing tweets or blog posts about daily learnings or something you feel strongly about (regardless of how technical)

* Talks/presentations we'd like to see:

- interviewing techniques

- [salaray] negotiations

-- I might be able to ask Ben Orenstein to speak about this b/c I've been told he's very good at it. *Or* we can try to find a female resource.

That's all I've got. Feel free to respond to any of these topics on this thread.

Also, is everyone available for next Tuesday, 10/22? (October *really* snuck up on me.)

-- Melissa

[Janet Riley]

Yes, I'm game for next Tuesday.
Janet

[Jennifer Morton]

Count me in.

Jennifer

[Liana Leahy]

I'm in as well!

[Melissa Xie]

Awesome! MeYou Health again?

[Liana Leahy]

We're always happy to host!

[Galia Traub]

I thinking about what I would want out of this group that I don't get
from boston.rb

1) Community. The boston.rb has been (at least for me) a open and
supportive community, but its always nice to belong to a few subgroups
within a broader community.

2) Opportunities to practice public speaking. The big boston.rb
meeting is way to intimidating and I don't have the right kind of
topic. I could see a our group being a great place to get more
comfortable presenting on a complicated technical topic.

3) Opportunities to mentor. (related to #2) RailsBridge is great, but
brief. We had talked about a RailsBridge Bridge. I'd happily dedicate
some of my time to that. On the flip side, project nights at Boston.rb
sort of cover this but maybe having a RailsBridge Bridge to Boston.rb
project nights would help.

4) Pair programming opportunities. Again, boston.rb project nights
kind of cover this, but (again, for me) its hard to find a person to
work with.

How about you? What kinds of things do you want to see out of this
group? I'd be happy to take charge of the RailsBridge bridge if you
think that would be useful.

~Galia



~Galia

[Jennifer Konikowski]

I think a RailsBridge Bridge is a great idea. I think I mentioned at the first meetup how RailsGirls ATL does monthly RailsGirls meetups to help participants transition. I think that can not only help beginners, but also help foster your number one point: community. I would definitely be interested in helping with that.

The number one thing I want is community with other women in the Ruby community. Maybe if we want to be less formal that just means grabbing coffee or a drink on the occasional weekend.

Jennifer

[Melissa Xie]

I agree with all of what Galia and Jennifer has said so far, and RailsBridge^2 sounds like a fantastic idea. If there are a few of you who would like to lead that, please do so!

This is also brings up another point though: is everyone who's interested in this group also interested in helping out with RailsBridge as well? If so, I think we can actually just take ownership of RailsBridge and that way it'd be ok to talk about it at our meetings. Otherwise, maybe RBB conversations should be kept separate? I'm not sure if what I'm saying here makes sense...but yeah, just throwing that out there.

I'd also like to share/elaborate on what I think I'm looking for in this group -- it's a consistent time and place for women in the Ruby community to be able to:

* meet other Ruby women

* support each other by means of listening to a practice talk, figuring out how to improve our community (e.g. RBB), mentoring, etc.

* have conversations about anything, e.g. social issues, technical issues, our days

That said, I think it's important that we keep this group more on the informal side. I think it relieves us of any pressure to always "produce content" and it's nice to have some flexibility. We can plan the agenda for each meeting one month at a time, which is basically what we're doing now. For example, someone can say "hey, I want to give a talk but I'd like to practice in front of you all", and then we can plan to do that at the next meeting (or an ad-hoc meeting). I also think that as we continue to get together, stuff like mentorships and pairing opportunities will naturally form.

Thoughts?

[Jennifer Konikowski]

So I can help with RBB^2 if it's sorta part of this group, but I can't do three monthly groups. Heck, I can barely usually make it to this one right now without some serious motivation. I personally think our group should take some ownership of RBB. If we're the women in the Ruby community, shouldn't we be the ones helping bring more women in?

Otherwise, totally agree with what you're saying Melissa. On the note of keeping it informal, could we change up the location occasionally? I go home early, so coming all the way downtown is tough. But if I'm the only one (which, probably), no worries.

Jennifer

[Galia Traub]

I love the idea of informal meetups. For example, I'm thinking about changing jobs and I'd love to chat with folks who have worked in startups to help me solidify exactly what I'm looking for. I don't need a formal mentor or anything like that, just people to talk to.

I'd be happy to take lead for RBB. When is the next one? Rather than having a monthly meetup we could start out by holding a session one evening the week right after RailsBridge and see how well it is attended. That will help us assess interest and which concepts that we should cover more in depth. We can also use that night to encourage folks to go to project night. Based on that we can arrange subsequent sessions. That being said, the current group of people running RailsBridge is doing a great job, and I wouldn't want any one involved to feel slighted by taking any responsibility away from them.  Melissa especially... what is your take on this?  

~Galia

~Galia

[Melissa Xie]

RE: Location - What area would be the most convenient right now? I work right near Park St. Station, so it's near the Green, Orange, and Red lines. We can change it to the thoughtbot offices if that works out better for people.

RE: RBB^2 - Thanks for taking the lead Galia! I think that having a trial run of the session would be great. The next workshop is January 24th & 25th. And don't worry, you're not stepping on RBB's toes at all. You're actually helping us! The "next steps" part has always been tricky for us. I guess for earlier workshops, there was barely anything provided. However, for at least the last few, we've offered books, coupons, and invitations to groups/mailing lists. These are ok, but I think the most helpful next step is actually following up with our attendees and seeing what we can do to help them move forward.

RE: Taking ownership of RBB - I think we can totally do this, especially since Janet and I currently lead the organization of it. I think what Jennifer said makes total sense - "If we're the women in the Ruby community, shouldn't we be the ones helping bring more women in?". And in fact, it wasn't until now that RBB was led by women. The only thing is that I don't want this to mean we shut out some of our male helpers. Many of them have been great, and even though Dan Choi and Braulio Carreno have handed RBB over to us, they're still great resources. I think that perhaps, we can make the transition to all-women-led slowly...maybe eventually, we can even slap a "Boston Ruby Women" logo on it or something. :P

[Jennifer Konikowski]

Yes to all!

Location: I work near South Station and live in Somerville (Union Square), so Cambridge Red Line spots are pretty convenient. We're a small group, so we could probably hit up a coffee shop one month. Also, Margaret had the great idea of maybe getting together for lunch once a month. I think most of us work *relatively* close. We can probably all do a long lunch at least monthly, right? Let's make it happen!

RBB: Definitely agree about the dudes. Don't necessarily want to shut them out, but if we could get more ladies leading sessions (even if some of us are less qualified) or also have a lady emcee the event, it might help the women participating in RailsBridge to see that we do exist and aren't just always second chair to dudes. I saw a tweet the other month that sorta struck me. It was a guy saying "if RailsBridge and RailsGirls are so successful, how come the TAs are always mostly male?" We should try to make a super huge effort to get at least half of the TAs to be female. That would probably be a better impression for the women doing RailsBridge to have. Just my two cents.

Jennifer

[Melissa Xie]

RE: Location - monthly lunch works for me as well. I do something similar with old classmates who work in the area. My only concern is that how can we do this as the group grows? One step at a time, I know, but just something to think about.

RE: RBB - I totally agree, and I think it'll take time to have more females become TAs. We really try to do that when we recruit our TAs, but I think that part of the issue is women not knowing what being a TA entails and whether they're qualified. And honestly, we don't have very specific requirements, it's: you're friendly and approachable; you've either at least taken the workshop before or you have Ruby/Rails experience. Maybe that's too vague? I'm not sure. Suggestions welcome for making this clearer.

[Galia Traub]

The thoughtbot offices are a great location for me as is anywhere in Cambridge as both as on my commute home.

We can talk more about this on Tuesday, but I could run a session for current RBB alumni sometime before Jan24 & Jan25. If we run it a little before the new session, it could be a great way to try to recruit some new TAs.  :D

Also, if women are nervous about lecturing at Railsbridge (I know I was!) we can support lecturers by helping them prepare. That could increase the % of women giving the lectures. 

~Galia

~Galia

[Janet Riley]

I have a lot of me-too's to Galia's list:

* Community - I plug in better to smaller groups, and I like getting to know more women.
* Public speaking

* Mentoring - I can mentor on software topics that aren't deeply into Ruby, or help a Ruby newcomer get their bearings.
* Pairing - I've had very few opportunities to do it

Plus, * more motivation to blog.  I'm having a hard time getting started.

The "ruby" part is incidental, frankly.  I haven't used it on a real project yet.  Ruby and side projects will take a back seat to whatever I need for work.  And I'm language agnostic -  I work in a lot of languages, and WILL work in other languages. This one happens to have a nice community.

Janet

[Janet Riley]

Go for it, Galia.  I feel like I can't accomodate that kind of regular commitment, but will watch for other ways I can help.

I'd like to start developing some mini projects and tutorials for the in-between phase.  Have you seen newcoder.io ?  Boston Python Workshop has some mini-projects as well, for when you're too new to start something on your own, but too advanced for another step-by-step tutorial.

Janet

[Janet Riley]

Nice work on your RB presentation, by the way.  You did a good job, and it showed that you'd prepared a lot.

And ++ for Lily Tomlin pictures!
Janet

[Melissa Xie]

Also: would it make sense to move tomorrow night's meeting to thoughtbot for convenience? We may decide to nix evening meetings or go somewhere different each time, but let's change the location this time and discuss more at the meeting.

[Jennifer Konikowski]

Thoughtbot is definitely a bit easier to get to. See y'all on Tuesday!

Jennifer

[Galia]

I prefer thoughtbot. I've been thinking about RB^2B and have some ideas I'm excited to share! See you all tomorrow. 

Sent from my iPhone

[Anne G]

Hi :) I'd like to attend, also. What time tomorrow?

Cheers,

Anne

On Tuesday, October 15, 2013 10:52:30 PM UTC-4, Melissa Xie wrote:

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[Melissa Xie]

6:30pm at thoughtbot office (41 Winter St, 8th Floor, Boston, MA 02108).

I can also order some pizza for us as we usually have at our meetings.

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[Janet Riley]

Great, thoughtbot is a shorter walk.  Pizza would be good too - let us know how much to kick in.
See you tonight-
Janet

On Monday, October 21, 2013 2:06:00 PM UTC-4, Melissa Xie wrote:

6:30pm at thoughtbot office (41 Winter St, 8th Floor, Boston, MA 02108).

I can also order some pizza for us as we usually have at our meetings.

On Mon, Oct 21, 2013 at 12:30 PM, Anne G <anna...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi :) I'd like to attend, also. What time tomorrow?

Cheers,

Anne

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[Melissa Xie]

The pizza's on thoughtbot, so no worries. :) Feel free to call or send me a text at: 401-339-5593 if you have any trouble getting up here.

See you all tonight!

--

[Josée Poirier]

Hi everyone,

Sorry I was unable to attend tonight's meeting (my Tuesday nights are very busy). 

I hope you had a productive and fun time!

Best,

Josée

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