[Miao]{This is a LONG email} STeLA Documentation-To Do or Not To do/A Cool Name to have/Comments on the Layout

[Miao Wang]

Dear All,

(cc: Garrett Hemann)

--------------------Below Is The Part You May Skip--------------------

[ Thanks to Garrett that we have simplified our mailing list A LOT! ]

[ Don't know who I am? No need to be panic: I used to be the President of STeLA China Branch who ruined the whole plan of hosting the next forum in Beijing, China, and also you are very welcomed to Columbia University in the City of New York and treat me a dinner. ]

I guess we all agree that if we want STeLA goes further, by which I mean being more professional, more impactful and more wealthy, we need to start with solid foundations, one of which is documentation. Personally, the idea of professional documentation of STeLA sessions is inspired by the Rescue Game, a game that is 100% STeLA original (Is it?). I felt that it is important to have games like these passed on to the next generation of STeLA-ers, not only to be references to new ideas/games/sessions, but also to give them a sense of belonging to STeLA. I communicated this idea with several members this year during the forum and gained support. I think if we start now, we could possibly accomplish something before the next forum in Stanford. 

--------------------Below Is The Part You May Pay Attention To--------------------

This email is trying to initiate the Documentation Project. The idea here is to gather all the sessions that we have developed so far for the forum/mini-forum (Certain degree of originality is required.) and record them carefully into a BOOK/BOOKLET/WEBSITE so that other groups of people can replay/reuse them for the purpose of Non-Profit leadership training. One of the reasons to do this is for the convenience to train new staff members. From what I learned in the past two years, the best ways to have Muggles understand STeLA quickly is to let them experience one of the sessions we have had and get excited about it.  

I posted several questions below and I expected ANSWERS from people who are interested in Documentation. If you don't like me or don't like to communicate with me or feel terrible while communicating with me, I TOTALLY understand: Please email back to Garrett, US CTO:) 

-To Document or Not to Document?

It is an important question to ask. I would hope that everyone think Documentation is worth working on. REPLY if it sounds like a stupid thing to do, with a REASON. I will be quiet then and go on with my homework. 

-What makes a documentation professional?

Provide your understandings, experiences or expectations of what a professional documentation would be like. Sharing some links is also helpful. 

-A cool name to have

Since we want to make it a book, we need a cool name for the book for both image building and marketing reasons. Something like 'A Spectrum of STeLA Sessions' would be very boring:(. We need something smart. 

-Preface Content: Why it matters to STeLA to record?

This is something I think we may write in the preface. I am open with other preface topics too, but so far for this one, I may want to hear as many thoughts as possible, simply to motivate us to work on documentation. 

-Comments on the layout [IMPORTANT! MUST REPLY!]

Here is what we want to record for one session, OPINIONS needed!

{

-Session Name (if any)

-Session Type (leadership, thematic, group project, energizer, etc.)

-Session Developers (Name-School-Branch Affiliation-Contact Information)

-Advisors (Title-Name-School-Branch Affiliation)

-Relevant Leadership Theories/Skills

-Forum when it was first used (Year-Location-Theme)

-When it was reused (Year-Event-Name of the Users-Affiliation)

[Can be out of STeLA forum/Can be someone other than the developers]

-Summary

[A short description of what the story is like]

-Game Type

-Group Size

-Venues/Facilities

-Settings (classroom setting/table setting)

-Materials

              -Reading Materials

              -Supplement Materials (Map, Chips, etc.)

              -Instructive Materials (PowerPoint, Music, etc.)

              [Mari’s session for visioning, the music is awesome. Someone cried:)]

-Game Instructions

-Reflection questions

-Reference (Books, Papers, etc.)

-Feedback From Participants

-Possible Improvements

-How the developers would allow you to use the materials?

}

-Who would like to help/replace me here? 

Garrett is also in the team for building the website. I cannot work along because 

1 I am lazy 

2 My English is not enough 

3 It is too BIG a deal for me to decide along and I don't think I own the trust from all. 

We need one or two who HAVE TIME. Proficiency in English and skills at Photoshop is preferred. Also, if you feel like that I am NOT the right person to document certain sessions, I will make it another person's jobs and just simply assemble the works. 

-STeLA Copyright

I wonder if we should consider this issue while reconstructing our constitution. How serious we are going to be about this? What notifications we would like to mark on our materials?

-Anything else you want to comment on about documentation?

Please forward this email to the ones who you know were the session developers. THANKS!

Hug all,

Miao

-- 

Miao Wang

Sent with Sparrow

[Miao Wang]

Hey all,

How are you doing ^_^ ?

So far I got five replies, most from US members. I wonder if there are more thoughts coming… Actually I wonder what EU members think about Documentation.

I understand you guys are BUSY starting with a new STeLA-Year, but please give 10 minutes to Documentation because it might be helpful to new staff training and the coming mini-forums. It may attract sponsors as well. (When I was president I used to ignore a lot of emails I felt that I am paying my debt…wuwu…I AM SORRY)

This time I make my email shorter. Feel free to reply any thought on any point:)

(Someone commented that I sounded angry in the last email, which was NOT true. I was just trying to be professional |o| …)

3 It is too BIG a deal for me to decide along.

We need one or two who HAVE TIME. Proficiency in English and skills at Photoshop is preferred. 

-STeLA Copyright

I wonder if we should consider this issue while reconstructing our constitution. How serious we are going to be about this? What notifications we would like to mark on our materials?

Hug All!!!

Miao

-- 

Miao Wang

Sent with Sparrow

[ge liu]

It's definitely a good idea, and if you need any material I'll send all that I have.

I remember having received an e-mail from Jurgen about tracking of all the documents we've made so far, maybe EU has built a similar system or something that could help with this documentation project.

Nothing i can comment on the  layout for now, we can follow this one first and make changes if something goes wrong.

Hug you.

Saber

2013/11/12 Miao Wang <shuig...@gmail.com>

--
Ge Liu  刘謌
清华大学电子工程系
清华大学学生对外交流协会 ASIC

STeLA科技领导力论坛

Department of Electronic engineering
Tsinghua University, Beijing, P.R. China

Mobile: +8618611522048

Email: lg00...@126.com
           lg00...@gmail.com

[Ling Zhang]

Actually I love your first "ANGRY" email! It reminds me of our passion for STeLA. In Chinese this is like "不忘初心". So don’t be upset about the replies.

 

However this is a time consuming project, we have to consider what one can learn by collecting materials and doing Photoshop. Maybe we should let new staffs to do this task. CN branch have already finished the recruiting and we have some active freshmen now. I believe somebody would be interested.

 

This is also a long-term work. Perhaps we need to make a timetable for there must be more problems waiting in the future. It is easy to start and easy to give up so we have to try to follow the timetable.

 

The documentation is of course a great thing to do. Sorry I have no time to help, but here's my best wishes. Go for it!

Ling Zhang

VP, STeLA China

2013/11/12 ge liu <geliu...@gmail.com>

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LING ZHANG

Undergraduate 2015

YuanPei College, Peking Univ.

Mobile: (86) 1881-052-8529

Address: Room 520, Block 36, Peking Univ.

 

[Miao Wang]

Dear All,

Great! After the second email I have received 6 more replies, which doubled the credibility of this discussion. Thank you all so much!

Still, I may want to hear more opinions from Japan Branch about documentation. Any comments/thoughts? 

Also, no president except Craig replied. Few session developers replied(Chris, where are you? Is he in the mailing list?). I am looking forward to your voices^_^

Thing that may happen in the future:

1 Set up the documentation team. I hope every branch has one person in, which makes things fair. Now we have 3 from the US~

2 Write a timeline

3 Collect the past work

4 Consult with the session developers (if needed)

5 Verbal work and design

6 Web work and design

I do feel lonely while trying to initiate a hug project like this. Also, International conflicts cannot be avoided. Some contributed more and indeed than others. However, as an International organisation, I would to say that this will also be a learning process from each other. Personally, I hope China Branch learn more about session developing with the experiences from others, and so is other branches. Ownership is very important to be aware of. We would be happier and more willing to share.  

I hope everyone gives me strength! 

--------------------

Let me summarise the opinions a little bit, and post some questions. 

-Almost everyone thinks this is a good idea, and we should take action.

-We have come up with some interesting names of this 'book'. I am still open to other creative names!

-Some mentioned it is time-consuming. Yes it is, and I believe it requires cooperation among Branches!

-Some mentioned that certain work has been done, and we may only need to upgrade the work. Who are now also doing session documentation or documentation-like work? Could you please contact me and communicate about what has been done?

-US branch are pretty supportive about documentation. Both Craig and Catherine would like to help! THANKS! 

-Useful ways to document : Wiki (Catherine mentioned), Dropbox (Claire mentioned, and Columbia is great!:)) 

-Bart, Neil and Ke have given me a lot of strength by replying with really nice documentation instructions and suggestions, which I would like to follow! Thank you in particular!

-EU branch would like to discuss the ownership about the sessions. When should we have the discussion? The nearest coming meeting is the International Voting Member Meeting. Should we post the issue there?

-Jiajun mentioned that EU branch has developed their systematical way of documentation. One question came out is that would EU Branch like to share the experience and make your documentation system also International? I wonder if Japan Branch also has a similar documentation system that we would like to learn?

----------I am posting the questions once more for further replies----------

-To Document or Not to Document?

-What makes a documentation professional?

-A cool name to have 

-Preface Content: Why it matters to STeLA to record?

-STeLA Copyright

-Anything else you want to comment on about documentation?

With best regards,

Miao

-- 

Miao Wang

Sent with Sparrow