Way of working

This page explains how a few things of the MCH2021 orga works. For a smooth organization experience, please take note of the things on this page.

Any questions regarding this page can be addressed to user:stitch.

General goal

The goal of the orga is to make working at MCH2021 as pleasant as possible. For this a few guidelines have been assembled over the years.

Mistakes, learning and expertise

One of the most important aspects of a pleasant environment is that it is okay to make mistakes. We're here to learn, and here to make a great event. This can only happen if everyone is willing to create an atmosphere that allows people to make mistakes and learn from them.

In the same vein, it's the goal to create experience and expertise. This goes hand in hand with making mistakes and learning. This means people in a team get a chance to do things and decide what is needed to become a well-functioning team. It's up to you/your team to decide how the team communicates and what works well for you. At the end of the day the team will have to work with a lot of other people, so take that into account.

When gaining experience, you and your team can do _both_ the fun and simple things that anyone could have done in five minutes _and_ also do the complex and hard stuff that takes dedication, expertise, and consideration. This separation of concerns and ownership is a key feature of our organization.

Of course, there will be difficult decisions to make, and in some cases, it's not possible to make everyone happy. These hard choices often come with reasoning and acceptance or understanding. These hard things ask both for you and your peers to try and be flexible.

Please be welcoming, forgiving, and helpful when mistakes are made. Those will be made, a lot, as there is still a lot to do.

Inspiration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4FNBMZsqrY

Burnout prevention: stick to one team

As with SHA2017, it's very easy to get involved in all kinds of interesting teams and activities. Before you know it, you will have three roles and are way in over your head.

The general advice is: please don't. Please stick to one team, and make that team excel at what it is doing. MCH tries to ask for teams and expertise, not for burnouts and too much investment.

Some people will be in more roles than one when we have the experience they can handle it. But they are not the example and do not set the bar. Even more so: this is often out of sheer necessity and there are vacancies available for the extra work they do.

Another general rule is that you, at the event, should be able to enjoy at least half of it without feeling obliged to do things. There should be little to no stress during an event, which comes with preparation, another reason why sticking to one team is essential.

Additionally for teams: It is okay to have clear and open vacancies, and as you'll see. Make those explicit so others can join.

Orga List

There are a few rules to make sure this culture can be created, how to communicate on the orga list is one of them.

One rule is that the orga list is not for discussions.

Every subject imaginable is placed somewhere in a team in the organizations. This means, if you want to discuss something, it means getting in touch with that team directly. Most of the longer joining and visiting members have phone numbers and mail addresses. If not: please ask around for the contact info you need.

The orga list is currently well over 300 addresses and will grow. And this orga list can be seen as a tool for you and your team. For example: asking around how many tables each team needs. You can also share major milestones of your team on the list as that generally makes people happy. It's also possible to ask for direct feedback.

Other stuff such as complaints, grievances, ethical and moral discussions should be addressed with a team directly, preferably in person or over the phone. If you don't know who to talk to, it's always possible to ask the right person from Team:Projectleiding to route you.

If you worked on SHA2017, you might already recognize these patterns, and have seen these work magic.

Dealing with difficult subjects: orga meetings

There might be some difficult subjects that need to be addressed. Note that most of these subjects are already placed at a team, but another new thing might show up that requires direct and complete (including non-verbal communication) to be addressed properly. In such cases, a timeslot will be reserved during an orga meet. This means that everyone will be there to reflect and discuss the various motivations. If there is no solution that makes everyone happy, at least everybody has the chance to be heard, which is vital.

As we've seen before, we're confident in that this strategy works, and keeps the focus on organizing the event, instead of spending time on complex, difficult, or sometimes impossible dilemmas.

Other stuff

Towards the event, there will be of course more to share to make working easier and more pleasant. Such as what to bring to the site and to take care of your team. Many in the orga already experienced that at SHA2017.