Committee Structure
Planning a hack week can be extremely challenging. These events are inherently designed to explore complex social, cultural and technical aspects of the data science landscape. By design there are often many different people involved in event planning, each having different perspectives. Often event planning conversations happen within bureaucratic academic structures that might not be set up to contain the more fluid and dynamic organizational tools needed to navigate complex systems.
Past Challenges
It is useful to articulate some of the challenges we have faced in the past with organizing hack weeks, with the intention of finding new and more efficint ways to operate in the future. Some points of friction have included:
- difficulty in coming to agreement on what should be taught in the tutorials
- different opinions on how to do participant selection, for example whether to consider diversity criteria, and if so, which criteria should be included
- a lack of clarity on who is doing what due to poorly-defined roles and responsibilities
- a lack of accountability in the completion of tasks
Developing a new leadership model
We encourage every organizing committee to have frank, open discussions about how they wish to interact in their planning of the event. Rather than instituting a formal organizational structure, here we try to construct a series of commitments made between members of the organizing committee.
Hack Week Organizers List of Commitments
As planners of this hack week, we recognize and acknowledge that:
- many members of the organizing committee are wilfully volunteering their time in service to our community, in their spare time, and may receive little or no recompense;
- many organizers face constantly shifting set of responsibilities, time commitments and concerns in their work outside of this event, which may at times impact their ability to be fully present for the planning of the hack week;
- although we all care deeply about the success of the hack week, it should never be a priority in anyone's life, and that our first responsibility is to attend to our own and each other's wellbeing;
- in planning the event, we will make every effort to clearly define each person's roles and responsibilities;
- no single person should be burdened with an unduly heavy organizational burden;
- we commit to honoring the responsibilities to which we have agreed, and we will act as the first point of contact for any questions or actions related to these responsibilities;
- we strive to be honest with ourselves and our fellow team members about our ability to meet deadlines, and we will let each other know when that changes;
- if we are unable to complete a task, this is not a sign of failure, but rather a part of a normal work culture, and we will convey this to the chair or other committee members;
- we will watch out for one another, and offer help where we can and where we see it as potentially valuable;
- offers of help are made from a position of kindness and are not meant as an implicit or unspoken criticism of previous efforts.