Plans for 2016

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Twelve months is a long time. A year ago I was wrapping up my second month without an income and had serious doubts about whether Software Carpentry was going to be viable. Today, our new Executive Director and Program Coordinator are in place, our workshop administration tool is ticking over nicely, we're about to elect our second Steering Committee, we've published our lessons, we have a growing number of partners and affiliates, our reboot of instructor training has taught us a lot, and those are just the things I've bookmarked.

But it's been a difficult year for me personally, one that has prompted considerable reflection. Based on that and discussions with people in the two Carpentries, I'm going to work on instructor training full-time for the whole of 2016. The notes need to be polished, the checkout procedure needs to become routine, I need to train more people to run the course on their own, and there's plenty of other things to keep me busy. And who knows? I may finally finish one of the books for children that I've been working on.

So to close out my last post of 2015, I'd like to say how grateful I am to everyone who has given Software Carpentry their time and energy this year. It has been a privilege to work with you, and I look forward to helping you help even more people in 2016.