Gratitude to Member Organisations and Champions

The Carpentries Membership program will be going into its sixth year in 2020. Member Organisations were some of the earliest supporters of Software and Data Carpentry (though the nomenclature has evolved) and continue to be an invaluable source of support and inspiration within The Carpentries’ Community.

Since 2015, the number of organisations that have rallied around The Carpentries’ mission and vision to support our global community and build their own local communities through Membership has increased every year. In 2015 there were less than five Member Organisations, and this year our website lists over 90 from around the world. At each of these organisations are one or more Champions, Carpentries community members who advocate locally for the use of Carpentries resources and pedagogy and for the support of the global Carpentries community, as well as a host of others who organise workshops, navigate the tangle of paperwork, approve funds, and build community. To all of you, we literally cannot say thank you enough.

The support of Member Organisations has come to us in many ways; thanks to all the Champions who dedicated a lot of time and creativity to figuring out how their organisation and ours could work together! Through Membership, we have developed curriculum, supported Regional Coordinators, trained and supported Trainers, reached new communities, helped underserved communities, and, most recently, supported community leadership! We have also been able to bring instructor training and coordinated workshops to cohorts of dedicated data scientists, librarians, researchers, information technologists, graduate students, post-docs, and faculty. In turn, these cohorts have been able to use their organisation’s structures and resources to self-organise increasing numbers of Carpentries workshops to meet their training needs. We have seen Membership inspire cross-campus, and even cross-university, connections and collaborations and provide an entry point to this remarkable community for people the world over.

The Member Organisation community and Champions meet quarterly on Member Organisation Council Meeting calls and Champions Community calls. Discussions center heavily on community building, community leadership and facilitation, and the new and exciting things that are being explored and created in these communities. They are just one demonstration of the dedication and support of Carpentries Member Organisations.