FAQ For Member Organisations

Memberships

What are the standard membership packages you offer?

We offer Bronze, Silver, and Gold membership packages, each with an allotted number of Centrally-Organised workshops. Silver and Gold memberships also include seats in our Instructor Training program. Platinum memberships include Instructor Training seats, but no Centrally-Organised workshops. All memberships include unlimited self-organised workshops and access to Member pricing for additional Centrally-Organised workshops and Instructor Training seats purchased during the membership year. Read more about the benefits and dues for each plan on our membership page.

Which membership should I purchase?

• Bronze membership is an excellent option for any organisation starting out with The Carpentries and wanting to quickly bring data and computational training to their community. The Bronze level is also great for introducing your local community to The Carpentries and building interest for instructor training.
• Silver and Gold memberships are ideal for organisations wanting to quickly build capacity for training in their community.
• Platinum memberships are best for organisations that would like to continue building capacity for training and already have a group of local Carpentries Instructors capable of running Self-Organised workshops.
• Titanium memberships are suited for organisations who do not need coordinated workshops or Instructor Training seats but would like to maintain their membership status, financially support The Carpentries, and connect with other Members. To be eligible for Titanium membership, organisations must have at least one prior year of membership.
  
  

What if those membership packages do not fit my institution’s needs?

We would be happy to talk with you to learn more about your institution’s goals and create a custom plan that works for you. Contact our membership team to schedule a meeting at membership@carpentries.org.

Do I need to renew my membership each year?

Yes. The Carpentries memberships are annual memberships, extending for a period of one year. Renewing your membership in advance is a great way to avoid a lapse in membership.

Are any discounts available?

Organisations supporting Instructor Trainers, who engage in service activities to teach and support newly trained Instructors across our global community, may be eligible for a discount to their membership fee equivalent to six (6) seats in Instructor Training per active Instructor Trainer. Members can choose whether they would like to have the Trainer discount applied as a monetary discount, or as added benefits. This discount is available at any membership level, for each trainer who has participated in the following activities up to 1 year prior to renewal:

• teach at least two (2) Instructor Training events for the global Carpentries community,
• host at least two (2) teaching demonstrations for the global Carpentries community, and
• attend virtual Trainer community meetings

How can I find out if my institution already has a membership?

A list of our current Member organisations can be found on our website. If you would like help in making contact with the person in charge of your institutional membership, email membership@carpentries.org.

Workshops

How do your workshops run?

For Centrally-Organised workshops, we will work with a designated Member contact to find Instructors, set up and handle registration, support Instructor logistics, and coordinate and share assessment results with you. Instructor travel expenses are the responsibility of the Member and are not covered in membership fees.

Centrally-Organised workshops can also be purchased a la carte or added to an existing membership. If you would like to run a Centrally-Organised workshops in order to demonstrate the value of The Carpentries membership at your organisation, we will count the workshop fee towards a membership if purchased within twelve (12) months.

Workshops can cover curricula from any of our lesson programs: Data Carpentry, Library Carpentry, or Software Carpentry. An overview of available workshops is located on our curricula page. Contact us at workshops@carpentries.org to learn more about our workshop operations.

How soon after signing my membership can I get started with hosting workshops?

Right away! You can request workshops as soon as your membership agreement is in place by completing this form. To allow us time to recruit Instructors and give them time to plan the workshop with you, we generally require 2-3 months lead time to schedule a workshop.

Can I run my own workshops without organisational support from The Carpentries?

Yes! Once you start building a team of certified Instructors, you can work with them to run Self-Organised workshops. We ask that Instructors let us know when they are planning a Self-Organised workshop in advance by completing this form. This form initiates a process so that The Carpentries staff can support the workshop by providing survey links, tracking Instructor and Helper participation, and publicising the workshop on The Carpentries websites, if desired. As long as at least one Instructor is Carpentries-certified, and either the Data Carpentry, Library Carpentry, or Software Carpentry core content is taught, the workshop can be labeled a Carpentries workshop. Self-Organised workshops do not count against the number of workshops included in your membership agreement and there is no limit to the number of Self-Organised workshops you can run.

What if I want to run more Centrally-Organised workshops than my agreement allows?

All members are eligible to purchase additional Centrally-Organised workshops at a discount. Our current pricing is here.

Instructor Training

How do your Instructor Training events run?

The Carpentries Instructor Training is a high-engagement, interactive, multi-day training, led by pedagogically trained community members (Trainers). Once your membership is in place, you will be provided with a registration code which your selected trainees can use to register for an event of their choice from our Instructor Training calendar. Contact us at instructor.training@carpentries.org to learn more about our Instructor Training program.

How should I select individuals to be trained as Instructors?

The choice of trainees is at the discretion of the Member. We recommend choosing trainees based on enthusiasm and commitment to teaching. There are no specific technical skills required to become a Carpentries Instructor, and we welcome individuals with a range of experiences and technical competencies. Trainees will be required to demonstrate their ability to teach one of our lessons, with options ranging from spreadsheet formatting to Python programming. Although we do not provide screening or selection of trainee candidates, Member organisations are welcome to make use of our application questions and rubric, which we use for evaluating non-member affiliated trainees. For more information about selecting trainees, read our Information for Member Organizations page.

How soon after signing my membership can I get started with Instructor Training?

In your 12 month membership period, we will be offering at least 6-8 online events scheduled across various timezones. To view a full list of upcoming training events please see our Instructor Training Calendar. Your trainees are invited to join any event(s) that suits their schedule(s), either as a group or individually, along with new trainees from other parts of our community.
It is difficult to schedule events in every time zone, so your trainees are always welcome to join scheduled online events in adjacent time zones, given the times are reasonable for their schedule. However, knowing this may not be ideal for you, we will work with you to schedule an online event based on your needs and our Trainers’ availability. To ensure that we can meet everyone’s needs, we generally like to schedule these events 2-3 months in advance. Once this event is scheduled, we may invite people from other sites to join as well, to begin to build community in your part of the world.

How do I find out if trainees at my site have completed Instructor Training or the certification process and how many seats remain available under my membership?

For best results, we recommend tracking this locally. Keeping in touch with trainees can have additional value in building your local community. Due to regional variation in privacy laws and delays in our registration workflows, not all information from our database is guaranteed to be available or fully up to date. You are welcome to email us at instructor.training@carpentries.org at any time with a request for information. We will reply within 3-5 business days with the information we can provide.

What if I do not use all of my Instructor Training seats before the end of my membership?

The success of our program depends on accurately predicting our capacity needs, so we may not be able to accommodate all situations. However, we know unexpected things can come up. If you are nearing the end of your membership term and have not used all your seats, please contact us at membership@carpentries.org.

What if I want to train more people at my site than my agreement allows?

All members are eligible to purchase additional Instructor Training seats at a discount. Our current pricing is here.

Can individuals get trained to become Instructors outside of the context of institutional membership?

Yes! Individuals can purchase Instructor Training seats at the a la carte price for their region. Individuals purchasing seats a la carte will receive equal priority with Members in scheduling.

Contact us

Who do I talk to about…

…general membership questions? Contact membership@carpentries.org
…workshops? Contact workshops@carpentries.org
…instructor training? Contact instructor.training@carpentries.org
…collaborative lesson development training? Contact curriculum@carpentries.org
…legal or financial questions? Contact finance@carpentries.org