Clubs first quarter m2

Month 2: Infrastructure Sprint and Exploration¶

Month 2 has two parallel tracks running at once: building your club's permanent digital infrastructure through dedicated events, and running thematic workshops based on what you learned in Month 1.

Note: While we'd like to welcome as many people are we can, the goal here should not be getting a room full. Engaging the people who are already interested is what's important. A group of ten people who each do something is worth far more than a room of a hundred who watch and leave. Use your questionnaire results and forum thread responses to identify who those people are, and orient Month 2 around them.

By the end of Month 2, aim for almost every engaged member to have done at least one hello-world type contribution from a track of their choice. It does not need to be significant. A first OSM edit, a translated sentence, a filed issue, a data privacy bill they read. The goal is to break the wall between "I attended an event" and "I contributed something."

Members who go beyond that and start showing up consistently, helping others, or taking initiative should be pulled into the extended volunteer team. This does not need a formal process. Just acknowledge it directly: invite them to the planning group, give them a role in an upcoming event, ask them to help run a station. Belonging precedes commitment.

The Infrastructure Sprint: Three Focused Events¶

Rather than quietly setting up these foundations in the background, turn each one into its own small event. This gives members something to contribute to, creates a tangible record of the club's work, and produces real skills.

Infrastructure Event 1: Campus Wiki Sprint¶

What: A focused 2-hour session to build your college's wiki page and document the inaugural event. Encourage other club in your college to list their events and activities on your page for more outreach. Think of this as a behind the scenes page or a more engaging version of your college's official website.

What you will set up:
- A wiki page for your club on your college wiki or a public platform (MediaWiki, a GitHub repository with a well-structured README, or a Notion page if self-hosting is not available)
- Sections: About the club, founding team, upcoming events, how to get involved, resources for new members
- A write-up of the inaugural event with photos

Guide: If you are using MediaWiki (common on Indian college servers), the MediaWiki Help:Editing pages guide covers everything you need. For GitHub-based wikis, GitHub's About wikis documentation is a good starting point.

Assign a Content person as the primary editor. Establish the norm from day one: update the wiki after every event.

Infrastructure Event 2: Campus Mapping Day¶

What: A dedicated 3-hour mapping session to comprehensively map your college on OpenStreetMap.

Go beyond the inaugural event's introductory edits. Aim to map all buildings with their names and functions, canteens and food stalls, entrances and gates, key facilities (library, labs, health centre, ATM), and notable landmarks.

How to run it:
1. Divide the campus into zones and assign a small group to each zone
2. Groups walk their zone with phones, noting what is missing on OSM
3. Everyone reconvenes and edits together using laptops and the iD editor
4. Review and cross-check contributions before saving

Resources:
- learnosm.org/en/beginner - the most thorough beginner guide available, with step-by-step screenshots
- OSM Wiki Beginners Guide - more concise, good for members who prefer reading over step-by-step tutorials
- StreetComplete app - for members contributing from Android phones in the field

Announce the event publicly. Seeing your campus accurately on a global map is genuinely exciting, and it is a contribution that never goes away.

Infrastructure Event 3: Team Registry Setup¶

What: A 1-2 hour working session to build your college/club's public team, members and alumni registry.

This is both a founding-team registry (current members with roles and interests) and an alumni registry (graduates active in tech and FOSS ecosystems). Combined, it serves as a mentorship bridge for current students and a signal to prospective members that FOSS skills lead somewhere.

What to build:
- A simple shared spreadsheet or a structured wiki table with these columns:
- Name, Year/Batch, Role in Club (if current), Track Interest, Current Work/Role (for alumni), Open to Mentorship (yes/no), Contact or LinkedIn

Starting it at an event means:
- Members fill in their own entries on the spot
- You explain why the registry matters (mentorship, alumni connections, visibility)
- You get 10-15 entries on day one rather than chasing people later

Ask a faculty member or department coordinator if they can share details of any alumni they know are active in tech. A warm email to three alumni asking them to add themselves to a public registry converts much better than a cold one.

Thematic Workshops¶

Use the interest data from your inaugural event to run 1-2 workshops in Month 2, going deeper on the tracks that resonated most.

Format guidelines:
- 60-90 minutes is the sweet spot
- Prioritise hands-on doing over passive listening
- Pair every concept with an immediately completable task
- End every workshop with a clear "next step" participants can take on their own

Workshop ideas by track:

Technical:
- Git fundamentals: making your first open-source pull request
- Setting up a local Linux development environment
- Reading and understanding an open-source codebase

Localisation:
- Translating a chapter for a subject in your syllabus to local language for folks to understand it better.
- Contributing translations on Pontoon or Weblate
- Regional language input methods and font tooling

Policy and Advocacy:
- A mock public comment exercise on a draft digital policy
- Writing effectively for a non-technical audience about technical topics

Design:
- Contributing UI/UX feedback to an open-source project
- Designing accessible interfaces using FOSS tools
- Create a wiki page for your photography club to post their work