Attending: Amber, Rebecca, Bruce
Regrets: Todd
Skype call
Agenda:
1) Number and distribution of positions ($$ available)
Eight students. Evaluate the project proposals.
2) Tribal students consideration (USFS contact)
No changes to process this year. Evaluate fit of candiates with project. Possibly OOSR or CE with Viv?
See email below
3) Process
*** Check email lists / groups - interns and internship mailing list.
*** Pre-announcement with application date of 24th
1) Solicit project proposals from leads
Tell everyone on Friday LT and email WG leads, developers list, postdocs.
Amber to set up google docs for all to contribute to: include guidance - project title, mentors, any prereqs, paragraph on project and student work required.
1 primary mentor and 1 secondary mentor required per project. Secondary mentor needs to take an active role.
2) Evaluate proposals. Include / advertise all legitimate projects. Rebecca, Bruce, Amber.
2a) Update Mentor list.
3) Advertise: website, listserves, via contacts etc - Amber, Rebecca
4) Application process: Website application. US Citizen / Legally able to work (Current Visa), Current location - needs to be in the US (due to sponsor requirements all interns must be physically in the US and legally able to work), type of visa, current institution, home address, uploading materials, letter and cv, referee letters to be sent to an email address (internships@..) directly from referee. Rebecca to work with Laura on this. Drop down to select project type? e.g. 1st choice, 2nd choice etc. 1st choice required, can make 2nd or 3rd choice. If strong second choice, please also address interest / qualifications for that project in the cover letter. Automated response stating that materials were received.
5) Amber to respond to candidates to indicate reference received, and to referee for same.
6) First cut evaluation: By Amber. Should be easier than last year due to form. Application 'credibility'.
7) Create a 'packet' for each project to be downloaded from docs site. Set up folder for mentors only.
8) Review process by mentors. Melage (??) - can review information submitted by others. telephone interviews a possibility? Melage was ugly. Google form and link to spreadsheet.
Following initial review of candidate evaluations, projects will be reevaluated. At which point, green light will be given for phone interviews.
Mentors can choose to interview top 3 2 via phone 'interviewing top candidate is encouraged' - within timeline. Standardized set of questions, reminders about best practices.
4) Schedule
Projects run end of May through July - 10 weeks; initiating when the student's summer break has begun (project will begin on a date mutally agreeable between student and mentors, typically at the start of the summer break and typically no later than blah)
Letters available for signing:
Final decisions: April 2nd (look at calendar) for communication on April 4th (by Rebecca)
Telephone interviews: last week of March - complete by April 2nd
Written evaluations: 2nd to last week of March? Wed 21st
Evaluations: March 12th - 21st
Applications: Feb 24th - March 11th
Projects published on website: Feb 24th and available to apply
Projects available: Feb 24th
Mentor deadline: Feb 22nd
5) Immediate To Do's
a) Get website up and running for 2012 - Rebecca - on new and current website
b) Create google docs process and send out request to mentors - Amber
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Hi Amber,
It might be best at some point to talk by phone if you all see some opportunities for collaboration.
First, when you all announce the 2012 program, I'll see if there are potential candidates from the community I work with who could be encouraged to apply. The one student I had in mind is planning to apply to a program with the U. of Arizona this summer, but she is not committed yet. A concern is that is that if your program is driven by the PIs, then it may not be a good fit for students who are focused on community efforts.
Second, I have been asked by staff in our Washington office to develop a brief describing an idea to support tribal interns to work out strategies and tools to manage long-term ecological datasets derived from tribal and forest service research partnerships.
The personal context for both ideas is I have been in a long-term (16+ years) project that has amassed various kinds of data (site photopoints, interviews, field surveys, maps, etc.) collected by both Forest Service and Tribal staff at shared study sites, but we don't have a very good system for managing those data for long-term use by the tribal staff or community members. There are associated issues regarding data access that need to be thought through. I suspect that these legacy datasets are a common problem for both the Forest Service and many tribal communities.
I am somewhat familiar with DataONE through presentations at a meeting on Public Participation in Science at which folks like Rick Bonney were present. Based on that brief introduction, I think that it makes sense to turn to your program for expertise, and since you already offer an internship program that might be something that could fit our target audience. I also see that there is a DataONE affiliate working here in Davis, Bertram Ludaescher. However, many of the tools that I see described seem overly complicated (focused on sophisticated data analyses), while I am more concerned about integrated data access and archiving. So I need to become better informed about what technological tools are available, while figuring out what strategies might work best for students from the communities where we work.
You mentioned that funding is a constraint. I have no idea what may come of any ideas that I present to our Washington Office, but perhaps if there were mutual interest in a pilot collaboration to address needs of tribal communities, we could figure out ways to leverage resources to facilitate that.
Please let me know the outcomes of any conversations with your colleagues,
SIncerely,
Jonathan