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Phase 3 Funding: Fill vacant community engagement coordinator/community manager role#284

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jdswinbank merged 7 commits intoastropy:mainfrom
eteq:community-manager-cycle3
Oct 26, 2022
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Phase 3 Funding: Fill vacant community engagement coordinator/community manager role#284
jdswinbank merged 7 commits intoastropy:mainfrom
eteq:community-manager-cycle3

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@eteq
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@eteq eteq commented Jul 8, 2022

An open call to hire someone into the community engagement coordinator role (see the text for a bit more justification on how this makes sense as an open call).

I included @kelle and @adrn based on earlier discussions with them, although they are welcome to bow-out if I misunderstood!

@kelle
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kelle commented Jul 9, 2022

I am very interested in being a part of this funding request and would be happy to be on the search committee and to help on board and manage the new recruit. My effort would be covered by own funding request (#285).

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kelle commented Jul 28, 2022

I've been keeping a list of things which this role could include:

  • Monthly NumFocus updates
  • Facebook group - Discourse forum - Stack Exchange moderation and crossposting.
  • Slack moderation and crossposting
  • Twitter post of announcements and replies to mentions
  • Help with Coordination Meetings
  • Help with expanding workshops to more users
  • Help with Learn and tutorials, especially publicity
  • Website content refresh and updates.
  • Community Survey
  • User Survey
  • Maybe a blog, or at least some more words on the website.
  • new thing: IBM-sponsored Open-Source Science Initiative at SciPy next week as a top-level NumFOCUS effort focused on community stewardship, mapping scientific needs to OSS, and prioritizing the gaps as well as resourcing the work required to meet the needs of the scientists..

@eteq
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eteq commented Aug 4, 2022

I sent up several updates based on your comments here, @kelle. I also added some (admittedly a bit nebulous) selection criteria. Any thoughts on this?

@eteq
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eteq commented Aug 4, 2022

(oh and I left off the IBM-sponsored thing but added a generic "new things as they come up")

@jdswinbank
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I was curious about the choice of $120 as an hourly rate. Is there motivation for that?

@aaryapatil
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Please react to this comment to vote on this proposal (👍, 👎, or no reaction for +0)

@mhvk
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mhvk commented Aug 23, 2022

Like @jdswinbank, I'm curious about the rationale for the funding request: is it reasonable to expect funding at the assistant professor level (which $60k at 50% implies) for such a position, or more like a postdoc?

@kelle
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kelle commented Aug 23, 2022

This position is for a professional scientific community manager with experience and training in that field.

Keep in mind, when hiring folks as consultants, we need to include their overhead costs and benefits in the hourly rate. That makes it difficult to compare to academic salaries which don't usually include the extra 60-70% charged on top by the University.

Bottom line, as the previous community manager, I know that there is a lot to do. I would like to have the budget available to be able to recruit someone good and offer them something attractive for ~50% of their time.

@mhvk
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mhvk commented Aug 23, 2022

OK, that makes sense, though it makes one wonder whether another entity than a university should do the hiring!

@kelle
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kelle commented Aug 23, 2022

The current idea is that this person will be hired through NumFocus as a consultant.

@pllim
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pllim commented Aug 23, 2022

How much are other companies/projects paying someone of similar role?

@stefaniebutland
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stefaniebutland commented Aug 24, 2022

@kelle pinged me so adding some resources

Current posting for US Research Software Sustainability Institute Community Manager. Karthik Ram hiring.

Position Type: Full-time with benefits
Salary range: 75-90k USD annually with benefits
Location: US-Remote, with supervisors based in California.

rOpenSci's posting for recently hired community manager

full-time contract position with a salary range of $70,000-$85,000, USD commensurate with experience, skills, and local benefits requirements.

Case studies of community managers with two-page interviews, each describing one of 25 community managers from across the STEM ecosystem. By Center for Scientific Collaboration and Community Engagement (CSCCE). Great to get a sense of the diversity of roles played depending on the goals of the organization they work for.



### Approximate Budget
The budget has flexibility. Our minimum request is for $15,000/year to find someone to take the lead on only a few of the above listed tasks. At the high end, with $60,000/year, we could find someone to spending approximately 50% time on Astropy and to make progress on most of the tasks.
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According to #284 (comment) , full time is 70-90k, so max for this should be 45k since you are asking for part-time at 50%?

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Note that salary does not include benefits. If paying a contractor, would need to increase compensation.

@kelle
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kelle commented Oct 3, 2022

Congratulations! The community has expressed support for this FR, and the Finance Committee has determined it can be funded. This FR has been approved for $48,000, to be funded from the Moore grant.

@jdswinbank is the Finance Committee member who will be supporting this project. They will update this PR with the amount and then merge it, as well as being in contact with you to set up any necessary agreements and relevant Open Collective financial arrangements. They will also open a new issue where progress on this project can be discussed.

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