Speaker
Description
The US Research Software Engineer Association (US-RSE) was formed in 2018 as a grassroots effort by a handful of motivated volunteers who focused on community building. Since its inception, US-RSE has hosted dozens of community calls, virtual and in person workshops, and other events that bring together RSEs. With over 2000 members today, it has been successful in much of its mission: 1) community, 2) advocacy, 3) resources, and 4) diversity, equity, and inclusion. Many things have changed over this time, such as having three versions of the website, two financial sponsors, and now professional staff and a conference. These changes, and the five years of existence and activities, however, lead to challenges as well, such as successfully mixing paid and volunteer work, avoiding or dealing with volunteer burnout and the concomitant need for new volunteers, moving from building community to providing services to that community, and moving from describing problems to collectively solving them. This talk will discuss both the successes and challenges, and is intended to lead to comparative discussion with members and leaders of other RSE organizations, where we hopefully can learn from each other.
