2021 Collaboration Meeting

Inclusive Chairing

• Held two 1 hour training sessions the day before the meeting began (one at 9am EDT, one at 4pm EDT)
• With Chairs, developed a Zoom Tips Document (PDF)
• Slides (TBD)

Speed Geeking

• As in SDSS2020, participants were divided into small groups (3-5). Senior collaboration members were shuffled between groups on a 5 minute cycle.

COINS Plenary

• Rachael Beaton gave the Plenary talk.

Career Panel

• As in SDSS2020, current and former collaboration members formed a panel.
• Questions Document including questions from 2020 and 2021 panels.

Town Hall

• The SDSS2020 Town Hall was a follow-up to the Strike4BlackLives. In 2021, we merged the Meet the Ombuds into this session and wanted to take questions from the audience through Slido (Event Link) and Slido Report (PDF).
• Questions were answered in real time, with ability of participants to comment. Summaries of responses/discussions were posted in Slack.

Questions/Comments in Slido:

• What is it like to be a SDSS Mentor for a FAST Team? How do I get involved?
• Do you have recommendations for how things like hybrid meetings (virtual/physical) should be handled? Are there barriers to inclusion there?
• SDSS is a great place to pressure change in conference culture in general on EDI issues – should extend to shift away from in-person only meetings
• Benefits: environmental and inclusivity (both financial and across other axes of minoritization). Though recognition of those for whom in person is necessary
• I am curious how the EDI practices of SDSS are viewed by the greater astronomical community. Vice versa, do we look at other collaborations as examples?
• Did we see demographic changes in SDSS from 2014 to 2018?
• What are the current focus areas in COINS?
• Any recommendations for COINS V or other inclusive committees?
• Looking back, what would you have done differently as COINS?
• Are COINS involved in decisions over hiring of senior positions in the collaboration? Do you feel that these processes could be made more inclusive?

Virtual Thank you Card

• We used google draw to make a “card:” 2021 Thank You Card
• Closed Slack Channel for meeting participants not including the Conference Chairs, Local Organizing Committee, and Scientific Organizing Committees.
• Allowed participants to add their messages directly or took messages through Slack or email.
• Posted PNG to Slack Channel, emailed PDF to Organizers.

Post Meeting Survey

• Run in Survey Monkey from last day of meeting (Aug 17) to Aug 31 (~2 weeks).
• SDSS2021 Post-Meeting Survey (PDF)