[Kde-women] Input for talk?

[Valorie Zimmerman]

On Mon, Sep 17, 2012 at 1:48 AM, Claudia Rauch <rauch at kde.org> wrote:
> On 15 September 2012 04:42,  <the.lady.phoenix at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Well Claudia,
>>
>> I talked to my advisor, who happens to be the Computer Department
>> Chair, and the advisor for the computer club.  He didn't see the need
>> for a women in STEM group since there was a computer club.  The few
>> programming instructors I talked to (because there is only like 3
>> total in the school) didn't have any interest in becoming an advisor.
>> I didn't ask anyone in the Science or Math departments as I'm not a
>> student in any of those programs and didn't know whom to approach.
>> The school didn't like the idea of it as it wasn't co-ed, and yet they
>> have a group for black men.  This is my last semester and then
>> hopefully I'll get accepted to a halfway decent school to continue my
>> education.
>
> Wow, this must be frustrating... and the reaction of your teacher
> clearly show why there is a need for a women's group. I think it's
> great that you tried to organize something.

Sometimes going through the student government channels works better
than directly with teaching staff. Other resources are the student
services folks, or the librarians. Good people to know, whether or not
they can help. And sometimes librarians are the BEST advisors. They
know everyone, and everything.

>> I also put up some flyers and held a couple interest meetings where I
>> was the only one that showed up.  And yet, in my basic electronic
>> class (AC/DC circuits) the 2 other women come to me to help them as I
>> obviously know what I'm doing.

Sounds familiar. How about meeting in a pub or cool restaurant?
Sometimes people want to get away from campus.

>> As for a LUG there isn't one in town, I don't think there is one in
>> the entire state!  In my linux class (which I couldn't test out of so
>> I have to take it), no one else likes or uses linux including the
>> instructor, and she doesn't like kde and is like don't use it use
>> gnome!  Then again she is a mac person.

Wow. What a negative experience. :-(

> I hope you get the chance to go to a Linuxfest in your area some time.
> Since I'm not based in the US, I can't really offer any suggestions.
> But maybe Valorie, who should be on this list, too, can offer some
> advice.
>
>> I think its the fact that in america few want to help until they need help.
>>
>> Sara

I think you are right, but women do like to network with other smart
women. Perhaps you just need to widen your focus a bit? If women
aren't interested in help/support, perhaps they are interested in fun
activities, networking, learning new skills, etc.

Also what can work (see OpenHatch) is opening it up to men if they are
brought by women.

And yes, a thousand times yes to attending a Linux Festival somewhere
within your area. Our local Linuxfest Northwest is *awesome.* I hear
good things about the SELF, OLF and SCaLE too.

Valorie


>> On 14/09/2012, Claudia Rauch <rauch at kde.org> wrote:
>>> On 14 September 2012 02:00,  <the.lady.phoenix at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> well I know I'd be interested in hearing about how to make a women in
>>>> stem (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) group in a town
>>>> or at a school.  I've not had any success in getting one started but
>>>> seeing as out of the 18 credits I'm taking this semester in over half
>>>> I'm the only woman (3 classes), the the other 2 have a grand total of
>>>> 3 other women (2 and 1).  So it might be that there aren't enough
>>>> bodies to make my idea work where I am.
>>>
>>> Yeah, I can imagine that this isn't easy. Here in Berlin there quite a
>>> big start-up scene and women in tech is kind of a hype topic right now
>>> ;).
>>>
>>> How did you promote you group? Did you reach out to the local LUG (if
>>> there is one) or did you talk to your teachers? Maybe they can share
>>> this?
>>>
>>>
>>>> On 13/09/2012, Lydia Pintscher <lydia at kde.org> wrote:
>>>>> On Tue, Aug 21, 2012 at 4:00 PM, Claudia Rauch <rauch at kde.org> wrote:
>>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'm hosting a short session at http://geekgirlmeetup.de/ on September
>>>>>> 15th. I will recycle my talk from FSCONS last year, on how to organize
>>>>>> and run successful sprints [1], but since I assume that not everyone
>>>>>> in the audience will be a developer or contributor to a FLOSS project,
>>>>>> I want to put a bit of a different twist to the talk - something like
>>>>>> "why should you organise a meeting/sprint" and how you can pull it off
>>>>>> easily.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Do any of you have some input for this? Maybe also something
>>>>>> especially from a female perspective?
>>>>>
>>>>> Hey :)
>>>>>
>>>>> Here's a few things that come to my mind right now:
>>>>> * you get to know people
>>>>> * people get to know you
>>>>> * it's a task that developers are usually thrilled about someone else
>>>>> taking it -> they will love you
>>>>> * you learn a lot about organizing and planning
>>>>> * it's one way to give back to Free Software in an essential way
>>>>> without writing code
>>>>> * you get to show your city/country to a bunch of awesome people from
>>>>> abroad
>>>>> * language skills++
>>>>> * people skills++
>>>>>
>>>>> Cheers
>>>>> Lydia

-- 
http://about.me/valoriez