Mason Student Run Computing and Tech

[dhaynespls]

What was your highlight from last year

We have a variety of elements in our student organization that are all going on at once (event planning and execution, project development, internal policy making, etc.) that it's really challenging to pick a specific highlight. I'd say the way we were able to balance weekly talks with the expansion of projects to new members (1 new / semester roughly) is something that I'm personally proud of. We also had to reschedule an entire event due to a catastrophic weather event and I'm very proud of the individuals in leadership there who were able to pull it off.

What is/are the project(s) your Club worked on

Oh my, there's a lot. See:

• https://git.gmu.edu/srct/
• https://srct.gmu.edu/projects

Most of them deal with solving problems that the students of the GMU community face and fill in the gaps left by the university.

What was the most challenging issue that your Club had to deal with

We operate on a very laissez faire atmosphere where there is absolutely no commitment from members to attend meetings, contribute to projects, take leadership, etc. What you put in is what you get out. This freedom, if taken advantage of, can benefit members greatly as there is little friction in getting stuff done. Unfortunately this has the adverse effect of turning new members away because we won't tell them what to do and rather opt for them stepping up and asking how to get involved with project X which is where we step in and help them. It's challenging to retain members who are not passionate about our projects, but the ones who stay are excellent.

As the Club's leadership, what would be something that you would like to stop doing?

I don't believe there are any policies in places that I disagree with or would like to stop doing.

As the Club's leadership, what would be something that you would like to start doing?

I believe we should be more one on one with newer members and a bit more hand-holdy in bringing them onto projects. Also, we have long struggled with obtaining outside funds for cloud infrastructure (something the school refuses to give us) and I would like to start meetings with companies about sponsorships.

As the Club's leadership, what would be something that you would like to continue doing?

I think the organization and structure of our org allow for the empowerment of students to take ownership of our projects and to make significant change. This is something that is unique to us and that I'd want to continue.

Please something that you would like to share with the Open Source Student Network

http://srct.space

also our site is pretty cool: https://srct.gmu.edu