Meeting Facilitation & Santa Barbara Tips

Facilitating a working group meeting is both hugely rewarding and a significant effort. NCEAS and the LTER Network have gathered some guiding resources that may prove to be helpful to your meeting. See the sub-sections below for more details.

Photo of a person wearing a hat sitting on the forest floor with datasheets spread across their lap

REU Student Organizing Data Sheets, Harvard Forest - Photographer: Jocelyn Fahlen

LTER Network Office Guidance

The LTER Network Office (LNO) has curated some useful resources on their website (lternet.edu) that we strongly recommend exploring! In particular, the LNO has centralized resources for working group primary investigators (PIs) (see here). Additionally, the LNO has created some broader resources for all members of working groups (see here).

The LTER Code of Conduct is also publicly available if you’d like to explore it.

NCEAS’ Resources for Working Groups

NCEAS hosts many working groups and so has drawn from its wealth of experience to assemble a set of useful information on its Resources for Working Groups page.

In particular, we recommend checking out the documents nested in the “How to Run a Working Group” dropdown menu. Your group may also want to check out the “Reimbursement Forms” dropdown after your meetings in Santa Barbara to ensure that your eligible expenses get reimbursed!

As of fall 2024, NCEAS has also begun developing a working group training series which contains a ton of valuable information both on facilitation best practices and on data management and reproducibility.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The LTER Network and NCEAS are committed to improving diversity and inclusion in science. For the LTER Network Office’s diversity, equity and inclusion resources see here. For more information on NCEAS’ commitment to this mission–and related links–please visit NCEAS’ DEIJ page.

Visiting Santa Barbara

When your group is visiting at NCEAS’ office in beautiful Santa Barbara there are additional resources available to your group and opportunities for recreation and bonding as a team! Check out NCEAS’ general computing resources page for a quick rundown of some resources available only in Santa Barbara (including how to get on the WiFi!).

We very much recommend taking an afternoon or morning on one of the days of your visit to get out and explore Santa Barbara! NCEAS’ page for things to do in SB for new employees might prove to be a helpful resource for you and your group as you’re deciding where to eat and what to do!