Here are some of our upcoming events that you have to look forward to. 
 

Please welcome our newest Interest Group Plus: Ronin Women IG+!

Co-leads: Ponn P Mahayosnand and Amy Collins

Their Scope: 
This group is a space where Ronin scholars can connect, learn and discuss topics relevant to the careers of independent women scholars.  We examine professional development and work/life balance through a feminist lens. We are a women focused group but are not exclusive to women, and welcome any scholars who share our mission.

Their Goals:
Our short term goal is to create a virtual space for discussion and support of women scholars. Our long term goal is to collaborate on products that develop from our meetings. Two examples are the development of a peer mentorship program/guide and synthesizing the notes from our discussions into Ronin blog posts that may eventually be published as an article or book.

They'll be meeting every 3rd Weds at 1 PM ET at www.kumospace.com/ronin_institute, and their next meeting is this week!

For more information about Interest Groups and Interest Groups Plus, see this webpage and guiding document. 

Ronin Lightning Tag

Have you ever played Tag when you were a kid? The concept is easy: If you are “It”, you chase someone and “tag” them. Then they become “It”, and the cycle begins again. That’s what we’re doing here too! 

How Ronin Lightning Tag works (It's a Do-it-Yourself event!) 
Someone gives a presentation, and then they reach out to someone who they'd like to hear from and invite them to give the next presentation. Of course, anyone can say No, but we hope you will say YES! After your presentation you do the same to keep our game of Lightning Tag active and interesting. Our goal is to have diverse speakers sharing about their work and ideas each month. 

Anyone may also step in and sign up for a Lightning Tag talk without being "tagged", and then you get to choose the next person! 

What is the event like? 
Two 10-minute talks by Ronin scholars about their ongoing research or work (with 5 minutes of questions after). Speakers give a general overview of their work, or talk in more detail about a specific project.

How to sign up? 
Sign up here for an available monthly slot. If you are the first person to sign up for that month, you may choose the best date/time that works for you. See our guidelines here. If you have questions, pose them on the #lightning-tag_events Slack channel. 

The Wisdom in the Community
 

Have you ever written to Jon or Arika and it took, well, forever for us to respond? With the decentralization goals of our institutional approach, there are actually lots of other people at the Ronin Institute who probably know about and can do many of the same administrative things at Ronin that we do.

This is what Slack is for! We’ve got 60+ people active on the workspace each week, so it’s likely that someone there can answer your question(s). 

Here are some topic areas that are great for posing questions to your peers, and suggestions of specific channels you might post to (if in doubt, #watercooler always works): 

• An email or tech-related problem: #wg-infrastructure
• How to get more involved in the Ronin Institute: #wg-governance
• How your new colleague might join Ronin: #wg-membership
• A topic that you want to speak about at the Ronin Institute: #lightning-tag_events
• General scholarship musings that invite response or interaction: #watercooler
• A cool new success you want to share: #achievements_announcements
• You’re looking for funding for something: #writing-proposals or writing a comment on #watercooler starting with “@funding” and you’ll see some groups of scholars who can offer some guidance on specific funding agencies (also look at #funding_announcements for any relevant postings)

Other key (volunteer) people at the Ronin Institute to reach out to: 

• Leads of Working Groups (WG), also listed here (Advisory Board)
• Leads of Interest Groups (see the top of a Slack channel that describes the channel; the contact is listed there)
• Anyone hosting an event who seems to know what they are doing

Here are the topic areas that are still best to reach out to Jon and I about:

• Financial matters related to the Ronin Institute, including getting reimbursed for something
• Questions around how the Ronin Institute might administer a specific grant for you (i.e., you have a grant that you are applying for that requires an institute to administer it on your behalf)
• Any concerns you have about how you are being treated or seeing others being treated at the Ronin Institute, and particularly if you feel stressed or dismayed about anything happening within our Ronin community (also feel free to reach out to anyone on the Advisory Board — see our Code of Conduct). A reminder: Microaggressions are “death by a thousand cuts” and we take these very seriously. Let us know if you need someone to intervene on your behalf and we’ll be glad to help. 

Please also remember that Jon and Arika are still part of the community, and we love to get to know people and get engaged in scholarship just like everyone else (that’s why we do all of this!). Always feel free to reach out to either of us on a personal level, or come to our weekly Office Hours to chat. 

Community meetings this week

These meetings are open and welcome for any Research Scholar to attend. Working Groups (WGs) focus on key elements of the Ronin Institute. Interest Groups (IGs) are self-organized groups of Scholars that focus on topics of interest; their goal is to stimulate discussion and enhance collaboration. 

TUESDAY
#watercooler chat 
Scope: Catch up with your colleagues in an informal Slack chat by the "watercooler".
Dates/Times: Every Tuesday at 12:00-1:00 PM US ET / 16:00-17:00 UTC (local time) 
Location: #watercooler slack channel. If you can't make the specified time, you can always contribute to the chat conversation at anytime in the Slack channel. 

IG+ Center for Advancing Mathematics and Physics (CAMP) (Slack channel #ig-math-physics)
Scope: Come join the conversation about Math and Physics, where the group shares information about research, educates each other, and provides advice. 
Date/Time: Every Tuesday at 12:30-1:30 PM US ET / 16:30-17:30 UTC (local time) Add to your calendar. If there is a presentation (announced via #ig-math-physics), the meeting begins at 12:00PM US ET with the presentation at 12:30PM US ET.  An extension of the meeting may also occur at 5:00 PM US ET / 21:00 UTC. 
Location: www.kumospace.com/ronin_institute (Room: IG+ CAMP)

IG+ Ronin Women (Slack channel ig-ronin-women)
Scope: Women and friends of women are welcome! 
Date/Time: Mar 16 at 1:00-2:00 PM US ET / 17:00-19:00 UTC (local time) Add to your calendar
Location:  www.kumospace.com/ronin_institute (Room: IG Ronin Women)

WEDNESDAY
IG+ Ronin College (Slack channel ig-ronin-college)
Scope: Developing the concept and plan forward for the Ronin College. 
Date/Time: Mar 16 at 11 AM ET / 15:00 UTC (local time)(Add to calendar)
Location: https://www.kumospace.com/ronin_institute

Research WG (Slack channel #wg-research)
Scope: Develops guidelines, policy, and workflows to help Research Scholars conduct research through Ronin.
Date/Time: Mar 16 at 3:00-4:00 PM US ET / 20:00-21:00 UTC (local time) Add to your calendar
Location: Join the Zoom meeting (pswd: RONIN) 


THURSDAY
Office hours with Jon & Arika
Scope: Answer any questions you have related to the Ronin Institute. 
Date/Time: Thursday at 8:00-9:00 AM US ET / 11:00-12:00 UTC (local time) Add to your calendar
Location: https://www.kumospace.com/ronin_institute

Events WG (Slack channel #wg-events)
Scope: Organizes events to help Scholars showcase their work, engage with each other, and expand their knowledge.
Date/Time: March 17 at 12:00-1:00 PM US ET / 16:00-17:00 UTC (local time) Add to your calendar
Location: Join the Zoom meeting (pswd: RONIN)

If you want to know more about Ronin WGs, email or join us at "Office hours with Jon & Arika"