Organization knowledge from past years put together by Jill Waring, Noa Tamir and Imke Mayer
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December: Applications open
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Feburary: Applications close
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February/March: Reviewing phase (ca. 2 weeks)
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March: Announcement of decisions
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to clarify organization questions (how many free tickets, how much funding, visa fees covered?)
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to coordinate for logistics during the conference:
- We need rooms for the diversity scholars meet and greets. Preferably one on the workshop day, and one on day 1 of the main conference.
- They should provide you with the diversity scholars emails, or email them on your behalf, so you can introduce the buddies initiative, invite them to the meet and greet and newbie session, and ask them permission to share their names with other scholars and with the buddies.
No consistent form/portal used in the past years. Solutions from the past years: R Foundation LimeSurvey, university internal portal.
Make all fields mandatory to ensure all relevant information is provided. Limit the length for text fields and explicitly state that additional documents (CV, external document with longer answers, etc.) won't be taken into consideration for reviewing. This ensures equal treatment of all applications.
Make sure the server use and location comply with with data protection regulation.
Example of forms used previously
Appoint 2-3 people from the diversity team (and/or conference organizers) to handle logistics during and after application phase. Tasks include:
- communicating with conference organizers,
- answering questions from applications or reviewers,
- make final decisions based on reviewers grade, diversity balance among scholars, available funds.
Around 10 people from Forwards, R-Ladies, etc. Usually there are around 150-200 applications, so 30-40 per reviewer.
Examples of reviewers from past years: Anna Quaglieri, Augustina Ragwitz, Imke Mayer, Jennifer Thompson, Jonathan Godfrey, Julie Josse, Maëlle Salmon, Scott Chamberlain, Sina Rüeger.
It is helpful if the committee is diverse, reflecting the marginalized groups that are likely to apply.
Create an email alias specifically for DS related questions. Inform the conference organizers to forward questions related to DS to this alias.
Every application will be evaluated by 2 committee members, using a 1-4 scale.
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The reasons for scholarship request are compelling, based on description of their R background and potential impact on their community.
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Are they from a country, region or area not typically represented at useR! (Jill Waring and Noa Tamir have stats from 2016, 2017, 2019 attendance by nation), or from an under-represented and/or historically marginalized group?
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Applicant information provided through the form is verified by examining their public profile on twitter, GitHub, R package authorship, R mailing lists, via links provided by applicant.
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Note: The requested amount of funding will vary and is not taken into account for the evaluation.
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Ideally give preference to individuals who have not been awarded DS in previous several years, but not a firm exclusion criteria, e.g., per Laura’s suggestion, some individuals may make continued and substantial contributions to the R community, which would be worthwhile to recognize and support.
Interpretation of summary scores:
1 - nothing outstanding
2 - some potential, but not enough given the quality/content of other applications
3 - generally good, but still some drawback (e.g., not much opportunity to pay forward, etc.)
4 - ticks all the boxes (recommendation: favor the most marginalised groups/people, e.g. disabled folk, with least opportunity and/or those that contribute a lot of volunteer time to the R community)
The final selection will be based on the average score (between the two reviewers), with additional consideration of aims to include people from as many different groups as possible.
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Announce the DS welcome event as early as possible so that scholars can take their plane/train tickets to be able to attend it. Make sure they are aware of any pre-conference events, such as developer days, so they can attend if possible.
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Example for the email to the scholars (including the newbie session details):
Dear Diversity Scholars,
We are looking forward to meeting you at useR! YEAR. We wanted to make sure you noticed the following events in the schedule on DATE:
The first is an opportunity just for diversity scholars to meet members of Forwards and a few other people who have volunteered to be conference buddies - people you can come to during the conference to ask questions or just chat with during the breaks, in case you don’t know anyone already!
The second is open to anyone who is new to useR! and will have a program of short, informal talks on a variety of topics that we think will be helpful for newcomers to the R community. Hopefully this will be a gentle introduction to the conference, a chance to meet more people - perhaps people going to the same tutorials as you the next day!
If you can’t come to these events, don’t worry. The team of conference buddies will be on the lookout for you to help you feel welcome at the conference. The conference buddies are: LIST OF BUDDIES
We don’t advertise the names of diversity scholars to all attendees as you may not wish to publicize your scholarship. However recipients from last year said they wish they had known who the other scholars were, so we would like to share your name with other diversity scholars as well as the team of conference buddies. Please answer this quick poll: to let us know if you are happy for us to share you name with either/both groups. If you wish to remain anonymous you should not attend the meet and greet! Of course your name is known to a few people on the evaluation committee and on the local organisation committee, but we will respect your wishes regarding confidentiality.
Best wishes, Name, on behalf of Forwards
- There is a Google Form template you can copy for the scholars to agree to share their names useR! Conference Buddies - Scholars Form. Please update the following:
- Update logo image for current useR! combined with the Forwards logo
- Update the year / hub in the form name
- In the first question in section 2, replace “DATE AND TIME” with the relevant conference buddies meetings for your event
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Welcome
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Meet & Greet
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Outline the process for reimbursement of expenses
Create a small coordination team of 2-3 people taking care of answering applicants questions and coordinating the evaluation process (allocate applications to the diversity committee members, define evaluation standards together with Forwards team, collect the committee members' evaluations, manage the final selection process and communicate results to local organization committee). Unsuccessful applicants will wish for some feedback - even providing the numbers of submitted and successful applications can help them understand why they missed out.
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Follow the data storage guidelines to decide how and where to store the application and review data. Note that the guidelines may depend on an reviewer's country of residency.
- Data storage and usage guidelines for European citizen reviewers: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32016R0679
- Reviewers within the EEA and New Zealand (countries covered by an adequacy decision by GDPR) can download the raw data from the application platform and store the data securely on a local drive (not cloud storage)
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Communicate the guidelines to the reviewing committee to ensure adequate data storage and usage. Emphasize that it may contain sensitive information and must not be shared with anyone.
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Keep the information on requested funding until shortly after the conference in case it needs to be accessed for reimbursement purposes.
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At the end of the conference, send a reminder to all committee members to delete all the applicant information.
Provide an evaluation form
- 1 field for summary score (only whole numbers)
- 1 field for notes on why the reviewer has scored the application at this level. What stands out as relevant applicant features or circumstances you considered in your evaluation of application?
The comment will help for making the final decisions in case of a tie.
The method(s) of reimbursement should be practical for international recipients. Bank wire (+ fees?), paypal, xoom, transferwise, etc.
Appoint a contact person for reimbursement related questions (or ask the conference organization to provide the name and contact of the person handling reimbursement).
For advice on specific wording for acceptance letters, to be most effective for Visa applications see suggestions from Heather below. Consider also consulting the International Students office of the co-hosting university.
It may help to personalize them if possible. E.g., "the committee were impressed by your work on ...", to show they are invited due to specific skills/expertise. Visa offices are very concerned about the person returning, so also emphasising community involvement, e.g., "It is good that you will be able to share the knowledge learned with the R User Group in X when you return".
Some specific advice from Canadian government, which is probably good advice for US visa applicants also:
We stress how vital it is that applicants [...] provide as much information in their application as possible, especially regarding ties to their home country and the means and plans to return as that is the most common reason that applications are refused. ( From https://twitter.com/PhABCD/status/1194711596423163905?s=20)
Confirm that the scholarship covers return travel and accommodation while they are in the US. I like the idea of naming institutions that support the conference, not just naming the conference which they won’t of heard of (and doesn’t have a very meaningful name outside the community). According to Kevin O’Brien, who is looking into this issue for Forwards, an invitation signed by a Government agency can improve the chances of a Visa Application being accepted, so if the conference has such an association, or a person working for such an agency (e.g. National Statistics agency) that can sign it with their job title and affiliation as well as organizing committee association, that could help.
Forwards tips for applicants can be shared on the conference website.
A small list of questions from applicants during application phase.
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Q: Is it possible to obtain more specifications about who is eligible for this diversity scholarship?
- A: No. We cannot provide a precise qualification of which kind of persons could be targeted by the diversity scholarship since this could pose a threat for the scholars' personal life. But if you think you might be eligible based on the provided scholarship description, send us your application. Otherwise, please refrain from applying.
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Q: The provided space for answers in the application form is too small. Can I send in a separate document with more detailed answers?
- A: No, please use the available space and try to be as concise as possible. To ensure equal chances in the evaluation process, we cannot review more detailed applications from some applicants while considering only the shorter answers of all other applicants.
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Q: What are my chances of getting the diversity scholarship?
- A: In the past we received many applications and many of them met the requirements but due to limited funding, we couldn't fund every eligible candidate. If you consider that you are eligible for our diversity scholarship, please fill in the application form. But you should also consider alternative funding possibilities to increase your chances of attending useR! with a funding.