-# Joining SIPB
+[[!meta title="Joining SIPB"]]
-## Membership
+## Becoming a Member
-If you are interested in contributing to SIPB's computing services and
-in helping users with unusual computing questions, consider becoming a
-member. Full membership in SIPB is granted after sustained
-contribution to the organization, and confers several benefits:
+If you are interested in contributing to SIPB's computing services and in
+helping users with unusual computing questions, consider becoming a member!
+[[Keyholding status|members]] in SIPB is granted to a member after becoming **socially
+integrated** and "**Furthering the Goals of SIPB**" for a sustained period.
-* A permanent Athena account.
-* A key to the SIPB office in W20, and a storage drawer in the SIPB office.
-* A vote at SIPB meetings and (for current students) elections.
+### Becoming Socially Integrated
-Prospective members interested in becoming full members should attend
-our weekly meetings regularly, participate in SIPB activities like
-hackathons, [cluedumps](http://cluedumps.mit.edu/), and [IAP classes](http://sipb.mit.edu/iap),
-and either create a new [[SIPB
-project|projects]] or help with some existing [[SIPB projects|projects]]. This process
-generally takes about a term of active participation.
+A big part of the value of SIPB is in the social interaction. Many members
+spend much of their spare time hanging out in the SIPB office: hacking on
+personal, SIPB, or class projects or chatting with fellow SIPB members about
+topics technical and otherwise.
+
+Members are encouraged to **hang out around the SIPB office** during
+meetings (they're Mondays at 7:30PM) and at other times (check the door icon on
+[sipb.mit.edu](http://sipb.mit.edu/) to see if the office is open). (Coming to at least four meetings is required before you can be nominated for keyholding status, though usually this happens before members are otherwise ready to become a keyholder.)
+
+You can also participate in SIPB activities like hackathons,
+[cluedumps](http://cluedumps.mit.edu/), and [IAP
+classes](http://sipb.mit.edu/iap). Our [[calendar]] contains many of our
+events.
+
+### "Furthering the Goals of SIPB"
+
+"Furthering the Goals of SIPB", or FTGOSing, usually means **working on some SIPB
+[[projects]]**.
+
+Our technical [[projects]] can generally absorb arbitrary amounts of attention. If
+you are already familiar with the relevant skills, you may be able to find the
+bugtracker and just get started. Even if you don't have those skills, if you
+talk to people involved in a project you're interested in they'll probably be
+happy to help somebody enthusiastic learn the necessary skills.
+
+We also have a number of more organizational projects, such as running
+[cluedumps](http://cluedumps.mit.edu/) in the fall, and [IAP
+classes](http://sipb.mit.edu/iap). New members often take the lead on
+organizing these.
+
+You can also start your own SIPB project if you're so inclined. The best way
+to start a SIPB project is to pick some computing-related problem that is
+important to you, find some like-minded individuals, and try to solve it,
+discussing your ideas and plans around the SIPB office, and reporting on your
+progress to the SIPB. The most successful SIPB projects have often been things
+that the people involved really wanted to do, where they found resources or
+collaborators to do them through SIPB.
+
+### A possible route
+
+There are many possible ways to get involved in SIPB, but one route is:
+
+1. Take a look at the [[Projects]] page, and identify a project that looks
+interesting.
+2. Look around the website, the bugtracker, and especially any tickets marked
+as being good for new contributors (look for terms like "hackathon", "starter",
+or "straightforward") to get a better sense of what the project is currently
+doing.
+3. Ideally, come up with one or more "tickets" you find interesting. This could
+be a task from the project's bugtracker, or just something that bothers you
+about using the project yourself.
+4. Talk with somebody involved in the project for advice on which possible
+ticket is best to start with and how to implement it.
+5. Code your thing, and talk to somebody involved in the project to get it
+committed.
+
+If you follow something like this process and get some contributions into some
+SIPB project, you're probably doing fine at FTGOS. You probably can't do all of
+that on your own, though. That's fine, since you also need to get socially
+integrated. Feel free to talk to people around SIPB about each of those steps,
+and somebody will probably be happy to help you through them.
## The office
-
+<img class="right" alt="The office fills with people working together in a hackathon." src="../photos/office-hackathon.320.jpg"/>
-Prospective members are encouraged to hang out in the SIPB office
+Members are encouraged to hang out in the [[SIPB office|office]]
anytime it is open, which it is on a typical weekday afternoon and
evening. We strive to make it a fun and comfortable place to work on
projects, homework, or anything else by providing an array of amenities:
* Nice chairs, big monitors, many computers, table space for laptops
-* Music: ours (CDs or [LAMP](https://lamp.mit.edu/)) or yours (via AirTunes or a certain "printer")
+* Music: ours (CDs or [LAMP](https://lamp.mit.edu/)) or yours (via a certain ["printer"](http://sipb.mit.edu/doc/using-sipbmp3/))
* Tons of equipment and supplies from video adapters to an oscilloscope to Band-Aids
* A diverse technical library, including popular textbooks
* Soda and snacks for late-night sessions, cheaper and closer than Verde's
-## You
+## Questions?
If you have any questions about SIPB or the SIPB membership process,
or ideas for projects, feel free to either drop by our office
sipb-www / wiki.git / blobdiff