## Membership
-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|members]] in SIPB is granted after sustained
-contribution to the organization, and confers several benefits:
-
-* 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.
-
-Prospective members interested in becoming full members should attend
-our weekly meetings regularly (they're Mondays at 7:30 PM), 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.
-
-To get involved in SIPB projects, you can hack on an existing
-project—begin by talking to the people currently working on
-it—or start a new one. 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, and found resources or collaborators to do them through SIPB.
+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|members]] in SIPB is granted after becoming **socially
+integrated** and "**Furthering the Goals of SIPB**" for a sustained period.
+### Becoming Socially Integrated
+
+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.
+
+Prospective 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 to be membered, though usually this happens before prospectives are otherwise ready to be membered.)
+
+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). Prospectives 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, and 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
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 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
sipb-www / wiki.git / blobdiff