Introductions and Volunteering with BwoB

Introduction to BwoB

We have a new lab space in Long Island City (NYC) and equipment is gradually being set up there. Check out the website and/or sign up for our mailing list for more general updates.

As you may know, Biotech Without Borders is an entirely volunteer-run organization with no plans to change this structure. Our officers are a core group of volunteers who have developed relationships with each other and are currently tasked with formalizing the documents we need to operate. However formal documents are no substitute for building relationships with each other.

Purpose of the thread

New community members join the Loomio at some frequency and I am excited to learn more about you and hopefully see you in the lab when you are able to come. I see everyone associated with Biotech Without Borders as a community from which folks may emerge to take on responsibilities necessary for our continuation. Knowing each other's skills and interests helps us understand what our collective power can be. Importantly I want our community to also forge connections between each other and imagine what they can do with the assistance of each other.

Previously folks were invited to contribute to building a shared agenda and follow along with our activities on our Community Sheet. It wasn't used as much as I would like and there was some chaos on Google docs which led me to migrate to this platform which affords more moderation tool and is better aligned with the idea of being a collective. Meeting notes are now held here accessible by members.

If you have questions for the group please start a poll!

If you want to volunteer with something specifically let us know in a comment. This might be a good way of learning some of the Loomio ropes to begin (see the help thread for more information).

I will be reaching out on this thread with projects that need volunteers that would be appropriate for newcomers to join. But please keep your eye our for threads or polls marked as "opportunities" for other places you may be able to help. These posts may be moved to their own threads as appropriate.

Community introductions

Many of you have told me about yourself but there are others here who may be interested to know more about you. So please introduce yourself below in a comment. I will pin them to the timeline and you are welcome to edit them as you see fit. You are also able to edit a profile (which is standard across any Loomio group you join since we are using their server, but may disappear if we migrate to our own server) using the "Edit Profile" menu in the sidebar.