Onboarding with HGAPS

Welcome new member! So, you're interested in joining your university's chapter of HGAPS? This onboarding guide should help.

Onboarding is the process of integrating a member into a group, in this case, the process of getting a new member integrated into HGAPS (particularly HGAPS at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). This document explains how to become onboarded into HGAPS including what training needs to be completed and how to become a member of a project team. This is especially important for new members or current members preparing for new members on their team.

Please ensure all onboarding steps are complete!

What is HGAPS?

Although many new members may already know of HGAPS and its goals, if you are a new member and do not, this section describes more about how the organization functions.

Background

Helping Give Away Psychological Science (HGAPS) began as a student-led organization at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) in 2016. Since then, the organization has grown into an officially recognized nonprofit and has incorporated chapters from across the U.S. including the University of Maryland, Appalachian State University, and the University of California, Los Angeles.

Goals

Our mission is to bridge the science-practice gap by collecting, distilling, and sharing psychological science to promote well-being in the community.

To do this, HGAPS strives to disseminate evidence-based psychological information to those who need it most, creating better access to reliable science. This is done by creating small, project-focused groups within the organization that work together to consolidate and share evidence-based information and resources while collaborating with researchers and clinicians around the globe. We mostly do this through free platforms such as Wikiversity (Wikipedia’s sister site for research and learning materials), YouTube, Open Science Framework (OSF) and Zotero. By granting access to free and reliable resources for assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention purposes, we can help clinics and researchers that lack funding and resources to access evidence-based practices. Overall, the hope is to create tools and trainings to help future generations of practitioners and researchers while educating the general public.

Membership in a University Chapter of HGAPS

Requirements

In the university chapter, members are decided by the university's individual bylaws for student organizations and will abide by each university's individual policies for student organizations.

For UNC-CH, students must be full-time undergraduate or graduate students. Members must attend 30% of meetings performed in a given semester after they have joined the club. This means that if you joined mid-semester, you only need to attend 30% of the meetings after you join. If you will be leaving early, arriving late, or are unable to attend a meeting, let your project team know as soon as you discover your attendance will be impacted. Attendance is taken by the HGAPS Secretary on the RSVP sheet. Dues must also be paid according to the amount set in a given semester/year–typically $12 per semester or $20 per year. These dues will be collected through the HGAPS PayPal account. Finally, all members must have wiki accounts and perform the necessary trainings before making any edits.

Members intending on pursuing future leadership positions should try to attend most meetings and refer to this page.

Communication Etiquette

Within the organization, communication largely occurs over Slack or email in-between meetings; however, we prefer HGAPS related communication occur over Slack when possible. Please respond to all forms of communication within 24 hours (or by Monday morning if a message is sent over the weekend). If you are not able to fully respond to the content of the email, please reply to acknowledge that you have seen the email and give a timeframe for when you expect to be able to respond more thoroughly. If an email is sent to you directly, you are expected to reply unless otherwise noted (e.g., "Just FYI"); if you are in the CC line, a reply is not expected or required. If you will be away or unable to respond to email for an extended time period, an out of office message is useful to let others know not to expect a reply within the 24-hour timeframe.

Replying to project leaders, faculty, grad student advisors, or other HGAPS team members is a great time to practice your email etiquette. If you are unsure how to professionally respond to an email, please let an advisor know as we would be happy to help you learn! Some basic rules include ALWAYS including a subject, a greeting, and a closing in your email, and making sure to use proper grammar and punctuation. Other suggestions include bolding, highlighting, or re-listing items requiring follow-up or action from the person you are emailing at the end of the email; taking the initiative on scheduling with others; and being clear about meeting/call times (e.g., "Our call is scheduled for this Thursday, 5/21, at 6:00pm EST. I look forward to our discussion!").

If you only require a response from one person, please message them directly rather than sending a message to the entire group. Before sending an email to the group, ask yourself if the topic is relevant to everyone, if email is the best medium for communicating that specific item (versus a Slack message or an in-person chat), and if the item can wait till the next meeting to discuss. We all receive a lot of emails and want to ensure we are not abusing the power to contact our team members instantly with a non-urgent question or comment.

Project Teams

HGAPS splits members into different project teams focusing on different tasks that aid in the dissemination of psychological research and resources. In the case of UNC–CH, projects are also enumerated, so 1022 equates to the team working on updating the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

Sometimes, these team goals may overlap, get passed between different teams, or end up involving more than one team at the same time. For instance, at UNC-CH the Translations team translates assessment measures into different languages for the Assessment Center team, and then the Social Media group could post their accomplishments on Twitter!

Members may participate in more than one group, but during the school year, focusing on one is advisable (see Meetings below).

Each group has a leader position designated as a "Water Carrier (WC)". This is a business term and our version of a team leader–the difference is, a water carrier doesn't indicate prior experience or seniority. Water carriers mainly lead by organizing the group and planning meetings, but they need no experience–in fact, a water carrier's job may entail asking others to help with their expertise. The term water carrier is used for this reason–to decrease feelings of superiority/inferiority while maintaining a structure to the groups. For more information, please refer to this SOP.

Meetings

During the Academic Year

UNC-CH HGAPS holds general "working" meetings on Thursday evenings from 6–8pm ET in a hybrid format utilizing the President's zoom and a designated meeting room on campus during the academic year. In the instance that the health of HGAPS members is put at risk by having in-person meetings, all meetings will occur via Zoom with no in person option available. The zoom links are sent in advance and you can sign up for weekly reminders through our Luma calendar. These meetings are working meetings, so during these two hours, members split into breakout rooms (in groups in person) to work with their teams. Attendance is taken via the RSVP sheet, an excel sheet sent out by the President each meeting. Each member is responsible for noting their attendance and whether they left early- for this reason, we recommend bookmarking the RSVP sheet.

These meetings are typically outlined as follows:

Introduction: 6:00–6:15pm
- Members share how they are doing and any personal updates. Then, the Professor (Dr. Youngstrom in our case) or the President may give overall updates, such as different grant updates. This gives a chance for the President to organize breakout rooms.
Breakout rooms: 6:15–7:45pm
- Members work in their groups. At the end, the water carrier (see Project Teams above) notes the teams accomplishments on a Google Doc used by the President and Faculty Advisor to keep track of the team's accomplishments.
Report out: 7:45–8:00pm
- This is when each water carrier reports to the group what was accomplished and the Faculty Advisor gives final updates and/or announcements before concluding the meeting.

Aside from the general working meetings, specific teams may choose to meet outside of the general meeting time, so there may be instances where teams meet at a different time. You may also see that these working meetings continue through school breaks–don't worry, those are optional for UNC students.

During the Summer

The HGAPS executive committee and other members who are highly involved throughout the course of the academic year may be given the opportunity to work as a paid, independent contractor over the summer, depending on the availability of funds and resources. If you are offered and accept this opportunity, you will be required to sign an Independent Contractor Agreement and fill out a W-9. Your scope of work will be determined before the summer and included in the Agreement. Summer workers can work on predetermined, funded projects for pay (other projects may be completed as volunteer work), though this is subject to change depending on the availability of funds. Payment will be administered on a monthly basis and should be received during the first week of the month for all paid work completed during the previous month (e.g., you will be paid for the work you completed from June 1st to June 30th during the first week of July). Contractors are responsible for tracking their hours worked on funded projects on the appropriate tab on the tracking sheet, include detailed descriptions of what project you worked on, what work was completed, and how many hours you worked (every 15 minutes counts, so you can track in 0.25 increments). Please be honest about how many hours you worked on a given projects and which projects you worked on (i.e., do not say that you worked on a funded project when you worked on an unfunded project); the research coordinator will check hours at the end of every month before sending payment.

SUMMER 2022 (to be updated each year): HGAPS general meetings/editing sessions are held Thursday evenings from 6:00-8:00pm EST via Zoom. A member of the executive team will often send the RSVP sheet during the meetings via Zoom Chat so that attendance can be recorded. Within these meetings, the President will create breakout rooms based on specific projects that members can enter once prompted by the President. It is expected that each team creates an agenda and takes notes each meeting based on a predetermined template. The currently funded projects for Summer 2022 are Conferences, APS, SOPs, OToPS, Translations, Assessment Portfolios, Squid Game, Updating EBAs, Social Media, Speaker Series, Operations Manual, and Redcap; all other projects are done on a volunteer basis or may be funded in the future depending on acquisition of additional funds.

Editing Meetings (Edit-a-thons)

Edit-a-thons are specific HGAPS meetings in which clinicians, researchers, and other stakeholders are recruited to help edit HGAPS content and direct the club toward objectives that are pertinent to current issues in the field. We have had local clinicians, researchers, and organizations (e.g., NAMI) attend in-person meetings and held teleconferences with other leaders in the field in the past. Edit-a-thons occur throughout the year and are organized by the executive team or an outreach coordinator designated specifically for edit-a-thon planning. They are typically held in larger spaces (e.g., the library) to accommodate extra guests and sometimes provide “special” food outside of the usual pizza. Visitors work alongside HGAPS members to view and edit content and make suggestions for other topics, projects, and edits. Edit-a-thons are a great opportunity to network with leaders in the field and show off your Wiki skills!

To learn more, please refer to the Edit-a-thon SOP.

Additional Opportunities for Members

Wiki Authorship

HGAPS has recently begun turning Wiki pages into WikiJournal articles for publication. This is a great opportunity to add to your CV/resume and contribute to science in a meaningful way. We have learned that the best way to avoid hurt feelings is to be fully transparent about authorship. Dr. Youngstrom devised a system that fairly (or as fairly as possible, as these situations can be complicated) awards points toward authorship for different publication-related tasks. Please be sure to fill out an AARF with your team if you are involved in a project that hopes to result in publication BEFORE you begin writing, or as early as possible in the process. You can reach out to Dr. Youngstrom or the graduate advisors if you are unsure about how to use the AARF. More details about submitting an article to a WikiJournal via HGAPS can be found in our WikiJournal Guide.

Conferences

HGAPS members have the opportunity to submit abstracts to and attend various conferences throughout the year. HGAPS tries to create opportunities to attend conferences by taking notes and helping students submit poster abstracts. Take a look at our tips for attending conferences if you are considering submitting your own work or taking notes for HGAPS at an upcoming conference.

Conferences occur throughout the year, and locations and dates vary by conference. Most conferences occur around the same time every year, though actual dates vary. Conference locations tend to shift each year. National conferences can take place anywhere in the United States, and international conferences may be anywhere across the globe. Conferences should have their own individual websites. Some of the conferences we frequent are Future Directions Forum, Miami International Child & Adolescent Mental Health, American Psychological Association, and Association Behavioral Cognitive Therapy.

Onboarding Steps

Now that you know what you're joining, here are the steps you should follow in order to involve yourself in HGAPS as quickly and easily as possible.

Step 1: Create a Wikipedia account and join the main means of communication.

Before your first meeting, it’s helpful to at least have a Wikipedia account created. That way, if you’re interested in becoming a member, you can follow along with the page changes being made by the rest of your team members during the meetings.

Read Getting Step Up on this page to learn how create a Wikipedia account. Luckily, this will create a Wikiversity account too!

Slack

As for communication, for UNC-CH, we primarily use Slack. Slack is a business platform where people can easily message, @ each other and communicate with people through multiple channels and even an app. We recommend you download the app as to not miss important notifications. Although email reminders will still be sent for the Thursday working meeting, most meeting reminders, general information, and team specific announcements will be sent over Slack.

In our Slack, the #general and #newmembers-[term] channels will be used for any meeting updates and important news. Project channels on the other hand will be used for project teams to communicate with each other, share resources with one another, and plan separate team meetings if necessary.

To join, simply ask an executive member to add you to the general channel (it'll send you a time-limited invite) or ask your water carrier (WC) to add you into the necessary project channel. With all that in mind, go ahead and join to get connected with our team!

Step 2: Attend your first meeting.

As a new member, simply ask the President to stay behind or create a breakout room for new members–they’ll introduce you to the current projects, and you’ll have the opportunity to sit in and see if that project interests you! At that point, the water carrier will introduce you to the specifics and see what they can do about getting you up to speed as soon as possible. However, it's important to note that editing cannot be performed before completing the necessary trainings, so this introduction is just to help you understand the project's layout.

Tip: if you and your water carrier are unsure of where to start, ask them to share their screen and walk you through their slack channel and the project objectives and key results!

At this point, if you would like to stay and are from UNC, please visit the heellife page and request HGAPS membership.

Once that is finished, if your project team is working on something you are not able to yet without completing wiki trainings, and you are given permission by your group's water carrier to do so during the meeting, you may move on to steps 3-4.

Step 3: Create your accounts.

HGAPS uses a variety of free platforms for different purposes as seen on the RSVP sheet. Two prominent examples are OSF and Zotero. used for uploading documents and creating citations, respectfully.

Although not all projects require these accounts, it's good to have them in case a future project needs them. So make sure you:

Follow this link to create an OSF and add it to your RSVP sheet. It's recommended to use a personal email to ensure access to the account after graduation. For more information on OSF, should you need it, follow this link.
Follow this link to create a Zotero and add it to your RSVP sheet. It's recommended to use a personal email to ensure access to the account after graduation. For more information on Zotero, should you need it, follow this link.
Ask your project if any other platforms are being used! For instance, Social Media frequently uses Canva, an online graphic design platform. There, the leader must add the new user to a workgroup to work on the same project. So just ask and make sure you have everything you need!

Step 4: Complete your trainings and report back.

There are two trainings that must be complete in order to edit. These ensure your edits don't get removed by wiki.

First training: Begin by completing the Wiki Training Modules here: https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/

Sign in with your Wiki account.
Go to the "Training" tab.
Complete the "Student Training" Modules.
Make sure to finish the "Basics" and "Special Topics" sections!

This should take about an hour or less. Ensure you're signed in so that your progress remains saved on your account.

Second training: Complete the Wikipedia Adventure linked below.

Wikipedia:The Wikipedia Adventure
Ensure you have all 15 badges at the end!

A standard Wiki User page where the user writes their major, mentor, and involvement in HGAPS.

This training will take a bit longer, approximately an hour or a bit more. It includes music and details the layout of Wikipedia from within Wikipedia, guiding you on your first edits. At that point, go ahead and add some more information onto your user page- for example, go ahead and add HGAPS to your wiki profile (right).

After this, you're all set with your trainings! Report back to your water carrier and to any HGAPS Exec member. An HGAPS Exec will then add you to HGAPS-relevant Wiki groups (including the HGAPS User Group and the HGAPS WikiEdu dashboard) while your water carrier will help you get more involved on their specific project.

Further information

What if I have more questions?

Please reach out, we are here to help! HGAPS has a lot of exciting projects and components, and we know that getting started can seem overwhelming. If you have any questions, please reach out to the leadership in your chapter (past president, president, treasurer, secretary, etc.).You may reach out to your faculty advisor; however they are typically very busy, so we encourage you to direct questions that are not specific to the advisor elsewhere first, if possible.

Who are the main HGAPS Exec that I will interact with?

UNC Chapter

Eric Youngstrom, PhD (he/him) - HGAPS CEO, Founder and Faculty Advisor
Natalie Charamut (she/her) - HGAPS Assistant Executive Director (currently working on PhD, may not be very available but is very knowledgeable!)
Phoebe Rodda (she/her) - HGAPS UNC Chapter President
Julia Bondareva (they/them) - HGAPS UNC Chapter Treasurer
Maddie Gray (she/her) - HGAPS UNC Chapter Secretary
Thamasi Sagi (she/her) - HGAPS UNC Chapter Social Media Chair
Maggie Wong (she/her) - HGAPS UNC Chapter Past-President

Where can I find out more?

If you'd like more information about the history of HGAPS and different events you can be involved in through HGAPS, feel free to check out the HGAPS site linked here, or this page of other Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

Happy editing, we're glad to have you!