What's a chapter?

Chapters are self-organizing local groups of Public Lab members, such as the Gulf Coast or Boston, that bring people together around either a particular project or the desire to start a topical interest group around a tool, site or environmental issue. Public Lab chapters can help connect a) people with expertise who want to do something, b) people with environmental concerns who want to do something, and c) people who have gear who want to do something with it. Self-starting chapters are geographically defined.

The Public Lab nonprofit

Public Lab is an open community supported by a nonprofit. Currently the nonprofit staff work and do on-site support in two regions-- the Gulf Coast and Northeastern United States. The rest of our time is spent supporting regional Public Lab chapters, helping to organize meetups and workshops, coordinating research and tool development and maintaining online platforms such as PublicLab.org, MapKnitter.org and SpectralWorkbench.org that serve the whole community.

Find nearby Public Labbers

Figuring out what's already happening in your region and building community: First, check to see if there are others already working with Public Lab tools in your region. There are ~8 local mailing lists that cover different regions of the United States currently.

If there isn't already a mailing list for your region, is there a local group that is already concerned about a similar issue that you are--a local environmental our outdoors group? Perhaps a group of makers or hackers? Or do you want to fly kites over the water and know of a local canoe club? Reach out and see if these folks are interested in partnering.

Host a workshop

Try hosting a workshop or a meet-up to get everyone together and gauge interest. For example, if you are interested in hosting an aerial mapping workshop, here is an overview. If you are interested in hosting a spectrometer meet-up, try this on for size. Consider setting a regular date, time and place to meet--the first Saturday of the month at Park X at Z o'clock! Don't forget to let the wider community know what you're doing by posting research notes on www.publiclab.org about what you're working on--other community members in your area might pop out of the wood work, and those who have set up their own chapters can offer tips, tricks and ideas!

Start a local chapter

Have some dedicated people together? You are ready to start a chapter, great! Now what?

1. A couple things to check:
2. Read through the value statement developed by the Public Lab organizers group. If this sounds like a community whose values align with yours, fantastic!
3. Do you have a group of 3-5+ people that want to get together weekly and fly kites? Or a group that wants to map in infrared, over the next five years, changes to a local wetlands area?
4. If you're onboard with the value statement and have a couple of people together, reach out to the Public Lab organizers group, organizers@publiclaboratory.org. The support that Public Lab can offer includes:
5. Helping you set-up a local mailing list
6. Assist you in setting up a page for your chapter
7. Providing you with a support community for your work
8. At the same time as you are working on setting up your place page and mailing list, here are a couple of ways that you can link into the Public Lab community:
9. create a profile page
10. join the general Public Lab mailing list
11. Once you have your mailing list and place page started, and after you've done your first workshop, consider applying to be part of the Public Lab organizers group, a growing list of people who lead events and chapters across the globe. For more information on joining the organizers group, visit this page.

What's next?

Now that your chapter is up and running:

1. What are your goals?
2. Consider scheduling monthly or quarterly meet-ups
3. Host a barnraising in your community
4. Report back to Public Lab (by posting a research note) on what you're working on to connect with others in other areas of the world doing similar work.