Executive Meeting Memo — 14

Introduction

Welcome to this week’s installment of the Edge Carolina Executive Memo. Let me preface this by saying, today is a doozy, so just prepare yourselves. We have several important topics to cover. Here’s a breakdown of the agenda:

1. Restructuring Edge Carolina
2. Communication and Social Media
3. From the Ashes: Edge Labs
4. Important Notes for Second Meeting
5. Finishing Up

Let’s dive in.

Restructuring Edge Carolina

As you all hopefully saw in the Discord, we recently brought on two additional team members to work with the Executive Team at Edge Carolina. Those new members are Nate Ward (Chief Communication Officer) and Avery Phillips (Social Media Lead), and I am very excited for them to be joining us. The goal of bringing in these new faces is simple: improve communication and online presence for Edge Carolina. They will help us achieve this end.

While new faces have been brought in, today we need to discuss significant restructuring of our Executive Team. When I first started Edge Carolina, I made the decision to leave some of the roles for the team ambiguous, primarily because I believed there would be so much rapid change that it would be silly to introduce rigid architecture that would likely crumble. However, I made this decision with the understanding that there would come a day, in the not-so-distant future, where important decisions would need to be made. That day is here.

First off, we will deal with the positions that will not experience any change: Thomas and Francisco, your day-to-day roles will generally remain the same. Secondly, Adil’s position will be renamed to Chief Professional Officer; generally speaking, your new focus will be primarily on professional development, resume support, networking, and bringing in interesting speakers for GBEs (General Body Events) in order to provide effective ways for members to grow, specifically in soft skills. Finally, Ivan will remain as CTO; however, the duties of the role will change and become much more defined. The CTO will now oversee a completely fleshed out and complete Edge Labs implementation.

I recognize this is a lot of change, yet, I have always said that if we need to shift we should do so fast and learn from past mistakes. This is one of those learning situations. We must learn to be quick on our feet; we must learn to adapt to adversity, or we will not be a successful organization. These necessities are not exclusive to Edge Carolina; if you want to run a successful company or team in the future, these are lessons that must be learned and solutions that must be practiced. I understand that in terms of role duties, the above may be vague; however, I have compiled a document which describes each role in the organization clearly and effectively. Obviously, clarification may be required, and in that case I will gladly oblige.

Communications and Social Media

While the above talked about restructuring the organization’s pre-existing roles, we have also added new roles to the organization. The CCO (Nate) will be primarily working to maintain consistent messaging across all forms of communication, as well as taking notes at each Executive Meeting. The Social Media Lead (Avery) will be in charge of developing a coherent and effective strategy, in close collaboration with the CCO, to implement on social media (primarily Instagram). Again, as stated above, a much more detailed list of duties and responsibilities can be found in the document titled Roles and Duties under the Constitutional Documents folder in the Edge Carolina Google Drive.

From the Ashes: Edge Labs

As you all most likely remember, the idea for a recurring meeting called Edge Labs was proposed by me over the summer. The initial intent for these labs was to be a place for members to come and learn about specific topics they may not be familiar with and also work on projects that they are interested in. However, the idea was never implemented. With the restructuring of the Executive Team comes an opportunity to bring Edge Labs back from the ashes.

Edge Labs will effectively be meetings in which members, who are already formed into groups, come together and focus on completing tasks related to their group projects. The meetings are led by our CTO, and groups will be divided among various categories related to tech, i.e., AI, Web Development, Robotics, etc.

Leading each category will be a Sector Head, who acts as a mentor and has advanced knowledge of their specific category. The CTO may also be a Sector Head, but in the future, I would like for other members (general members) who have significant experience in a specific skill to be Sector Heads. By the end of the semester, it is expected that each team has accomplished significant progress on their project and is able to effectively present the project to the rest of the club, which will then be published on our website. Note: Effective presentation leads into our next topic quite nicely.

Important Notes for Second Meeting

Now we need to turn our attention to the next meeting, our first professional development meeting. Adil proposed this meeting as a means for introducing the Edge Wiki, as well as an opportunity to present members with important knowledge related to resumes. At the time, I viewed it as a great opportunity to present to our members; however, I have decided that I want to narrow down the vision for the Wiki.

(Again, I want to emphasize that we are not a startup-based club. I very much recognize that in the past, we have shifted to focus more on startups; however, that is not the focus of the club anymore. We are project and professional development focused.)

Thus, all sections of the Wiki that relate to ‘Edges’ are to be removed. I want the Wiki to focus primarily on resumes. This upcoming meeting will focus primarily on resumes.

Finishing Up

I know this has been a lot of information. I know it may seem like it has come out of the blue. I also know that this will not be the last time something like this happens.

However, I KNOW you can all handle it. You are here for a reason—because you are all the best at what you do, and you WANT to be here. You believe in the mission of Edge Carolina. You believe that we can have an impact on people’s lives. This is what it takes.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.