🥶WiD Arctic Blast Edition
January 2025
🎁WiD Wrapped
In 2024, our community continued to grow and our members kicked ass professionally and academically, as usual. I could post scores of links to your brilliant data visualizations, insightful blog posts, helpful tutorials, and innovative ideas. But honestly, I was most inspired last year by the generosity and kindness of our community members. In 2024, you quietly assisted several folks with various challenging life situations in a variety of ways. You showed up for each other in #real-talk. You reached out to members you hadn't heard from in a while. You asked each other, "How can I help?" Even when you were personally overwhelmed and exhausted, you continued to care.
The new year didn't bring respite from the chaos and uncertainty of life on planet earth, but I hope you've been able to find or create little pockets of peace and relaxation in recent weeks. I hope you're prioritizing self-care, too, whatever that looks like for you. In order to keep showing up for others, you've got to care for yourself and avoid burnout.
Our community leaders are currently cooking up plans for new events and initiatives in 2025, and we can't wait to share those with you soon.
Best,
Nicole
📰 Community News
The Return of the Discord Server!
If you've been around since the early days, you'll remember we started out on Discord. We moved to Slack because a lot of members spent more time on Salesforce's platform. Given recent political events, some of us (me included and especially) felt very strongly about not wanting to engage with Salesforce's products. And frankly, I love Discord, so we've resurrected the server. You can join here.
🦋 Reminder: we're also on Bluesky!
📆 Events
☕️ Virtual Coffee Breaks
February 20, 9 AM EST, The Chat Room, Discord
Virtual Coffee Breaks are back and happening on the third Thursday of each month (excluding weeks with U.S. bank holidays) at 9 AM EST on Discord in The Chat Room. No separate invitation link required. Just join the server and show up on February 20!
💼 Freelancers, Consultants, and Entrepreneurs Chat
January 29, 6 PM EST, The Chat Room, Discord
This new-for-2025 quarterly virtual meetup is intended for freelancers, consultants, entrepreneurs, and solopreneurs in data science, analytics, data engineering, and visualization. Bring your questions, successes, horror stories, and gripes!
📚Data Book Club
The Data Book Club is reading A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra). More information here.
✏️Community Content
📋 Storytelling with Data Community Exercise—Using Space and Alignment Effectively, Brittany Rosenau
📋 Why is My Scatterplot a Single Point? (Tableau Troubleshooting), Ann Pregler
📋 Struggling with motivation and focus? Create your own ADHD-friendly Recess List, Nicole Mark
💸Support the community!
Just $3.00 per month makes a big difference in meeting our operational expenses! If you have the means and inclination, sign up here!