Our first two weeks at Inspire were busy! With two teammates initially located on opposite sides of the world – Xavier in the Philippines and Remee at UVic – our project kickoff was quite unique. Effective communication posed a challenge due to the distance and time difference, but we managed to find effective ways to overcome these obstacles. Now that we’re working together at the UVic office, we’ve harnessed the advantages of proximity, strengthening our team communication. Despite encountering challenges in communicating with external parties, we remain committed to ensuring successful communication and adapting to unforeseen factors, even though it can be tiring. We both understand its vital role in project success.
Our primary focus during this period has been reevaluating our scope. Initially, we had planned the project for Shawnigan Lake School. However, we’ve expanded our horizons and are now exploring new locations for implementing a water solution. This shift has broadened our project’s scope from a school in the Cowichan Valley to encompass any community on Vancouver Island that would benefit from increased water security. As we don’t yet have a specific community partner, we are working to establish a foundation for an as-yet-undefined objective. This necessitates efficient work and selecting problems within the broader scope that we can address. Despite the absence of a community partner, we remain optimistic that we will be able to find one, and we have been able to focus on our research.
While looking for potential community partners, we each conduct research and outreach independently, staying organized with a task list and a shared Google Drive. We maintain a contact page to track our outreach efforts and the status of each contact, which helps us avoid redundancy.
As we search for a new community partner, we are continuing to find new ways for the Shawnigan Lake School students, who came up with the RainWise idea, to stay involved. They are a smart and passionate group of students whose involvement will be important for our project’s success.
This week, we interviewed a member of the Quadra Island Climate Action Network (ICAN) with 35 years of experience in the water solutions industry. During the interview, Remee led the conversation while Xavier recorded notes and occasionally participated in the discussion. This dynamic worked well, considering Remee’s knowledge of Quadra Island and regional water security specifics. We plan to alternate roles during future interviews based on our individual expertise.
This Thursday we had our first presentation about RainWise. We were lucky to have Jenna – our mentor – help us revise our presentation. With this help, we felt confident during the presentation and are excited to keep improving our presentation skills!
In the upcoming sprint, our goals include creating a list of potential community partners and narrowing it down based on their specific needs. We are hoping to solidify our relationship with our other community partner, McElhanney. We anticipate a busy next two weeks.