Operations Team

Operations is the place in SSI to learn professional skills and connect to the wider aerospace community. The skills you’ll learn are so diverse -- from graphic design to how to get a sponsorship -- that they’re near impossible to summarize. Space is so much more than just the technology, and Operations where it all happens. Operations is split into a number of subgroups with various responsibilities, from organizing members to teach classes at Stanford Splash and uploading workshops to YouTube, to planning special dinners for all members. If you want to know how to manage a group of 200 members with a six figure budget, make space art to decorate our workspace, or get connected to the top of the space industry, Operations is the place for you.

Space would hardly be possible without the people behind the hardware, getting sponsorships, building community, and talking to CEOs and Venture Capitalists across the industry. We’ve brought in speakers like Charlie Bolden, the then-administrator of NASA, and this year will be hosting Gwynne Shotwell, the President of SpaceX. We have a half dozen different efforts that form the backbone of SSI. Feel free to reach out if you want to get involved! The current team leads are

@Lawton Skaling 

Events

Operations brings space to Stanford and sends its members out into the world. The entire Operations team started with Events and we’re only getting better. In the past, we’ve brought exciting speakers like Gabriel Swiney, one of the authors of the Artemis Accords, representatives from companies like Boeing and SpaceX, and alumni who are now in the aerospace industry, and organized field trips to places such as Bay Area Circuits. Throughout the year, we host talks, panels, and tours at Stanford while sending our members beyond.

Marketing

Marketing is where you can learn graphic design in order to make lovely materials like Approaching SSI, or reach out to magazines like Wired, Techcrunch, and the Stanford Daily in order to showcase our projects to the world. Oh, and if you want to manage our social media (aka make dank memes) this is the place to be. You have Marketing to thank for all of our gorgeous materials, posters, and swag.

Website

Our Website group manages both the beautiful main website and the internal site, which in addition to looking gorgeous brims with tools like the reimbursement system and resume book. Through a full, feature-rich system (if you want to make enterprise software, this is a great way to get started) the Website makes managing SSI a dream. If you want to get involved, let Priti and Matthew @{{{display-name}}}  and @{{{display-name}}}  know.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

We want space to be the most welcoming community possible, and that starts with SSI. The DEI team runs a quarterly leadership workshop, hosts talks, connects with engineering diversity organizations, and works to make SSI a space for everyone. Look out for self-care and movie nights and exciting speakers discussing equity and representation in aerospace.

Outreach

Outreach efforts focus on bringing our stories to local schools and even the Maker Faire. Outreach launches SSI straight out of the Stanford bubble and into the real world. We teach classes to high schoolers at Splash, update educational content on our YouTube channel, and generally work to spread the message that space is for everyone.

Financial Officers

The FOs should really be called the wolves of wall-ssi, because they focus on managing the six-figure budget, handling reimbursements, and interfacing with Stanford administrators.

Workspace

Workspace manages the 60-foot-tall underground bunker we call home. That means running a machine shop, planting herbs, and painting space-themed murals across our cavernous space.

Community

At the core of any team is the people, and with Community you’ll help welcome and foster connections between people from all walks of life. By organizing events like special dinners, watergun fights, and spring retreat, you will help make SSI more than just a group of talented engineers, but rather (in the words of one of our members) “the best family one could ask for.”

Business

The business team leverages the alumni network and SSI’s own contacts in order to keep SSI funded. They interface with everyone from big boy aerospace companies to small startups to the ASSU themselves for everything from cash to equipment to software access. Extorting aerospace executives makes SSI's projects possible.

Alumni

Here in the valley, you're an ancient, creaking Methuselah by the time you reach 22. Unless, of course, you're part of the SSI alumni network, which is run by the group of the same name. Alumni keeps this running, organizing events for aged 20-somethings to rest their aching bones. If you’re interested in interfacing with or joining our alumni network, check out How to Join SSI's Alumni Network.

Safety

Space can be dangerous! Whether it’s working with dry ice, using power tools, keeping our workspace compliant, or standing far, far, away from rockets at launches, Safety comes up with procedures that keep us from getting injured doing what we love.

Data

Are you a budding statistician? Do you love analyzing populations? Data is in charge of running our annual SSI census, where we try to understand the successes and failures of our current administration and get a sense of the many, many active members of SSI as a whole.

SSIT

If you want to explore the bowels of SSI on a deep, deep level, then SSIT is for you. Keeping our Wiki and website running and managing all of SSI’s technology is no easy task, but it’s critical for helping the club function.

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