December recording, updates for January

content/community.md

@@ -28,4 +28,4 @@ integrating with 3rd party systems. Read more about our guidlines
 
 Join our hpc-toolset slack channel: 
 
-[:fontawesome-brands-slack:{ .lg .middle } Join Now](#){ .md-button .md-button--primary }
+[:fontawesome-brands-slack:{ .lg .middle } Join Now](https://join.slack.com/t/hpctoolset/shared_invite/zt-fyhvv8j4-4KFl64etmDWRS7pATjYXPw){ .md-button .md-button--primary }

content/news/posts/2025-12-cc.md

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 # December Community Conversation
 
-This month's meeting will held on Tuesday, December 9, 2025 at 11:30am ET.  Monthly community meetings are convened over Zoom to discuss topics of interest.  Usually there are no planned agendas and community members bring ideas and questions to share. 
+This meeting was held on Tuesday, December 9, 2025 at 11:30am ET.  Monthly community meetings are convened over Zoom to discuss topics of interest.  Usually there are no planned agendas and community members bring ideas and questions to share. 
 
 <!-- more -->
 
-Register [here](https://buffalo.zoom.us/meeting/register/4rY9XTVmRxG6LMi-L_a8jw) for the Zoom link.
+## Meeting summary 
+
+### Quick recap
+
+The ColdFront team discussed their transition to a community-driven project and reviewed ongoing development work including governance policies, architecture updates, and plans for a 2.0 version with new app-based functionality. The team covered various technical updates including Django upgrades, code cleanup, and storage plugin development, while also discussing allocation visibility and attribute automation features. The conversation ended with discussions about Bootstrap version updates and plans for future collaboration, including conference presentations and developer-focused tutorials.
+
+![type:video](https://www.youtube.com/embed/JN16q0fXsFs?si=Ot0xF5ifNCXYD6NX)  
+
+
+### Next steps
+•	Sajid: Write up GitHub issue about allocation visibility for project managers who are not allocation users  
+•	Dori: Upvote Sajid's GitHub issue about allocation visibility  
+•	Chris Barnett: Set up another storage plugin working group meeting  
+•	Andrew: Add Sajid to the core architecture working group Slack channel  
+•	Sajid's student: Create pull request for Bootstrap 4 to 5 migration for next semester  
+•	Chris Barnett: Ping Cecilia on Slack to discuss convergence between storage plugin allocation blueprint model and her allocation attributes plugin  
+
+### Summary
+#### ColdFront Community Governance Transition
+The ColdFront Community Conversation discussed the repository's transition from [github.com/ubccr/coldfront](https://github.com/ubccr/coldfront) to [github.com/coldfront](https://github.com/coldfront), making it a fully community-driven project. Dori mentioned that the team is developing governance policies to clarify decision-making processes and appeal mechanisms, with a dedicated working group working on these details. She invited updates from the architecture working group, which has been meeting regularly to address ongoing activities.
+
+#### Software 2.0 Branch Planning
+The team discussed plans for a 2.0 version of their software, focusing on moving functionality from the core to a series of apps or plugins. Chris mentioned the need to wrap up open branches and push them into the current codebase for a stable release. They also considered updating the Django version before forking for the 2.0 branch.  The team discussed ongoing work including Django upgrades and code cleanup in the mainline branch, with several pull requests in progress.   
+
+#### ColdFront Conference Updates and Planning
+Dori announced that the University of Buffalo had a booth at Supercomputing with ColdFront information and stickers, and one developer gave a presentation at the Vast Storage booth. The team plans to propose a developer-focused tutorial at PEARC and will share all conference materials in the GitHub repository. Dori also invited interested participants to join the core architecture working group's private Slack channel.
+
+#### Allocation Visibility and Storage Updates
+The team discussed the visibility of allocations, where Dori explained that project managers cannot see allocations unless they are also added as users, though PIs are automatically added. Andrew suggested this could be addressed by creating a GitHub issue, and Sajid agreed to document this requirement. Chris Barnett provided an update on the storage plugin work, introducing the concept of storage providers and allocation attributes, which automatically set default values for new allocations based on resource types.
+
+#### Django 5 and Plugin Updates
+The team discussed Chris's progress on a generic storage plugin implementation, which will initially support VAST and TrueNew storage systems. Andrew shared plans for a Django 5 upgrade in the 1.X release and a potential UI refactor for ColdFront 2, including moving the navigation from top to left-side placement to better accommodate plugin additions. Sajid confirmed their system is already running Django 5.2 in production and offered to contribute to the Bootstrap 4-5 migration effort, with the working group discussions to continue in the HPC Center Management Toolset Slack channel.
+
+#### Django and Bootstrap Version Updates
+The team discussed upgrading Django to version 5.2 and transitioning from Bootstrap 4 to 5, with Sajid confirming they are already running Django 5 and need to update Bootstrap. Cecilia and Andrew agreed that updating Bootstrap to version 5 in the 1.X branch would be acceptable, and Sajid offered to make a pull request for this change. Dori encouraged Sajid to include his student in the project, noting the benefits of fresh perspectives in web design. Cecilia shared her work on a plugin that automates allocation attribute creation and updates, expressing interest in extending this functionality for other universities and potentially releasing it as a public plugin.
+
+#### Allocation Attribute Automation Discussion
+The group discussed allocation attribute automation, with Sajid explaining they added custom logic in allocation create view to automatically set attributes when allocations are created, while Cecilia described their process of manually creating projects through an external form based on project titles. Chris and Cecilia agreed to discuss converging their work on the storage plugin and allocation blueprint model, with Chris offering to share relevant repository information via Slack. The conversation ended with holiday wishes and plans to reconvene in January.

content/news/posts/2026-01-cc.md

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+---
+date: 2026-01-08
+authors: [dsajdak]
+title: January 2026 Community Conversation
+categories:
+  - Community Meeting
+---
+
+# January Community Conversation
+
+This meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 13, 2026 at 11:30am ET.  Monthly community meetings are convened over Zoom to discuss topics of interest.  Usually there are no planned agendas and community members bring ideas and questions to share. 
+
+<!-- more -->
+
+Register [here](https://buffalo.zoom.us/meeting/register/4rY9XTVmRxG6LMi-L_a8jw#/registration) to get the Zoom link

content/news/posts/2026-01-help-wanted.md

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+---
+date: 2026-01-08
+authors: [dsajdak]
+title: Help inform the future of ColdFront
+categories:
+  - Announcements
+---
+
+# ColdFront User Community Interviews
+
+As a requirement of our [NSF POSE grant](2025-09-pose.md), our team is participating in the NSF i-Corps training program for building open source ecosystems.  As part of this training, we will be required to interview 100 people about ColdFront.  We need your help!    
+
+<!-- more -->
+
+The interviews are expected to take approximately 30 minutes and will need to be conducted between 1/20/26 - 2/25/26.  We're looking for:  
+•	current users  
+•	those who are actively testing it   
+•	those who have looked at it in the past but decided not to use it  
+•	those who you might know of that are not aware of ColdFront but are using something else for managing their resources  
+•	folks not just from HPC centers but anyone that might need to manage access to resources (shared scientific instruments, for example)  
+
+We'd like to interview a broad range of people - support staff, developers, center administrators, end users - so please help us share the word.  We can interview multiple people from the same organization if you have different roles.  You can indicate your interest by filling out [this form](https://forms.gle/D3cMTfw7gaSrAj5R6) and we'll contact you to schedule a Zoom meeting.  
+
+Our largest blocks of interviews will be scheduled Tuesday, January 20 - Friday, January 23 from 3-6pm ET but we'll have many other slots available to accomodate time zones across the world.  Thank you so much for your assistance!