The NSF NCAR Community Software Facility (CSF) Software Practice Exchange Committee (SPEC) Ambassador Meeting kicks off on Tuesday, Sep 8, 2026. This kickoff meeting brings together Ambassadors from across every NSF NCAR laboratory to exchange ideas, gather input, and explore effective software engineering practices. This is an important step in the Better Practices and the CSF Standards project.

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The initiative builds on a recommendation from the Discovery Workshop Report to establish recommendations for coding standards and practices across NSF NCAR. NSF NCAR has many software projects and teams, and different projects may have different development practices, documentation standards, and review processes. This can make it harder for developers to move between projects and harder for community contributors to understand what is expected. A common set of clear, practical software practices could make collaboration easier while improving software quality. The approach is that rather than imposing a set of requirements, CSF will co-design these practices with the people who actually develop and maintain the software.

The Software Practice Exchange Committee is led by Julie Prestopnik, Sheri Voelz, and Soudeh Kamali, and has team members Katherine Thayer-Calder, Haiying Xu, Ryan Cabell, and Cena Brown.

Based on the project's goals, the committee selected Ambassadors from each lab for a first meeting on Sep 8. Ambassadors will serve as a bridge between the committee and software developers in their labs, bringing local perspectives to the committee and sharing the co-design process with their colleagues. The first meeting is just the beginning of the broader co-design process. Staff across NSF NCAR will have opportunities to contribute through future listening sessions, surveys, working groups, and other engagement activities. Staff should watch for more information from their lab Ambassadors about upcoming opportunities to participate. Additional details will be shared as the process develops.

At the same time, the committee has developed and refined a listening session plan through several rounds of discussion and feedback. This plan will guide the upcoming meetings and future sessions. The committee has also explored better practices across a range of categories and identified those most relevant to NSF NCAR. These categories will form the foundation of a follow-up survey, helping the committee gather broader input from the community.

The first meeting is an important step toward building a shared culture of software excellence at NSF NCAR, shaped by collaboration, listening, and the experiences of the people who develop and maintain our software.