Using The Shared Google Drive

• Naming Conventions
• Folder Structure
• Procedures

Naming Conventions

Category Folders

These folder names should remain unchanged and exist at the highest level of the drive:

• Archive
• Budgeting
• Events
• Governing Documents
• Meeting Minutes
• NPO Recruitment
• Photos
• Student Recruitment

Semester Folders

• Naming Convention: Season and Year spelled out fully (e.g., Spring 2024, Fall 2025).

Templates and Samples

• Naming Convention: If a file is being used as a template or sample, mark it with one of these annotations at the beginning of the file name.
  • Template Example: [TEMPLATE] Events Sheet
  • Sample Example: [SAMPLE] Budget Report

Semester-Year Annotations

• Annotations: Some files are marked with semester-year annotations like "SP24" (Spring 2024), "FA24" (Fall 2024), "SU24" (Summer 2024).
  • Usage: This should be used for files that exist outside of a semester folder, such as meeting minute documents.

Photos

• Naming Convention: Group photos by event or common theme and follow these naming conventions to make searching easier.
  • Event-based Naming: [EVENT]_[DESCRIPTION]_[DATE]
    • Example: Fall2024_Orientation_GroupPhoto_20240814
  • Theme-based Naming: [THEME]_[DESCRIPTION]_[DATE]
    • Example: CommunityService_Volunteers_20240720
• Notes: Ensure all photos follow these conventions for consistency and ease of search.

General File Naming Conventions

• Consistent Format: Use clear and consistent file names to ensure easy identification and retrieval.
• Avoid Special Characters: Use spaces instead of underscores or hyphens, and avoid special characters.
• Examples:
  • [TEMPLATE] Budget Template
  • SU24 Meeting Minutes
  • [SAMPLE] NPO Proposal

Folder Structure

Folder Structure

Instead of organizing parent folders by semester (i.e "Spring 2024"), folders in the drive are organized by category. These category folders will contain the following:

• Template & Sample Files: Examples of specific documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.
• Subcategory & Semester Folders: Specifics for each individual semester (e.g., F24 Budget, NPO Introductory Call Notes).

Here is a breakdown of each of the folders and their purpose:

Governing Documents

This folder contains:

• Stevens Blueprint Constitution
• Materials used in the Registered Student Organization (RSO) process 
• Member Roster - There are plans for this to be moved to the Blueprint Internal Dashboard
• Various nomination and administrative documents

The Constitution and Roster should be updated as needed. The RSO files can remain untouched and are there for reference.

Meeting Minutes

This folder contains all meeting minutes for Executive Board meetings ONLY. Meeting minutes for each semester/summer should be aggregated onto one document to help track progress from the prior meetings. This also eliminates the need for subfolders and individual meeting minute documents.

NPO Recruitment

This folder contains materials pertaining to finding and obtaining projects from Non-Profit Organizations:

• Introductory Calls
• Proposals
• Recruitment Spreadsheets
• Statements of Work

The structure for this folder is slightly different. Each of these subfolders has their own semester folder. This is because we have a well-defined process for NPO recruitment that does not vary as opposed to some of the other category folders where we are still defining things.

Student Recruitment

This folder contains materials pertaining to Student Team Recruitment. Namely, the written application forms & spreadsheets used to manage the application process.

A lot of content for this has been ported over to the Wiki, namely the various challenges assigned to each role (Frontend, Backend Challenge).

Events

This folder contains all event planning materials and slide decks. Events are organized by semester, with common templates and samples included at the highest level. As we establish events and find what works best for us, there is unlikely to be too much variance between semesters, and the structure of this category folder could change to be by event.

Budgeting

This folder contains all material pertaining to budgeting. This includes budget spreadsheets, additional funding requests, and reallocation requests. There is also a folder for receipts/invoices.

Merchandise

This includes all material related to merchandise. This includes designs, order forms, and spreadsheets to track merchandise hand outs.

Tech Team

I will leave this to VP Operations to see if they want to archive or move into another folder

Stevens Collaboration

I will leave this to VP Operations to see if they want to archive or move into another folder

Photos

This folder contains all of our pictures. Pictures should be grouped by event or by common theme (i.e "Project Teams"). Follow Naming Conventions for pictures and put in their respective semester folders to make it easier to search through them.

Archive

This folder contains the old SEMESTER YEAR structure from the first couple of years. There is some duplicate files that were copied over to the category folders. Any old or irrelevant materials can be placed here, however, given the structure described above, members will rarely have to place files here.

Procedures

Adding Files

Ideally, you will not have to create many new files from scratch. You would instead just follow these steps:

1. Make a copy of a [TEMPLATE] or [SAMPLE] file
2. Rename the file according to the Naming Conventions
3. Move file to its respective semester or subcategory folder

Deleting/Archiving Files

In most cases you should not delete files, unless they were created by accident or have nothing to do with Blueprint at all. Instead, you should check with the rest of the team to see if its important, and if not, archive it.

Moving Files to the Wiki

We are in the process of moving some content to the Wiki to encourage usage. A lof of this is TBD, but some general rules of when to move files to the wiki are: 

• The file should be available to the general body and not just the Executive Board
• The file does not require multiple collaborators - multiple people cannot work concurrently on Wiki files

Other Things

• Make sure to share the drive with new E-board members
• If you are working on a file in your personal drive pertaining to Blueprint, you should move it over to the shared drive so that others can view and provide feedback on your work

Recommend Switching to List View to make it easier to view things since some have long titles that aren't fully visible: