This document outlines a set of principles that will help guide the decision making process and trajectory of this team. Ideally, all decisions come back to support this set of goals. Although primarily designed to guide the leads, it is available here for all members to read.

Vision Statement

UW Orbital aims to produce the first CubeSat developed out of the University of Waterloo to make it to space, aspirationally within 2-4 years, realistically within 5-10 years, in pursuit of developing a well-established space program at the university, to get students involved in the industry early in their career.

Culture/Policies

• This team shall remain “open” in every sense possible.
  • There will be no “applications” for entering the team that hinder students from getting involved in the space industry.
  • No one should ever be forced to take on things they don’t feel passionate about. Joining and leaving projects and subteams as per interest should be welcomed. No one should ever get “bored of working on a satellite that could one day make it to space”.
  • A bootcamp does not necessarily count as hindering involvement, as long as lots of mentorship is provided.
• Nothing is ever “too hard” or “something I could never do”, or “that requires a lot of expertise”. Even while providing members with learning experiences is our goal, we’re in competitions to win (no matter how slim the chances). “Aim for the stars and you’ll land on the moon”.
• Thou shalt not waste precious time on long, dragged-out meetings. Value people’s time - whether it be leads or members. Although off-topic conversation and general enthusiastic dialogue about satellites is welcome to help foster a sense of community, defaulting to the “no one likes meetings” perspective will help everyone have a more enjoyable time. Leave those conversations for after the “official business” is over.
  • Don't call a meeting unless it's absolutely necessary. If it can be done over text, keep it that way, unless the other person(s) prefer to call.
• Be understanding of people’s other commitments and priorities. We’re all university students.
  • If someone can’t get work done, have a one-on-one convo with them, and possibly delegate the task to someone else.
  • Take care of your mental health and everyone else’s. A design team comes after your sanity, no matter how cool it sounds to work on an orbital satellite.
• Keep channels of communication open with the members and the leads. Don’t let anyone get in an uncomfortable position where they feel like you have expectations of them that they cannot meet, or will only meet at the expense of their health or grades.
• Be as transparent as possible about what our goals are as a team and the struggles we’re facing.
• Social events: To foster a sense of community, the team should regularly run social events like game nights. Frequency can depend on a multitude of factors, but once a term is a bare minimum.
• Documentation is crucial. Whether it be about administrative lessons learned, or a database of technical knowledge, this team will strive to make knowledge as accessible as possible. It should be easy for a high school student to go, within a term or two, from having no knowledge of cubesats whatsoever to feel comfortable enough to hold a leadership position on the team if they had to.
• The approach to leadership within this team is blended. There need to be frequent and effective status updates, and a homogenized approach to organization (i.e. tools such as Notion), but otherwise subteam leads should be free to have their own approaches to meeting styles, social environments, and communication strategies. What matters is the outcome, and a willingness to accept feedback and adapt to it.
• Providing feedback must be easy and judgement-free. A permanent anonymous suggestion box, keeping DMs open via a friendly relationship with team members, and asking frequently about ways to improve are all great ways to achieve this.
• Copyrighted content must always be cited when used.
• UW Orbital has a zero-tolerance policy for any kind of discrimination including but not limited to based on sex, gender, sexual orientation, race, ability or age.