I just had a meeting with three cutting-edge Indigenous researchers who are going to be starting labs. We talked strategy, what I wish I knew when I started, and their questions. I'll include a short version below, but: What would you add??

1. You have a lab as soon as you say you have a lab, even if you don’t have people in it yet. All it needs is a name and a website.
2.Highly recommend keeping your lab mission/vision general & flexible. Be ready to grow towards things you haven’t gotten to yet.

3. IMHO, the name of lab can describe what it does, is best to be short & descriptive (ie. not CLEAR. ha. But Dark Lab, Northern Edge lab, Data Warriors lab... you get the gist).

4.I have designed CLEAR so it can continue even if I missed 1 or 2 cycles of funding. If you build a lab that needs a certain amount of money just to run it because of equipment, you’re locked into a cycle of grant writing that you cannot exit. We can shrink & flourish

5. I have a lab manager. At first I didnt need one, but as I scaled up, esp w/ partner projects, that require chasing down contracts, remembering invoice locations, training... a lab manager helps A LOT. THE MOST.

6. If you get a lab manager, I recommend choosing them based on their alignment with your values and their ability to provide the CULTURE you want in your lab. If that's not there, other forms of competency don't make up for it.

6.Lab really really really really really really needs a lot of documentation: metadata, protocols, lists of people and what they worked on and their hours... projects pop in and out (unfinished projects languish) & you need that documentation!

7. I run CLEAR in a very specific way: I facilitate a collective rather than a collection of researchers, which takes a lot of time. Our lab meetings are not about individual research projects, but building up the collective. There are other models: apprenticeship, work horse...

8.There will be massive social problems and you just have to deal with them. You will hire/accept a problematic/violent lab member at some point. Talk to your colleagues, own your responses, and stay with your values during conflict. That's all you can do.

9. One I didn't mention in the meeting. IMO, if the lab isn't fun or flourishing, stop it. I closed CLEAR for a season and started over. And no one seemed to notice. That's drastic, but a lab isn't a good on its own. Feel free to not lab.

Folks in IndigeLab who might be interested and/or can add more: @1NativeSoilNerd @Napaaqtuk @cricketcrocker @DeondreSmiles @mukhtarayusuf @algoriphagus @ximenaccid1 @native4data @Indiginerd @scbegonias @SarahAarons @IndigeNerd