Back to Digests Week of May 17 - May 23, 2026

Week of May 17 - May 23, 2026

GPS retrospective week. The big deliverable lands mid-week (~May 20-21): retrospective + forward plan, two-doc structure agreed with Josh May 14. Josh sends sacrificial first draft same window. Thu has the regular 1:1 + Studio Services + CRISPRkit (which is the natural checkpoint for the CRISPRkit handoff still owed to Cathy from the May 12 Strategic Huddle). Wed = Dan Schwartz GSE farewell (postcard due today). Light Fri/Sat.

Weekly Focus

From May 14 Josh 1:1, carryover from last week, Q1 goals

GPS retrospective draft → Josh by ~May 20-21. First-person, reflective, STAR-style prompts, R/R/R as the grammar. This is the main work this week. Josh sends his sacrificial draft same window.
CRISPRkit handoff — close it Thu. Studio Services + CRISPRkit meeting Thu 1pm (Moraima, Alex Choi, Cathy, Josh, Joe, Maren) is the natural moment. Open question for Cathy from the May 12 huddle.
File Strategic Huddle (May 12) running-notes. Carried forward 4 days now — still not in meetings/running-notes.md. ~15 min job, do it before the GPS retro work starts to clear the deck.
Cyan DeVeaux — commit or formally pause. Now rolled forward 4+ weeks. Either send 2 intros this week (Kerns + Tech Interactive are easiest) or send the formal pause note. Don’t carry into another digest.
Strategic Horizon refresh — still overdue from April. 30-min push if there’s a clean afternoon.

Daily Log

Sunday, May 17

Monday, May 18

GSE Dan Schwartz postcard contribution deadline (form, ~5-min).

Tuesday, May 19

Not yet recorded — AS:DE 11am, Data-to-LMIC discussion 2:30pm with Piya Sorcar (TeachAids).

Wednesday, May 20

Not yet recorded — GSE May All-Staff 10am (Dan Schwartz farewell, Shriram II hybrid).

Thursday, May 21

Not yet recorded — Josh 1:1 10am, Studio Services + CRISPRkit 1pm (Moraima, Alex Choi, Cathy, Josh, Joe, Maren).

Friday, May 22

Not yet recorded — Weekly Personal Review 2pm.

Saturday, May 23

This Week’s Calendar

Day	Time (PT)	Event	Notes
Tue	11:00 AM	AS:DE Meeting	Josh, Joe. Weekly.
Tue	2:00 PM	HOLD (focus block)	Protected for GPS narrative drafting.
Tue	2:30 PM	Data to LMIC discussion	Piya Sorcar (TeachAids). Reuben organizing. Intro from Jessica Tsang. 30 min.
Wed	10:00 AM	GSE May All-Staff [Hybrid]	Dan Schwartz farewell. Shriram II + Zoom.
Thu	10:00 AM	Josh<>Reuben 1:1	Weekly. Likely GPS retro check-in + close the May 12 huddle open threads (CRISPRkit, Joe OOO, cost sheet).
Thu	1:00 PM	Studio Services + CRISPRkit	Moraima, Alex Choi, Cathy, Josh, Joe, Maren Pfirrmann. The natural moment to close the CRISPRkit handoff question for Cathy.
Fri	2:00 PM	Weekly Personal Review	Recurring.

Tue and Thu are the work-heavy days. Mon = light. Wed = Dan farewell is the main thing. Fri = light.

Key Upcoming (Beyond This Week)

Date	Event	Prep Needed?
End of May	End-of-month Airtable pass	Yes — monthly cadence (~Wed May 27 or earlier)
Jun 5	DCI Celebration Flash Lab (~50 people)	Yes — scoping. Josh attending; night-before logistics in flight. Egencia booking window is THIS week.
Jun 8–12	Tech feasibility scan window (Jessica Tsang + Josh availability)	Confirmed except June 8 (Josh anniversary)
End of Jun	ISTE Live 2026 (decided May 14 — registered/registering, awaiting Nadia next steps)	Yes — session co-presenter logistics with Josh

Action Items Status

Critical This Week

GPS retrospective draft → Josh by ~May 20-21 (R/R/R lens, first-person reflective, STAR prompts).
File Strategic Huddle (May 12) running-notes to meetings/running-notes.md. Carried 4 days.
CRISPRkit handoff close-out — Thu Studio Services meeting is the moment.
Cyan DeVeaux intro chain — commit (2 intros: Kerns + Tech Interactive) or formally pause. No more rolling forward.
GSE postcard for Dan Schwartz — short, ~5-min, due Mon May 18 by form. (Form)
Egencia + Dev Day receipts → Moraima + STAP reimbursement (parked since May 1).
Egencia booking for DCI June 5 if not done — window narrowing.

In Progress

German Build-a-Bot integration (Christian Haake / NLQ — translated JSON received May 5)
SofIA security doc → Sergio + Micaela
SofIA auth flow + database schema design
DCI June 5 Flash Lab scoping (Josh attending; night-before logistics in flight)
Draft 3-year Accelerator anniversary emails (Josh, Kristen, Cathy, Isabelle)
Audit mybook.fyi Airtable — cross-reference emails with Wen
Add Quoted Impact entries to Airtable (sofIA, Dan/Josh Q2, Shaping the Narrative, Efface launch, Cathy book chapter)
Develop proprietary train-the-trainer materials (licensable IP)
Compile GPS/STAR-style prompts for R/R/R sections (Fizzy #110)

Waiting On Others

Josh: Sacrificial GPS retro draft (~May 20-21), Flash Lab cost sheet review (sent May 6), DCI June 5 night-before logistics, Darcy one-pager feedback thread
Darcy: One-pager + tear sheet feedback (sent May 11)
Nadia Selim (ISTE): Next steps after session submission (was waiting on Josh — now decided, may need a nudge)
Brooke (OTL): Geoff Cox + YouCubed contract precedent
Marily / Caitlin: IRB feedback on Health Coach Bot
Alissa (ISTE): Scheduling meeting with Jessica Rami + Isabelle

Carried From Last Week (May 10–16)

Week’s Accomplishments

Cumulative list, updated as the week progresses

Decisions Made

(Updated as the week progresses)

Cooling Connections

Auto-surfaced from etl_cooling at 21-day threshold. Reuben decides re-engage / check in / drop.

High-priority (active collaborators, real project ties):

Christine Bywater — 38 days. Associate Director CSET. Lane Young thread (Alexander Dawson Flash Lab) was the last live touchpoint, and that thread itself has gone radio silent. Suggest: light Slack check-in this week or fold into a CSET update.
Marily Oppezzo / Michele Patel — 55 days. Health Coach Bot. IRB feedback still owed from them, but the silence is now load-bearing. Suggest: send a “still on my list, where are you?” nudge.
Rachel Wolf — 63 days. Last active March recs thread. Suggest: drop unless something concrete surfaces.
Victor Lee — 88 days. Faculty Partner, AI+Education. Important relationship, long silent. Suggest: re-engage via a low-stakes ping (newsletter share, ISTE update).

Lower-priority / situational:

Wen Profiri — 82 days. mybook.fyi audit is a carried action item — that’s the natural re-engagement vector.
Ana Saavedra — 97 days. Colombia chatbot wrapped Feb. Likely a clean dormant.
Bernardo Silveira / Preetha Krishnan Menon / Victoria Delaney — 88 days. Mostly dormant; drop unless surfaced.
Anna-Lena Neurohr / Vanessa Monterosa — 109-110 days. Vanessa is on the Carried list already. Anna-Lena: drop unless surfaced.
Jessica Garner / Joseph South — 82 days. ISTE-side. Surface only if/when Nadia thread reactivates.

Stories/Impact to Capture

Candidates for Airtable or quoted-impact.md

GPS retrospective conversation itself (May 14 Josh 1:1) — the reframe from title/comp to R/R/R-as-narrative-grammar is a [STUDIO-BUILD] / strategic-thinking moment. Capture once the draft lands.
Studio Services + CRISPRkit Thu — tEquity continuation with Alex Choi. Watch for [BRIDGE-BUILD] / cross-project pattern moments.
Piya Sorcar (TeachAids) LMIC call Tue — intro from Jessica Tsang. Practical-knowledge sharing on training data at scale. Watch for [BRIDGE-BUILD] or partnership signal.

Carried to Next Week

(Updated at end of week)

Created: 2026-05-18 (Monday morning). The week is GPS-retro-heavy, with Thu carrying the dense work block (1:1 + Studio Services). Mon and Fri are light protect-time days.

Source: week-of-2026-05-17.md

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