diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
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@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+Contributing to Chipyard
+=============================
+
+### Branch management:
+
+1) github:com/ucb-bar/chipyard: master = stable release. All merges to master must go through PR.
+2) github:com/ucb-bar/dev: dev = pre-release non-stable branch with latest features. All merges to dev must go through PR.
+3) Other dependancies pointed at by Chipyard (e.g. firesim, boom): master should be the version submoduled in ucb-bar/chipyard master.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
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+++ b/README.md
@@ -11,19 +11,24 @@ To get started using Chipyard, see the documentation on the Chipyard documentati
 Chipyard is an open source framework for agile development of Chisel-based Systems-on-Chip.
 It will allow you to leverage the Chisel HDL, Rocket Chip SoC generator, and other [Berkeley][berkeley] projects to produce a [RISC-V][riscv] SoC with everything from MMIO-mapped peripherals to custom accelerators.
 Chipyard contains processor cores ([Rocket][rocket-chip], [BOOM][boom]), accelerators ([Hwacha][hwacha]), memory systems, and additional peripherals and tooling to help create a full featured SoC.
-Chipyard supports multiple conccurent flows of agile hardware development, including software RTL simulaiton, FPGA-accelerated simulation ([FireSim][firesim]), automated VLSI flows ([Hammer][hammer]), and software workload generation for bare-metal and Linux-based systems ([FireMarshal][firemarshal]).
+Chipyard supports multiple concurrent flows of agile hardware development, including software RTL simulation, FPGA-accelerated simulation ([FireSim][firesim]), automated VLSI flows ([Hammer][hammer]), and software workload generation for bare-metal and Linux-based systems ([FireMarshal][firemarshal]).
 Chipyard is actively developed in the [Berkeley Architecture Research Group][ucb-bar] in the [Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Department][eecs] at the [University of California, Berkeley][berkeley].
 
 ## Resources
 
 * Chipyard Documentation: https://chipyard.readthedocs.io/
-* Chipyard Basics slides: 
+* Chipyard Basics slides: https://fires.im/micro19-slides-pdf/02_chipyard_basics.pdf 
+* Chipyard Tutorial Exercise slides: https://fires.im/micro19-slides-pdf/03_building_custom_socs.pdf
 
 ## Need help?
 
-* Join the Chipyard Mailing list: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/chipyard
+* Join the Chipyard Mailing List: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/chipyard
 * Post an issue on this repo
 
+## Contributing
+
+* See [CONTRIBUTING.md](/CONTRIBUTING.md)
+
 
 [hwacha]:http://hwacha.org
 [hammer]:https://github.com/ucb-bar/hammer