Greetings, At the Board face-to-face meeting (2 weekends ago already!), our talks repeatedly returned to the need for revitalized HOT working groups. In one session in particular, we chose to focus on the structure and state of Working Groups. This email shares what we learned and built at that session, and we hope, imparts some momentum to the WGs. In short, a summary of the state of play for the working groups, and some simple steps to get things moving.
Jaakko put it well in his recent email to the voting members: “Let's face it: Our community and amount of activities have grown by whatever metric we use to measure. We are already in a situation where it's not possible for any single person or even the board to stay on top of all of the things that are happening. We must organize ourselves better, delegate more, and trust that those who have stepped up to take responsibility take care of the issues they have signed up for. I would personally dare say that this is already needed to sustain our current activities but it is absolutely necessary if we want HOT to continue growing and reach its full potential. The board sees that active working groups with clear responsibilities would be a good way forward. We see that Working groups are also in a key role in better engagement with the broader HOT community. And without the help of you all (voting members and the broader community) this is not possible.” Using our good friends, sticky notes, we started by enumerated all the current active and quiet Working Groups; the purpose of the group and status; one Board member who is involved; and one concrete “ask”, a doable activity for the WG to take on. We also defined a governance framework for Working Groups, simple guidelines for how WGs form and organize, communicate and decide. This spreadsheet is a literal translation of the sticky notes. As such it’s pretty terse. I’ll explain more below. https://docs.google.com/a/hotosm.org/spreadsheets/d/18HdMPwq_ZBBgIHDm9siLxyWxsDw6GZj2WsjbzHUHUns/edit#gid=0 We identified 8 working groups, 2 of which are active (Technical and Activation), the rest have gone quiet, or never really got going. The “purpose” is a one sentence description of the group, and is just meant as a summary for the exercise; each working group needs a terms of reference (ToR), which describes its focus in more detail. Each director was given “responsibility” for one WG; with 8 directors (7 Board Members, plus Executive Director), we had an elegant 1 to 1 right now. More below, but note, responsibility simply means they take on the task to ensure Working Groups start to meet, not necessarily lead the group. The “Asks” are straightforward actions we felt the WG could take on at first, to get into the practice of setting and attaining goals, and contributing concrete results to HOT. For a few, this simply meant drawing up the ToR, and others have more involved ideas (like training new activators). Note, these are offered for consideration, and if a WG thinks something else makes a good first Ask, they should go for it. The important thing we believe for revitalization is for WGs to focus on doable actions. Look out for announcements of Working Group meetings. I believe Kate sent out a note about the Communications WG. The Tech and Activation groups should be meeting at their usual time. Other groups will be announced soon. For WG procedures, here’s the framework/guidelines we came up with: * HOT’s Bylaws state the Board can organize committees (what we have called working groups in practice) * Each WG includes a representative from HOT’s Directors (a Board member or Executive Director) that is responsible for seeing that meetings happen and the group is functional. They do not necessarily chair the group. For quiet groups, that may mean organizing the timing for the first meeting. We can ask HOT’s administrative assistant for help with setting up a Doodle to arrange for the time. * A group should have “appointed members”, who have the expectation to do focused work in the group. This would include some individual responsible for chairing the group. The WG itself appoints these. * Groups are for the most part open to participation from anyone in the HOT community interested in the topic of the group. The idea is that appointed members take on a greater burden of work. Any individual cannot reasonably be an appointed member for every group, but could be part of the discussions as they wish. * On occasion, some groups may need to have discussions with a more limited group of folks. For instance, the fundraising group may need to talk privately about a particular funding opportunity and restrict the meeting to the appointed members. * Working groups communicate their meetings and deliberations to the broader community in the form of minutes, blog posts, etc. * A WG should agree on the communication tools it uses for live communication (IRC, mumble, skype, etc), and the tools for asynchronous discussion and archiving (wiki, OpenAtrium, etc). * Good practice to have meetings scheduled at a regular time and interval. If helpful, HOT’s administrative assistant can help with determining a schedule and announcing meetings. If there’s a need to cover many time zones, an oscillating timing is an option. * Working Groups by necessity and design take decisions and act on their own accord. In some limited circumstances, they may seek approval from the Board, for instance, when recommending policy for HOT. * HOT’s Code of Conduct is guidance for our commitment to each other when we work together in Working Groups. Of course, this is our first draft, and up for discussion, and any questions or comments to improve the frame of WGs is welcome. Lastly, one concrete step for organizing working groups is to create a section on the website that succinctly describes each group, and links to fast moving details of the groups work (like in the wiki). I’ve taken on responsibility to bring this Ask to the technical working group. If anyone is interested to help in drawing up the requirements, implementing, and setting the content for this page on the HOT website, please let me know, more than welcome! Thanks, Mikel, on behalf of the HOT Board
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