InCommon Steering Committee Meeting - June 1, 2015
4 pm ET
Dial-in Coordinates
(734) 615-7474, or
(866) 411-0013
PIN: 0139418#
Agenda
- Update on Steering outreach to CIOs concerning R&S
- any feedback/roadblocks encountered?
- The future of InCommon Steering
- What to do and where to go?
- Subcommittee structure (Michael's document re: Programs)
- InCommon Priorities (sequence/timeline for priorities)
Information Items
- Proposed Steering resolution re: University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley participation - voting underway via Wisegate
- InCommon Accomplishments - first quarter 2015
- Hiring Update
Carryover Action Items from April 27
- Ann West, Steven Carmody and Michael Gettes will develop a positive preamble for the Attribute Release resolution to help communicate the intent of the resolution.
- InCommon staff, TAC, and Steering will draft a plan by Nov. 1, 2015, to enable the attribute release resolution
- Ann West, Steve Carmody and Jacob Farmer will work with TAC to develop/clarify the process for TAC membership and leadership, and work with TAC and AAC to standardize (or at least harmonize) the process.
Minutes
Attending: Melissa Woo, Dennis Cromwell, Klara Jelinkova, Mark Crase, Michael Gettes, Susan Kelley, John O’Keefe, Sean Reynolds, Dave Vernon, Ken Klingenstein, Von Welch, Steve Carmody
With: Ann West, Dean Woodbeck, Steve Zoppi
Approvals via Wisegate
The minutes from the April 27, 2015, InCommon Steering Meeting were approved.
The following resolution was approved unanimously:
Resolution Regarding the University of Texas Rio Grande
Whereas:
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is actively involved in its accreditation process and is a merged institution of two accredited campuses The University of Texas at Brownsville and The University of Texas-Pan American of an existing system, and
Whereas:
Both The University of Texas at Brownsville and The University of Texas-Pan American are InCommon Participants,
Therefore be it resolved:
That the InCommon Steering Committee approves The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley as an InCommon Participant, with the provision that The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley must become accredited in October 2015, or a within a reasonable time thereafter. Should accreditation not take place in a timely manner, participation may be reconsidered.
R&S Feedback
See the list of universities identified by NSF-funded projects (the spreadsheet now has a “status” column):
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ezCzBfIhFjoOZqBQwNsk6Rxkwj9hLmQtRrI1yeTpEeU/edit#gid=0
Dennis Cromwell contacted Notre Dame and Northern Illinois - in both cases, the issue did not reach the CIO.
Dave Vernon will discuss this issue at the NYSERNET board meeting this Friday.
Von Welch is working with NSF in an effort to have their SPs adopt R&S.
Steering - Organizing and Role into the Future
Klara Jelinkova introduced this topic and the organization of Steering and its subcommittees. The two current subcommittees (Programs and Priorities, and External Relations and Governance) were created two years because of the needs at that time. Are those still needed? Do we need other subcommittees?
Several members spoke to the changes in InCommon over the years. It has become a key infrastructure and the constituency is shifting towards non-R1 institutions. This seems to be the time to look at what InCommon will look like in 3 years and the role of Steering in identifying the possibilities and options and forming a vision. While the InCommon staff will develop the overall work plan, but Steering should be developing the vision.
Will InCommon’s strategy be around breadth of membership or depth of engagement by members? Focusing on depth, for example, will likely result in a membership that is not as broad. These are the types of decisions that will require CIO participation (as opposed to IdM implementers). Steering and CIOs should also be involved in how some things are framed. Should InCommon, for instance, be talking about “recommended practices” or should we start talking about requirements? Some European federations have requirements and, for example, push attribute release policies out for their members to consume. Should these types of services be considered by InCommon?
It was recommended to create a Strategy and Direction Task Force with a specific charge and a finite timeline. The task force will evaluate the current structure and develop a recommendation for how Steering should operate in the future, with the intent of being directional and intentional. In its deliberations, the task force should consider working within the current LLC legal agreement and take into account the TIER initiative and its impact on InCommon.
The task force will take a two-pronged approach:
- Review the LLC and structure of Steering in a very short time window. Any recommended changes to the legal structure need to be done very soon. We are already propagating changes to the participation agreement based on eduGAIN and waiting on further changes will cause confusion and money.
- After the structure is determined, the task force will focus on strategy, including gathering data from participants to inform our direction. Once the task force presents its recommendation, the next step will be for Steering to discuss the overall direction for InCommon.
Volunteers for the task force include: Michael Gettes, John O’Keefe, Steve Carmody, Melissa Woo, Sean Reynolds, and Ann West.
(AI) Ann will develop a strawman task force charter for the volunteers to review.
Programs Subcommittee
This subcommittee was suspended, pending the completion of the task force work.
July Meeting
Klara has suggested discussing 2016 nominations during the July meeting. The August meeting will center on priorities and a roadmap to release to participants for community feedback.