Time to spin up a new collaborative working group? First of all, thanks for stepping into this leadership role. The community relies on and appreciates your efforts.
Wondering how the email list, wiki, calendar, agendas and other details will work? Wondering how to get support if you hit some challenges in steering the working group? This page is designed to help.
Working Group Chair: Provides input to the charter for the group, provides overall strategic leadership, guides group toward producing the charter deliverables, manages high level decisions on how the group engages with Internet2 and the community at large, acts as liaison between community and Internet2 leadership. There is the option to have working group co-chairs rather than a single working group chair.
Working Group Flywheel: Provides administrative support to Chair, helps manage communication amongst Working Group membership, tracks and ensures follow-up of project deliverables and action items which come out of meetings. Note: not all Working Groups will be assigned a Flywheel. In these cases the duties of the Flywheel will fall to the Chair, with some duties being distributed to members of the Working Group.
| Who does it? | Step |
| Internet2/InCommon Leadership | Develop charge/scope document. Examples:
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| Internet2/InCommon Leadership | Identify a chair and (optionally) co-chair for the working group |
| Internet2/InCommon Leadership | In the case of a governance or advisory group, there may be an Internet2 flywheel assigned, that is, a designated Internet2 staff member to assist with the group. See Table of Internet2 Support Levels to Trust and Identity Working Groups. |
| Chair | Publicize call for membership. See Tools for Publicizing Working Groups, Recruiting New Members and Onboarding. |
| Chair | Consider the stakeholders who should be represented on the working group and do targeted outreach as appropriate.
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| Chair and Flywheel (if available) | Email mw-service@internet2.edu to request email list, BlueJeans connection and wiki space:
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| Chair and Flywheel (if available) | Determine the meeting schedule
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| Chair and Flywheel (if available) | Optional: Establish a calendar invite using Outlook
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| Flywheel or Internet2 Trust and Identity Staff | Be sure the new working group is listed in
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| Who does it? | Step |
|---|---|
| Chair and Flywheel (if available) | Notes / minutes (if needed) Collaborative scribing using a Google doc is recommended.
Feel free to Email mw-service@internet2.edu to request help with the above tools Note January 2017: The Per-Entity Metadata Working Group used EtherPad for collaborative scribing. Motivation to use Etherpad was around unpopular subscription requirements for Google (or Box). Read about the pros and cons of EtherPad here. |
| Chair and Flywheel (if available) | Logistics Requests
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| Internet2/InCommon Leadership |
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| Who does it? | Step |
|---|---|
| Chair and Flywheel (if available) | Ensure good practice is followed for working group calls, including:
|
| Chair and Flywheel (if available) | Make sure that Action Items are noted during the call, and reviewed at the end of the call. |
| Chair and Flywheel (if available) | For software development groups, ensure that all contributors have signed the contrib agreement. |
| Chair and Flywheel (if available) | Wiki / website should be updated with relevant information |
| Chair and Flywheel (if available) | Update the community on status / milestones /accomplishments. See Tools for Publicizing Working Groups, Recruiting New Members and Onboarding. |
| Chair and Flywheel (if available) | Schedule Birds of a Feather (BOF) sessions or working group meetings at Internet2 Conferences |
| Chair and Flywheel (if available) | Schedule and coordinate additional Face-to-Face meetings as needed |
| Chair and Internet2 | For groups where the charter dictates membership terms (i.e. governance and advisory groups) ensure that the terms are adhered to, and new members are recruited and on-boarded accordingly. Send letter of appreciation to outgoing members of governance and advisory groups (Emily Eisbruch will help with this) |
During Calls:
Other:
Serve as a bridge/ambassador to related Internet2 and community efforts.
Timeframe
Set Up Consultation
Announce Consultation
Close the Consultation
When a group finishes its work or gets transitioned/combined for a new phase of work:
Summarize the group’s work
Update the community on group's accomplishments. See Tools for Publicizing Working Groups, Recruiting New Members and Onboarding.
Express appreciation to group members for their contribution
Email to the appropriate list(s) of the group’s closing
Indicate on the wiki and / or website the group's completed status
Remove calendar item from people's calendars (if applicable)
Close Sympa email list after a period of time (optional, there may a reason to keep the list around in case follow-up is needed)
Please help us to improve the working group process which is so vital to our community work.
Send your suggestions on these guidelines or other matters related to working groups to Emily Eisbruch at emily@internet2.edu.
See Also:
List of Trust and Identity Working Groups
Tools for Publicizing Working Groups, Recruiting New Members and Onboarding
Internet2 Support Levels to Trust and Identity Working Groups (Google Doc)
Flywheel Specific Info