Guidelines for Trust and Identity Working Group Chairs and Flywheels

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.

Roles Overview

Working Group Chair: Creates 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.

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.

Start Up Steps for a Working Group

Who does it?	Step
Internet2/InCommon Leadership	Develop charge/scope document. Examples: New Entities Working Group, Federation Interoperability Working Group Tip: make sure the name of the group isn't too close to another group that is also working in this space at the same time, to avoid confusion
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. See also Procedures for Recruiting
Chair	Consider the stakeholders who should be represented on the working group and do targeted outreach as appropriate. International participation large schools, small schools research groups verticals corporate partners
Chair and Flywheel (if available)	Email mw-service@internet2.edu to request email list (see email list naming guidelines) Edial phone bridge or BlueJeans (video conferencing) coordinates Note to flywheels: Instead of setting up an Edial call under your own Edial account please request from mw-service to leverage the shared Edial account (i2MI-info@internet2.edu) that will be sustained even if a particular staff member departs. wiki space (here is a note for InCommon staff regarding placement of the working group wikis)
Chair and Flywheel (if available)	Determine the meeting schedule May use a Doodle Poll to determine members’ availability Once you determine the best meeting time, schedule regular meetings and simply cancel if they are not needed. It gets complicated to NOT have a regular meeting time and to try to schedule AD HOC meetings. Pick a time that works for both the chair and flywheel to ensure effective communication and support.
Chair and Flywheel (if available)	Optional: Establish a calendar invite using Outlook Note: you can put a SYMPA email group address in the "To" line of an Outlook invite.

Notes/Minutes and other Tools

Notes / minutes if needed. Collaborative scribing using a Google doc is recommended.
- Set up one Google Doc to be reused for collaborative scribing. An example is here.
- Configure permissions so anyone with the link has edit access, unless you need to restrict access to the notes more tightly.
- Link to the collaborative scribing doc from the top of the working group wiki. See examples here and here.
- To archive the collaboratively scribed notes, either
  - keep adding to the scribing doc and that will become the historical record of notes and/or
  - On the working group wiki, create a page for the minutes after each call, and transfer the notes into that page.

Other tools as needed, such as:

Box.com for document storage
Adobe Connect or other tool for slide sharing during calls
Video Conferencing (BlueJeans is available from Internet2; it can be used instead of the Edial phone bridge)
Feel free to Email mw-service@internet2.edu to request help with the above tools

Logistics:
- Send logistical needs/requests/questions to mw-service@internet2.edu
- Emily Eisbruch, Mike Zawacki and Dean Woodbeck will receive requests sent to mw-service@internet2.edu
- If you do not receive a timely response, or if you have follow up questions, email mw-service@internet2.edu again.

Ongoing Support

Ensure good practice is followed for working group calls, including:

sending an agenda prior to calls
You may want to use this working group agenda template as a starting point.

Make sure that Action Items are noted during the call, and reviewed at the end of the call.
For software development groups, ensure that all contributors have signed the contrib agreement.
Wiki / website should be updated with relevant information

Update the community on status / milestones /accomplishments. See Tools for Publicizing Working Groups.

Schedule Birds of a Feather (BOF) sessions or working group meetings at Internet2 Conferences

Schedule and coordinate additional Face-to-Face meetings as needed
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)

Tips/Good Practice for a Successful Working Group

During Calls:

Prior to calls, send out agenda (see above in "Ongoing support" section)
Welcome group members
Be sure to announce that the Internet2 Intellectual Property Framework is in effect
Follow agenda; if completely new items come up, consider adding them to the agenda for a future call
Leave time for questions
Review Action Items at end of call
Finish calls on time
Draw out people who may be reticent or shy

Other:

Serve as a bridge to Internet2 staff where needed
Serve as a bridge/ambassador to related Internet2 and community efforts.
Stay in touch with the chair of the body that chartered your working group (e.g. Steering, TAC, AAC, TIER Advisory group).
Gently but firmly move efforts forward/toward conclusion
- Remember that you don't need full agreement on points, you need to strive for consensus: A solution people can accept.
- Can also allow minority opinions in a final report if there are significant differences.
- Time-box comment periods and then move forward
Work to wrap up very long discussions/discussion threads on calls/email
When reports/ recommendations are to be produced, it generally works best of there are a small number (one to three) of authors and the rest of the group provides feedback. The chair should probably set expectations accordingly.
Acknowledge group membership contributions
On working group calls, in emails, and in other forums, create a friendly, positive experience

Process for Vetting Documents (this is being reviewed as of Sept 25, 2015)

post the proposed document on the wiki
email the constituent mailing list(s) with a request for review and a timeframe.
send an email reminder
address community comments
allow time for a final review if changes have been made based on community input

Closing a Group

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.
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)

See Also:

InCommon Working Group Home

Working Group Agenda template

Tools for Publicizing Working Groups

Internet2 Support Levels to Trust and Identity Working Groups (Google Doc)