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• Most sub-teams typically meet monthly, at a regularly scheduled and mutually convenient time. If a sub-team’s work is closely aligned to the ArchivesSpace release schedule (e.g. Testing), regular monthly meetings may not be necessary. Some Leads or Council Chairs elect to use the same time every month, while others poll membership for an ideal date for each meeting.

• Subteam leaders may use whatever scheduling and video conferencing software they choose, but typically meeting times are established by free Doodle polls and Leads and Chairs use Zoom accounts to host and run meetings. Subteam Leads that wish to wish to use the community Zoom account (provided by LYRASIS) should review Community Zoom Account Guidelines for more information on how to access that free resource.

• Leads are encouraged to send meeting invites well in advance of meeting times.

• Ahead of each meeting:

  • Schedule the meeting using your web conferencing software of choice and give your members appropriate notice

  • Create an agenda Meeting Notes Template

  • Send a calendar invite with the date, time, and link to the agenda, and meeting software link/invite

• In each meeting:

  • Designate a note-taker, either ahead of time, on a cycle, or a call for a volunteer

• After each meeting:

  • Consider assigning action items and follow-up email reminders about pending work or decisions

Sub-team Workplans

Workplans and how they are drafted will vary by term and especially by team. The best way to understand workplans is to review prior plans for your team. If you are a new team without a workplan history, or if you are a Lead that was not involved in the drafting of your prior workplan, here is some generalized advice on the process:

When considering the work for a new term, it is helpful to understand that term activities tend to be made up of routine work (that work which repeats every year and is considered the core of the work) and new projects and initiatives (or discrete projects taken on during a term). Balancing these two types of work is the goal of the workplan and the challenge of subteam leadership.

Some teams focus primarily on routine work and do not take on new projects on a term-by-term basis. In this case, the goal of the workplan is simply to set reasonable expectations for the work, agreed on those expectations as a group, and then the Lead should use the workplan to check in on progress and realign (if needed) through term. If you are a brand new group, go easy on yourselves and record lessons learned at the end of term.

To define routine work, start with your subteam’s charter or description, which is recorded on the parent page for each team. You can find these either by navigating to your subteam’s page on the left side of the wiki, or navigating to the following page, where all the subteam descriptions exist in one place: About the ArchivesSpace Councils

Some teams do take on new projects on a term-by-term basis. This can be tied to changes in the community landscape, the introduction of new functionality in ArchivesSpace, or simply because a member has a great idea and the team agrees to take it on. In this case, the goal of the workplan is to help balance the routine work with the new work in way that is realistic and reasonable.

To define project work, start by defining the project itself, including its goals. Is this a one time project with a discrete ending, or a new routine and this is simply the first term trying it? If the work will be completed, will it need maintenance? Be aware of the difference between taking on a new routine task versus a stand-alone project with a discrete ending.

Consider core goals and stretch goals. Revisit your stretch goals halfway through term, to coincide with the cross-council meeting (usually February)Each sub-team will prepare and refer to a workplan for their term. General guidance and a workplan template are available at Workplans .

Terms

Council terms are three years beginning July 1 of the year a member joined and ending June 30th, three years later, i.e. July 2022-June 2025. Extensions of one year are permitted in cases where the extension will aid in leaderships transition (i.e. allow a Vice Lead in their last year of service to extend for one additional year in order to be Lead for that period).

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