Composition of Council sub-teams
Sub-teams may be Council-specific (reporting to either TAC or UAC), or cross-Council (including members from and reporting to both Councils).
Sub-teams should have a minimum of 4 members.
Cross-council teams should have a minimum of 2 members from each Council.
Council members will serve on at least 1 and no more than 2 sub-teams per term.
To support continuity, sub-team members are encouraged to serve on the same sub-team(s) for the duration of their Council appointment. Exceptions to this can be made at the discretion of Sub-team and Council leadership.
At the end of each term, requirements for staffing sub-teams for the subsequent term will be determined as Council members complete their appointments. New Council members will be assigned to sub-teams as required and according to members’ skills and interest.
Sub-team leadership
Each sub-team will have a designated lead and vice-lead. A Council member will serve in each role for one full term, with the vice-lead succeeding as lead in the following term. At the end of the term, a new vice-lead for the next term will be selected from the sub-team membership. The selected vice-lead must have at least 2 years remaining in their term (or be willing to stand for re-appointment at the end of their first term).
Cross-council teams should have a lead representing one council and vice-lead representing the other. This will guarantee that leadership of the sub-team will alternate between the two Councils.
The sub-team lead will schedule and run meetings and be responsible for reporting the work of the sub-team to their respective Council and quarterly reports. The vice-lead will assist the chair as needed and appropriate.
Sub-team responsibilities
Sub-team meeting attendance is required. If a team member must miss a meeting it will be that member’s responsibility to notify the team lead in advance and review the meeting notes following the meeting.
At the beginning of each term, each sub-team will draft a work plan for the year, informed by priorities suggested by the sub-team at the end of the prior term.
At the end of each term, each sub-team will draft a retrospective of the sub-team’s activities for the year, to include:
An overview of major activities for the year
Discussion of any items from the work plan that were not completed
Recommended priorities for the next term
Sub-team meetings
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 us the same time every month, others create separate Doodle polls 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 create Doodle polls and send meeting invites well in advance of meeting times. Schedule meetings promptly so that meeting availability is not impacted by delays in picking a date.
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 and Retrospectives
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.
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).
Ad Hoc Groups
Anyone may propose the creation of ad hoc teams to address certain time-bound or task-bound projects. The make-up (including leadership) of ad hoc groups is not limited to ASpace Members or even to those already serving on Councils. Essentially any member of the ArchivesSpace community is welcome to join. Past examples include API Documentation Ad Hoc Working Group and Awesome ArchivesSpace Ad Hoc Working Group
To do so:
Announce the intention to form a group to your respective council leadership and open the idea for discussion at a dedicated or joint council meeting.
Have that idea approved by Council Leadership, beginning with your own council representatives.
Upon approval, request a wiki space be created by your Council Chair or Vice-Chair.
Identify leadership for the group. Who will be the ad hoc group lead? Co-leads is an option.
Draft two statements, which should appear in the wiki space for the group:
A Statement of Purpose, which should include what criteria you set for the group that you will then try and meet. Essentially write a statement that captures your goal and a way to test that goal so that once the goal is met, it is clear that the group’s mission is complete and the group should be dissolved.
A Maintenance Plan, or an assessment of whether or not your end goal will require future maintenance and how that will take place, by whom, and on what timetable.
Recruit for members.
Once the group is formed, it is expected to adhere to the same guidelines as permanent sub-teams, including having regular monthly meetings. If the group desires a Google Drive folder for the use of the group, please contact your Chair to request this folder be created and permissions assigned.