2022-11-03 TAC/UAC Coordinating Committee

20 min

Checking in

All

Term going well overall for both Councils. UAC October discussion was led by Member Engagement and there is some thought being given to how to encourage the Member Match cohort, which includes many from smaller institutions, in some other kinds of activities around ArchivesSpace.

https://whimsical.com/council-information-pathways-8yWbXQ7Ad67rZVCpZncCzZ - finalized and versioned; a more static version of this (with dotted lines removed) will eventually go into the handbook.

15 min

Continuation of tech training discussion

All

Polled TAC group live in October meeting

70% said they would definitely attend an advanced training, 30% said probably, no negative responses

Open

• Valerie will continue pursuing leads for developing a Docker training. Given other commitments, probably looking to get going in December or later.

• Rachel will take the lead on documenting and putting together resources for Github. It may be good to have both the how and broader discussions of what it means to be a maintainer. Maybe aim for the Tech Docs-led discussion in April.

• There is plugins training material from past sessions - may be a matter of resurfacing them and pointing people towards them again.

• Valerie is interested in doing something shortish on SQL queries, maybe for the Online Forum. There was already a good presentation/set of resources from Alicia Detelich in this area.

Christine checked about redirecting funds from the leadership training pilot to this purpose and it is possible. She is also in conversation with the Lyrasis Learning coordinator about whether there are any related possibilities within LL.

It may be good to reframe some of the discussion around skill-building and serving on Councils. Important to emphasize that this is not solely an opportunity to receive training others package for you, but also an opportunity to give yourself time/space to locate resources yourself and learn on your own.

• Could do a skill share at the end of term and/or a tech hour for “ask the dumbest question you have and we’ll try to help.” Will bring up with TAC in its next meeting.

• UAC would like to attend, if possible. UAC members have not brought up the same longing for tech training, but it may be that asking a question like “Are there any barriers to doing your Council work besides time?” would surface fulfillable wants.

5 min

Anything else?

Gordon said Board will be discussing the proposal to change the Bylaws to add the Vice Chairs to the Nominating Committee at its meeting next week. Should have news to share at our December meeting.

Regina brought up the prospect of a Council Apocalypse for 2024-2025 when a larger than usual number of members will be stepping down due the convergence of the conclusion of legacy two-year terms and the first set of three-year terms. This could have significant repercussions for leadership of sub-teams. Should we consider appointing more people in 2023-2024 to stave off this horror?

• Gordon pointed out that the 15-member floor/17-member ceiling is a cultural more, not an actual Bylaws-mandated one. So it is possible to appoint more than the 17 members we have considered the upper limit for many years.

• But is there a danger that too many people could lead to people with not enough to do?

• It is possible that at least one sub-team will be sunset before 2024-2025, which would change the number of leadership positions.

  • What is the process for forming/sunsetting sub-teams? We have examples but not a formal assessment process.

Ad hoc group proposed by TAC-MD is conceptualized and ready to move ahead into forming - what happens next?

• TAC leaders need to give it the green light (DONE - they’re on board)

• Group needs a charge, maintenance plan, recruitment of members

• Process should be documented for the future - check TAC records (Confluence and Google Drive) for the last time TAC working groups were formed (i.e. Awesome ArchivesSpace and API)