2023-05-09 TAC meeting notes

2 min

Welcome

@Valerie Addonizio

Yearly Timeline of Council Activities

2 min

GitHub workshop!

@Valerie Addonizio

Reminder!

5 min

Program Update

@Christine Di Bella

10 min

Sub-team Updates

Development Prioritization:
@Randy Kuehn

Integrations:
@Sarit Hand

Metadata Standards:
@Regine Heberlein

Technical Documentation:
@Rachel Searcy

Testing:
@Austin Munsell

• DevPri:

  • Reviewed new centralized guidance on the development process

  • Updated leader guidance documentation in preparation for leadership change

  • Matt Strauss (TAC) agreed to become Vice-Lead for next term

  • Reviewed 13 tickets (10 approved for implementation, 2 closed, 1 awaiting more information)

• Integrations:

  • TBD-meet with Chair and VC to discuss sunsetting

• Metadata Standards:

  • @Kevin Clair agreed to become vice-lead next term

  • team met with Christine DiBella re: Subjects roadmap

  • working on our retrospective

• Technical Documentation:

  • No updates!

• Testing:

  • No updates

5 min

It’s Retrospective time!

@Valerie Addonizio

It’s Retrospective time!

2021-2022 Metadata Standards Retrospective

2021-2022 Tech Docs Retrospective

2021-2022 Integrations Retrospective - Integrations should focus on what maintenance and custody questions need to be settled by the end of next term

2021-2022 Dev Pri Retrospective

2021-2022 Testing Retrospective

20 min

End of Term Notes

We are nearing the end of term! For you Council veterans, you’re about to hear me say more about end-of-term transitions than has been said in the four years I’ve been here. This is based on lessons learned and will result in a draft of a new page in the Council Handbook. Some of these points are relevant to the Retrospectives themselves while others are just good practice on wrapping up activities and ensuring good maintenance moving forward.

I’d like to share these tips and tricks and then invite you to provide your own, especially things that may be particular to your subteam that I have overlooked.

I will be emailing each subteam individually (not just the lead but all members) with links to: your roster, your last retrospective, your team’s Google Drive folder, and the new page I’m creating.

So with all that said, any questions before I get started?

Our final meeting of term is June 13th, which is 35 days from today. At that meeting Subteam leads will present their team’s Retrospective.

• Please check whether your subteam’s final meeting of the year is before or after June 13th. If it’s after, I do recommend you try and reschedule so that you can present your retrospective.

Note which members of your rosters are leaving and be sure and invite them to participate in the Retrospective and record any insights they may have, especially the memory of why a thing is a thing.

• Myself, Sarit, Randy, and Kevin S. are rotating off

Retrospectives

The most generalized advice is to consider what to keep going, what to stop doing, and what to start doing.

50+ Retrospective Questions for your Next Meeting

• Retrospectives are for everyone, not just your lead!

• Document ideas/potential plans for next term – even if a lot of the same people are still returning, you may have forgotten the intention or why you thought it was a good idea

• Document pain points so that they can potentially be addressed next year (e.g., meetings were hard to facilitate without a note taker, so next year we want to designate one)

• Take some time (individually, as a group) to identify what worked well, and make a plan to keep doing those things. Consider too what didn’t work well, or what doesn’t need to be done anymore (but document why).

• Are there any completed tasks/projects that will require maintenance by next term’s subteam? Document what needs to happen, how often it needs to happen, who should do it, and what that person needs to know in order to do it.

• Do not stress if you didn’t finish tasks, but ask how you can set achievable goals? Hint: make your goals smaller, increment them from term to term

• Remember to distinguish between ongoing tasks (things that will always be true) and new projects. Both should be assessed.

• Remember that leadership has been around for awhile, but every team has new members. Explore motivations anew.

Beware of task ownership, ticket ownership, and Google Docs ownership

Was someone in particular taking the lead on something? Are they here next term? Do they want to continue with that task? If they’re not here next term, who takes it on? Does it need to continue? What knowledge or resources can the old lead pass to the new lead?

Does someone who is rotating off own a Jira ticket that needs followup? A good solution here is to make sure someone else on your team is watching that ticket.

Review your Google Drive folders

• Appraise ye archivists, appraise!! Do you really need to keep that draft of a thing in Google Drive?

• This is a good place for individuals to take action and not just leads.

• Remember: the place of record for council activities is the Wiki and you are not under any obligation to keep every working document. If you find an ephemeral document in Google Drive, feel empowered to delete it.

• Transfer ownership of important files if they are owned by members who are rotating off

• Review existing files for relevance, delete or archive old files, leave comments in files if they need explanation, and organize the space for the next term

Let subteam leads know that they can transfer ownership to archivesspacehome[at]gmail[dot]com if needed.

Term Transition Doldrums

Term transition is the period after our last official meeting and before the next one. That “next meeting” can be in July, but more often it is in August. Council activities slow but do not stop during this period, and one point in particular is that there is usually a quarterly report due in this transitional time. That means that just when you thought you could go on vacation, someone will reach out to you to contribute to that last quarterly report. Please keep that one last obligation in mind.

Another thing that happens in this period is the assignment of new members. Leads will receive word about these assignments; your immediate obligation is to make yourself available for any questions from those new members prior to the next Councils Orientation (July).

Next Term

It’s never too early to start thinking about next term! Hoo-ray!

Incoming Leads in particular may want to review Yearly Timeline of Council Activities and

Guidelines for ArchivesSpace Council Sub-Teams

Consider keeping the same meeting times next term, since that slot is already taken up in your current schedule and it would only be new members that you’d need to poll for availability.

With ALL THAT said, what would you add? What are your transition pain points and successes?

5 min

Open Mic

2 min

Closing Notes