Creating a CrisisCommons Interim Governance Structure

[David Black]

Below is a rather lengthy communique regarding the work of the
governance working group.

What's inside?
- We have a strong governance team in place
- We have almost completed a plan to manage the creation of a long-
term governance structure.
- We are creating an Interim Management Team
- We are asking people to join the Interim Management Team and the
working groups
- Information on how to get involved
- Information on the working groups and who is involved.

So please read on!

CrisisCommons Interim Governance Introduction
Prepared by the Governance Working Group
October 20, 2011

We’ve been getting some questions over at the governance committee
about our current activities. People have stepped up to help us with
our tasks and offer their input and experience from other ventures to
assist us. Our committee consists of David Black, Pascal Schuback,
Aaron Huslage, Jeannie Stamberger, and Willow Brugh.

We are pleased that people are showing interest in the group in
supporting the governance process in building the CrisisCommons to be
a long lasting organization supporting this and many other
communities. It is important that we all take the appropriate time,
openness and collaboration in structuring and building out the
operation of the CrisisCommons. The following actions will help the
CrisisCommons move forward in creating its organizational identity
and
eventually its near future operational structure. This will include
the ability to maintain grant projects, expand to additional unknown
future projects and increase our funding steps from many other
sources.

The CrisisCommons governance group is putting the final touches on a
plan to manage the process of developing a permanent governance
structure to serve the needs of the Commons. It will be a methodical
process for which we hope for much input from the Commons community
and it will take some time, measured in months.

So in the meantime, in parallel, we have been discussing with the
current temporary core team a way to formalize an interim decision-
making process. The purpose behind this is to move a step ahead of
where we are right now fairly rapidly, so we can focus on the longer
process.

Because we are moving quickly with the interim model we expect it to
be fairly simple and agile. It won’t be perfect, but we plan to
introduce it with a sunset clause in something like 6 months to a
year, or whenever we are ready to convene a CrisisCongress to ratify
the more formal long-term governance model, whichever comes first.
Also, we will propose that the interim group have limited powers, as
we won’t have significant enough accountability built in to the
simple
model. Again, it won’t be perfect, but it is temporary and should fit
our needs in the short term. We do, of course, want to hear opinions
as this will help us in the development of the long-term structure.
It
is important for the community to participate and share their
opinions.

We think that the current organization of the working groups, created
at the original founders weekend, addresses much of our short term
needs so we propose not to make changes to the structure at this
time.
However, we have a number of vacancies and are inviting people to
step
up and help with the leadership. Currently, we have 5 working groups:
Communications, Projects, Infrastructure, Governance, and Community.
Each group has 2 co-lead positions. These 10 co-lead positions plus
the 3 founders make up what has been referred to as the Core Team
totaling 13 people.

Recruiting Working Group Co-leads/IMT Members

Right now we have 5 vacancies as follows:
2 co-leads – Projects, 2 co-leads Communications, and 1 co-lead
Community. We propose to fill these roles and refer to the accepted
newly formed full team as the Interim Management Team. This new name
reflects the stewardship role that the team undertakes. Once again
there are vacancies and this is your opportunity to participate.
We are asking for people to join us by sending an email to
pas...@schuback.com signaling their interest and their preferred
roles
by 6pm UTC Wednesday October 26th. If we have more than one person
interested in a single position the governance committee will work to
talk through a solution with the interested parties. If that does not
result in agreement a draw will be held to choose the names.
While we will not give preference to anyone, we encourage city leads
and international representatives to step forward.

If you want to help but are not able to commit in a lead role all
work
groups are open for people to contribute to and they are a place to
have your voice heard.

What does the Interim Management Team do?
The IMT meets monthly, possibly more in the beginning by conference
call. The Chair of the meeting will rotate through the working group
leads alphabetically and will follow a consistent agenda template to
be created by the governance committee. A volunteer will be sought
within the IMT to take notes, if no one volunteers the person slated
to chair the following meeting will take notes. Notes will be
distributed to all participants within 4 days of a meeting
adjournment.

The IMT is a forum to coordinate the activities of the work groups
and
make decisions that are related to the day to day operations.
Maintain standards agreed upon by Interim Management Team
Present/Represent the CrisisCommons at an Interim Management Team
level.
May need to meet in person.
Possibility of other additional duties as developed

The Co-leads of each working group are responsible for managing the
activities of their group including developing priorities in
consultation with group volunteers and the IMT Co-leads are
responsible for recruiting volunteers to their groups and they these
volunteers are appropriately trained to undertake the tasks asked of
them. Co-leads also ensure that there is open communication between
the group, the IMT and the Commons. The later primarily through
managing their section of the wiki and posting to the main mail list.
Further guidelines for operation of the group are forthcoming from
the
governance group.

Information Regarding the workgroup Activities

Infrastructure
Current Lead Deborah Shaddon, Chris Foote
Contributing Members Andrew Turner, Ted Han
Current Scope
• Establish CrisisCommons Infrastructure at OSL
• CCIWG Working Group Team Building and Culture Cultivation
• CrisisCommons Digital Strategy (Technology)
• CrisisCommons New CCIWG Projects
• Ongoing CCIWG Admin, Support, Gardening, Management, and
Documentation

Communications
Current Lead
Contributing Members Heather Blanchard, Becky Boutwell, Chad
Catacchio, Todd Jasper, Joanna Lane, Andrew Lih, Melissa Elliott
Current Scope
This is a workgroup which support CrisisCommons and its projects such
as CrisisCamp to effectively communicate to the public and our
volunteers.

Community Development
Current Lead Chad Cattacchio
Contributing Members
The Community group is focused on helping CrisisCamps and individual
volunteers have the best experience to collaborate and communicate.
Our first goal for 2011 is to build the CrisisCamp in a Box (CCIAB).
Current Scope

Projects
Current Lead OPEN
Contributing Members OPEN
Current Scope

Governance
Current Lead David Black, Pascal Schuback
Contributing Members Aaron Huslage, Jeannie Stamberger, Willow Brugh

Current Scope
The scope of the governance committee is to research, develop
alternative models, make recommendations and lead the discussion
within Crisis Commons on the most appropriate governance structure
that will facilitate the vision and goals of CrisisCommons.
In order to make sound recommendations that best suit the
organization’s aspirations a framework strategic plan outlining first
year goals and objectives will be prepared.

The committee acknowledges that the first strategic plan will have
significant flexibility as it will be based on many assumptions and
cannot be formally adopted until after a decision-making body is
officially defined through the governance-building process itself.
Once a governance model is chosen the committee will oversee the
development of bylaws and present them for approval.

Founders Heather Blanchard, Noel Dickover, Andrew Turner

Thank you for your interest in the governance process,
Your Governance Team