Pages for Elections:

• 2018 Samvera Steering Group Elections
• 2018 Steering Special Election
• Fall 2018 Vote: Roadmap Council Charter & Ratification of Changes to Steering Bylaws
• 2019 Steering Group Election
• 2020 Steering Group Elections

Table of Contents for This Page

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Elections in the Samvera Community

In April 2018, Samvera Partners ratified a list of Recommendations for changes to Governance of the Samvera Community.  Those Recommendations included the institution of elections for seats with Samvera Steering.

Elections for Steering will be The Samvera Board is elected and governs in accordance with the Samvera Bylaws. Board members are individuals nominated and supported in their participation by a Samvera Partner institution.

Board elections are held annually for three of nine seats in rotating groups.  The term for each seat is three years with the possibility for one re-election, allowing for a total term of six consecutive years.

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The Samvera Board

What is the Commitment for

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Board Members?

On any given week,

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Board members dedicate a significant portion of their time

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the Samvera Community.  Depending upon need, a

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Board Member may dedicate a minimum of a couple of hours in a week, but may see spikes of up to 10 or 20 hours required for taking on certain issues, attending meetings,

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and so forth.

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Membership requires a commitment to travel to

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Board meetings

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when feasible.  The Bylaws indicate that the Board will meet in person at least once per year when practical. Note that Board Members are responsible for associated costs of travel as well as their time.  

• Normally, Steering

  The Samvera Board has one regular video call per month, with others as needed. There is usually a virtual Board retreat in the winter, with two 3 hour virtual meetings over two days.

• The Board generally meets face-to-face

  3

  2 times per year

  2x

  , at meetings associated with other meetings such as Connect and Partners

• 1x for a stand-alone Steering retreat

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• .

What Does the Samvera Board Do?

The Steering Group's role is Board of Directors provides stewardship and central administration of the Community; they are responsible for helping create the structures to see that critical tasks are addressed, and backstopping the Partners' group in case it doesn't the event that they do not fulfill these critical tasks. So, duties include such things asDuties might include:

• creating

decision making

• Community structures

decision making when decisions are not otherwise being made

• making day-to-day decisions, and determining when decisions must be brought to the Partners for a vote

• backstopping partners when issues go unaddressed

delicate

• handling sensitive issues

handling

• stewardship and caretaking of the Community as a whole

responsibility for

• providing continuity of

the Community”

• the Community

• Delegating work to the Community Manager

The Community should be aware that this list is not exhaustive and that Steering the Board may be asked to take on additional tasks depending upon needs of the Community and Partners.  Some of the detailed work listed below is delegated , and delegate work to others. Currently Samvera's Operations Adviser Community Manager takes on much of the delegated work, but this will switch to Samvera's Community Manager when they are appointed.  The Steering Group will then have the additional task of guiding their work.

• Regular calls

• 12 90-minute Steering Group calls (usually one each month)

• Several additional Finance Subcommittee calls (for subcommittee members)

• three face to face SG meetings (normally winter retreat + Spring Partners + Connect)

• Governance

  • Availability on wiki

  • MoU and LoA

  • Partnerships

    • Advice on readiness to become a Partner

    • Advice on Letter of Intent

    • Ongoing mentoring

  • Assessing and guiding applications

  • Maintenance of legal records

  • Maintenance of website and wiki information

  • Monitoring

  • CLAs

  • Maintenance of legal records

  • Management of edge-cases (UC etc)

  • Oversight and coordination

  • Applications (through DuraSpace)

  • Maintenance

• Maintenance of legal documents

• Annual Report

• Trademark

• Relationships with vendors

• Expectations of Partners (them of us, us of them)

• Financial

  • Agreeing priorities with Partners

• Negotiating and agreeing Fiscal Sponsorship MoU

• Monitoring and operating finances via Finance Subcommittee

• Fund raising in conjunction with fiscal sponsor

• Sponsorship of related conferences

• Involvement in, and attendance at, meetings

  • Liaison with local committee and program committee

  • Logistical support

  • Soliciting and reviewing possible venues

  • Assistance with organization of event and program

  • Hosting and organization

  • Agenda planning

  • Agenda planning

  • Representation at other community events (eg, Hydra/Samvera Europe Group, US regional meetings)

• Connect

• Virtual Connect

• Spring Partner meeting

• Winter retreat

• Other meetings

• Codebase

• Overview of health

• Accessibility testing

• Communication

• Maintenance of mailing lists

• Maintenance of website

• Maintenance of domain names, DNS etc

• Wiki gardening

• Branding

  • Overseeing and protecting the Samvera "brand"

In addition, like and the Board guides their work.
Like any other Partners, members of Steering the Board also participate in community Community activities including contributing to Working and Interest Groups, attending meetings, giving presentations etc.

Elections