What Does Steering do?
The Steering Group's role is 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 fulfill these tasks. So, duties include such things as:
creating decision making structures
decision making when decisions are not otherwise being made
backstopping partners when issues go unaddressed
delicate issues handling
stewardship and caretaking of the Community as a whole
responsibility for providing continuity of the Community”
The Community should be aware that this list is not exhaustive and that Steering may be asked to take on additional tasks depending upon needs of the Community and Partners.
Regular calls
13 one-hour Steering Group calls (usually one each month)
Several additional Finance Subcommittee calls
two face to face SG meetings (normally it is three or four: winter retreat + Spring Partners + OR + Connect)
Governance
Maintenance of legal documents
Availability on wiki
MoU and LoA
Partnerships
Assessing and guiding applications (three in 2017)
Advice on readiness to become a Partner
Advice on Letter of Intent
Ongoing mentoring
Maintenance of legal records
Maintenance of website and wiki information
Monitoring
CLAs
Maintenance of legal records
Management of edge-cases (UC etc)
Annual Report
Oversight and coordination
Trademark
Applications (through DuraSpace)
Maintenance
Relationships with vendors
Expectations of Partners (them of us, us of them)
Financial
Negotiating and agreeing Fiscal Sponsorship MoU
Monitoring and operating finances via Finance Subcommittee
Agreeing priorities with Partners
Fund raising in conjunction with fiscal sponsor
Sponsorship of related conferences
Involvement in, and attendance at, meetings
Connect
Liaison with local committee and program committee
Logistical support
Soliciting and reviewing possible venues
Virtual Connect
Joint organization of event and program
Spring Partner meeting
Hosting and organization
Agenda planning
Winter retreat
Agenda planning
Other meetings
Representation at other community events (eg, Hydra/Samvera Europe Group, US regional meetings)
Codebase
Overview of health
Accessibility testing
Communication
Maintenance of mailing lists
Maintenance of website
Maintenance of domain names, DNS etc
Wiki gardening
Rebranding
Organization of vote for new name
Liaison with trademark attorney
Commissioning new logo
Selection and purchase of new domain names
Coordinate additional work on new website design
Coordinate DNS changes for website and wiki
Mail redirects (legal@samvera.org etc)
Clone wiki and correct incomplete copies
Create new mailing lists and traps for old name
Liaise over changes to Twitter, GitHub, Slack, DropBox etc
Reword website and wiki as necessary
Liaise with attorneys to reword Memorandum of Understanding (via addendum)
In addition, like any other Partners, members of Steering participate in community activities including contributing to Working and Interest Groups, attending meetings, giving presentations etc.