The Carpentries Commitee Policy¶
Context¶
Committees are an integral part of The Carpentries community. This policy will ensure sustainability, reduce burnout, and establish clear lines of communication and appropriate transparency for all Carpentries committees.
Committee operations¶
To ensure sustainability, accountability and effective communication for our committees, we propose the following guidelines. Each committee should:
Meetings¶
Hold regular meetings, at least 4 per year
Post meetings on the community calendar. Note that meetings do not necessarily need to be public. For example, for the Code of Conduct Committee, only business meetings are public, not incident meetings
Host at least one community discussion per year
Roles¶
Appoint a committee chair, and optionally a co-chair, with a description of their responsibilities
Identify term limits and succession plan for chair/co-chair
Provide a “roles and responsibilities” document for the committee
Identify processes for onboarding new members
Identify a process for offboarding members
Include a process for recruiting and selecting new members
Appoint a Core Team member liaison
Communication¶
Post meeting notes or minutes in a consistent location. Minutes should be public, but can be private if the work of the committee requires it
Utilise The Carpentries communication pathways
Send written updates to the Executive Council every 6 months
Public Documentation¶
Each committee shall have a public page with the following information:
Committee Name
A short description of what the committee does
Contact information for the committee
Link to roles and responsibilities
Link to committee materials: (e.g. the committee’s GitHub repo, and/or section of the handbook)
Information for when meetings are held
Link to public meeting notes (current and past)
Names of current members including their roles
Name of the Core Team Liaison
Past committee members including their roles
Information for how to join the committee
The committee chair is responsible for updating this information at least yearly.
Internal Documentation¶
The committee should also have an documentation for the committee members that includes:
Onboarding information
Offboarding information
How the chair and other roles are selected
Information on recruiting or selecting committee members: e.g. language, rubric
Committee Formation¶
Committees are formed by creating the public documentation described above and submitting it for approval to the Executive Council. Upon approval, the committee is listed at the Carpentries Website with a link to this public documentation.
Committee termination¶
The Executive Council may terminate a Committee at any time.
Committee Actions Requiring Executive Council Approval¶
The committee will not undertake any of the following actions without obtaining approval of the Executive Council:
Creation of a supplementary Code of Conduct
Creation and/or release of position statements
Host branded events
Create and/or use a logo
Launch their own fundraising campaign
Note that the above list is not exhaustive. Committees should consult with the Executive Council if there is any question about whether or not what they are doing requires approval.
Update log:
Approved 2020-07-06 by the Executive Council