Freegle Working Groups

From Freegle Wiki

This document was adopted by national poll, result announced on Central, message no. 18606 [1], 5th January 2011.

This document seeks to:

Clarify the relationship between Working Groups, Central and the Reps.

Define specific roles to manage the work of each Working Group.

Suggest best working practices for Working Groups.

Definitions:

Volunteer - A voting member of Freegle, being an owner, moderator or volunteer of a group affiliated to Freegle
Reps - Members of or the body of the elected Freegle Representative Group
Central - Freegle UK Central Yahoo group, the discussion forum for Volunteers
Wiki - The Freegle Volunteer Wiki

Authority in Freegle derives from Volunteers, for whom Central acts as a discussion forum. Working Groups have devolved responsibility, in accordance with each of their remits, to deal with specific areas of work. Central, the Reps or Working Group members can ask a Working Group to consider a topic and come up with a recommendation.

After discussing a topic, a Working Group may produce a proposal. For such a proposal to be adopted, it must take one of two routes:

For matters within the Reps' remit:

The proposal should be submitted to the Reps.
The Reps may then approve the proposal, send it back with comments that need to be addressed in a new version, or decide that no action is necessary in this area.
Generally there will be some Reps active on each Working Group, and Reps should assume that a proposal has usually been well-considered before it reaches them; therefore it is expected to be rare for significant revisions to be required or a proposal abandoned.

For other matters:

It should be taken to Central for comment.
At this point the Working Group will indicate whether it thinks a full volunteer poll will be necessary for adoption.
After a suitable period for comment on both the document and adoption method, the Working Group will produce a new version and decide whether this also needs to go back to Central for comment.
When the comment phase is complete, the Working Group will either trigger a full volunteer poll via the Returning Officer, or notify Central that this proposal is now adopted and remind Central that a full volunteer poll can be triggered via the 10% rule.

3. Membership

Membership of the Working Groups is open to all Volunteers who have joined Central. To join a Working Group, Volunteers should apply via the Yahoo group page. After being confirmed as a current Volunteer, the application to the Yahoo group will be confirmed.

4. Roles within Working Groups

In order to help the Working Group manage its work, it is suggested that the following roles are adopted. The precise implementation of these roles is flexible. Each Working Group will be different as Freegle is made up of a diverse collection of Volunteers. However, these roles and their basic definitions will provide each Working Group with a foundation for accomplishing work.

4.1 Coordinator

The Working Group Coordinator is responsible for the following tasks:

To help keep Task List subjects 'live' by prompting discussion and ensuring that points made don't get lost.
To draw up proposed conclusions to discussions of Task List items.
To check the Task List regularly to keep the Working Group within priorities agreed.
To help the Working Group function as a team.
To identify topics and issues raised on Central and bring those topics to the Working Group if appropriate to the remit of the group.
To encourage discussions to progress in a timely manner, bumping important threads when they grow quiet.
To notify Central via "Start of topic" mails when discussion is starting to which people may wish to contribute.

4.2 Deputy Coordinator

The Working Group Deputy Coordinator is the effective "right hand man" of the Coordinator and is responsible for the following tasks:

To ensure that the Working Group Task List is kept up to date.
To identify any new issues, follow up issues and record progress of tasks.
To be aware of discussions on Central and bring back to the Working Group any specific comments about the Task List.
To agree priority of Tasks with the Working Group.
To step in when the Coordinator is absent.

4.3 Secretary

The Working Group Secretary is responsible for the following tasks:

To compile a draft monthly report summarising activities of the Working Group and to update Task List items where appropriate.
To post draft monthly reports to the Working Group for discussion and agreement.
To arrange for final drafts of the monthly reports to be archived in the Wiki and to present the Working Group monthly report to Central.
To be aware of discussions on Central and bring back to the Working Group any specific comments about the monthly reports.

4.4 Additional Roles

A Working Group Coordinator and Volunteers may appoint additional roles to fulfil the remit of that Working Group. If an additional role significantly alters the operation of the Working Group, this additional role should be first approved by the Reps.

It is also recommended that Working Groups should use 'Task Leaders'. These are self appointed volunteers who adopt the monitoring and encouragement of specific tasks (see 5.1), thus offloading some of the burden from the coordinator.

4.5 Rep Links

To help coordinate Working Group activities with the Reps, two Reps will serve as Rep Links for each Working Group. These Reps will be the primary communication conduit between the Reps and a Working Group.

More specifically, when the Reps need to communicate with the Working Group in an official capacity, that communication shall pass from a Rep Link to the Working Group Coordinator or Deputy Coordinator (if the Coordinator is absent).

It is acceptable for a Rep to serve as the Link for more then one Working Group, given the tasks or teams that the current Reps are involved in.

Reps may also participate on a Working Group in a personal capacity, like any other Volunteer.

4.6 Appointment of Working Group Roles

These roles will be open to all Volunteers. Required skills should be considered when appointing these roles.

Individual Volunteers or the Reps may suggest people suitable to fill these roles. On occasion it might be helpful for a Volunteer not currently a part of a Working Group to be invited to step in and serve if a suitable individual cannot be found within the Working Group.

Appointment to the Coordinator role is either via consensus (if there is one candidate on which the Working Group agrees) or a Yahoo poll of members of the Working Group. The Deputy Coordinator and Secretary for each Working Group is appointed by the Coordinator in cooperation with the members of that Working Group. It is perfectly acceptable for any of these roles to be shared by a pair of individuals. It is preferable that the roles are filled by different individuals.

4.7 Termination of Working Group Roles

1. A role holder can stand down at any time by informing the Working Group.
2. If Volunteers feel the roles are not being fulfilled then they should try to work with the role holder to help or failing that, the Reps should be contacted to assist.
3. In extremis, group Volunteers can call for a vote of no confidence to be run on the Working Group to retain or remove the person.

5. Working Practices

The following working practices have proven effective and are suggested.

5.1 Task Lists

Each Working Group should maintain a task list in a Google Spreadsheet. This Task List is managed by the role holders for that Working Group, in cooperation with the other members of the group. The links to the Task Lists can be found at http://wiki.iLoveFreegle.org/Task_Lists.

5.2 Working Group Polls

Discussions on matters within Freegle can often continue at length as we want to make sure that every opinion is heard and everyone fairly considered. A good way of doing this is to discuss for an agreed time frame and then hold a Working Group Straw Poll. A time frame of one week for discussion and one week for a poll is often effective. The poll wording should be collaboratively drafted by the volunteers on the Working Group before the poll is started.

These polls are straw polls in that the results are not binding. However, they can often clarify where the Working Group as a majority stands on a matter and move a decision forward more efficiently.

5.3 Monthly Reports

Working Groups should produce a report each month regarding the topics being discussed and work progressing over the past month. These reports should be posted into the Wiki and sent to Central.

5.4 Topic Notification Emails to Central

In order to avoid disenfranchising Volunteers, Central should be kept informed of discussions being conducted on Working Groups. The Coordinator and Deputy Coordinator are responsible for sending Topic Notification Emails to Central for significant topics.

Types of emails might include, but are not limited to the following. Please note that these are just examples of potentially useful notification emails. Each Working Group should feel free to use these, or others, at their own discretion.

Start of Topic Emails - Informing Volunteers that a specific topic is being discussed on a Working Group
End of Topic Emails - Informing Volunteers that a specific topic discussion is coming to a close on a Working Group
Poll Notification Emails - Informing Volunteers that a straw poll is being conducted on a Working Group, including details regarding the poll topic, options and closing date

It is appropriate that Central be informed of any other significant milestones taking place in the work being done by a Working Group.

6. Related Policies & Procedures

Back to Working Groups

Freegle Working Groups

From Freegle Wiki

Contents

1. Role

2. Remit