Responsibilities
Together, Working Group Chairs:
- Address and resolve any issues concerning the needs of the Green Software Foundation technical community, including establishing common standards and practices.
- Serve as ambassadors, actively promoting and nurturing the organization's growth through social media engagement, forum participation, assisting new community members, and delivering talks at conferences related to Green Software Foundation topics.
- Review project proposals and lifecycle change requests within one week of notification by email.
- Coordinate the technical direction of the Green Software Foundation.
- Review projects (including, but not limited to, incubation, archived and changes to a project’s charter or scope) in accordance with the Project Lifecycle documents.
- Establish community norms, workflows, or policies where not covered by working groups.
- Discuss, seek consensus, and where necessary, vote on matters that affect multiple projects.
- Make budget allocation recommendations to the Steering Committee.
- Make recommendations for changes to the Foundations charter.
Individual Working Group Chairs are expected to:
- Subscribe to the WGC mailing list and the Green Software Foundation GitHub organization to stay aware of WGC-related updates and issues.
- Regularly participate in WGC meetings, if and when they are convened.
- Bring up and help resolve any issues related to the needs of the Green Software Foundation technical community
- Act as stewards for Green Software Foundation promoting and helping grow the organization and its activities by engaging of their own accord in activities such as posting on social media, responding to questions raised in forums, helping new community members find their way around, and giving talks at conferences on Green Software Foundation related topics.
- Review project proposals.
- Be active in the WGC Discussions forum.
Mutual accountability and support are essential among committee members. Committees are collaborative environments where everyone is responsible for their commitments and supports one another's contributions.
What is the role of a Working Group Chair?
The Working Group (’WG’) Chair will:
- Prioritize tasks for the WG;
- Organize meetings;
- Set agendas;
- Ensure minutes and decisions are recorded; and
- Act as liaison between the WG and the Steering Committee.
What are the responsibilities of a WG Chair?
Chairs shall:
- Maintain strict impartiality and act in the GSF’s interest;
- Appropriately communicate the work and progress of the group through regular status reports to the other WG Chairs and Steering Committee; and
- After a reasonable period of discussion time, use the following means to reach a decision, including but not limited to:
- a statement of the Chair's view of group consensus, which shall be accepted by the group if there are no objections;
- assignment of action items to progress the issue in as short as time as possible;
- invite single or few objectors to no longer sustain their objections;
- informal voting; and
- formal voting.
Chairs may:
- Limit the amount of time allocated to a particular agenda item or discussion point; and
- Require that new information be provided about an issue before earlier decisions can be reopened/revisited.
Shared Chairs may:
- Delegate tasks among themselves.
Decision-making
Consensus/Voting/Approval: The WG will endeavor to make all decisions by consensus. Where the WG cannot reach consensus with respect to a particular decision, the WG will make that decision by a Supermajority Vote.
Appeals: WG decisions may be appealed by issuing a written appeal to the Chairperson, and that appeal will be considered by the Chairperson and the WG in good faith. The Chairperson will respond in writing within a reasonable time.
Notifications and Electronic Voting: The Chairperson is responsible for issuing all notifications of meetings and votes of the Working Group subject to the following minimum criteria:
- in-person meetings require at least 30 days prior written notice
- teleconference meetings require at least 7 days prior written notice (this requirement only applies to the notification of the first meeting of automatically recurring teleconference meetings)
- electronic votes require no advance notice but must be made pursuant to a clear and unambiguous ballot with only “yes” and “no” options, and the voting must remain open for no less than 7 days. These notification requirements with respect to the WG may be overridden upon unanimous consent of the WG members that have attended and participated in at least 50% of the last 4 meetings of the WG.