- What is the role of a Working Group Chair?
- What are the responsibilities of a WG Chair?
- Decision-making
- See also:
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.