Hi All
A reminder that the next GOSH Community Call is coming up on Tuesday 14 July, 14:00 UTC/GMT. In this call, we will discuss next steps in establishing a community governance council and progressing with the grant activities as well as on-going community activities like improvement of the GOSH forum.
Note: we are using Zoom because we need the call to work well for up to 40 people. You can join the discussion on open source options for the future and @kaspar has kindly installed an event plugin to the forum which we will try out for sign-up next time.
Agenda
- Welcome and brief update on GOSH grant and non-profit
- Update on GOSH activities
- Introduction to the community governance working group - what other questions should we address?
- New features on GOSH forum and other web tools - what should be the next steps and priorities?
- Thanks and closing remarks
Background information for call
Please read the notes from the call in June and the community governance working group update below. We have also listed conversations regarding GOSH website, forum and integrations that you may wish to peruse for agenda item 4!
Summary of last Community Call in June 2020
Community Governance Working Group Update
Please find below an update on setting up a community governance working group to take forward next steps based on the questions raised at the June community call and in the subsequent thread on the forum. We have gathered all those questions that related to governance below and answered them if possible or added them to the list for the working group to answer, working with the broader community in the coming weeks and months.
Huge thanks to the >20 people who volunteered to be part of the working group and will continue to play a vital role moving the community governance conversation forward.
Criteria for GOSH community governance working group membership
Over the past 18 months, an ad hoc team of previous GOSH organizers (including Francois, Jenny, Greg, Julieta, Shannon and Fernan) have been facilitating a conversation on community governance. Following exciting progress for the community, including obtaining support for two years of activities, this work is to be taken forward by a working group tasked with addressing questions related to the community governance structure that emerged from a community call in June 2020.
The most important feature of the working group is representation of the wider community so in developing its structure, we considered the following criteria:
- History with GOSH. Significant work has been done since 2015 by the GOSH community to get us to where we are at in 2020. We have prioritized identifying working group members based on their previous engagement with GOSH activities. There will be many opportunities for others new to the community to get involved in GOSH activities, other organizing committees, and respond to consultations by this working group.
- Regional representation and demographic equity. GOSH events have maintained a commitment to broad regional representation and equitable demographics. As the working group was created, we kept in mind our goals around demographics for the global event (noting that overlaps are possible): Women, trans, and/or non-conforming (52%); People of color, Indigenous people, and people from the Majority World (52%); Unaffiliated, community-based organizations and NGOs (33%).
- Size of the group. To balance being effective and representative, we have designated a working group size of eleven people, representing the five main regions participating in GOSH activities and at the same time adequately addressing demographic diversity and ensuring a diverse range of perspectives and relevant experiences in governance and community. One member of the working group will be a representative of the board of the GOSH US nonprofit that is managing GOSH core funding.
The current working group will serve in a transitional role, working with the broader GOSH community to establish the framework within which a longer-termed community governance structure will be seated. The GOSH community will have every opportunity to participate in, and comment on, this process.
GOSH Governance Working Group Members
- Juan Pedro Maestre
- Greg Austic
- Andre Chagas
- Julieta Arancio
- Thomas Mboa
- Obasegun Ayodele
- Gayatri Buragohain
- Ji Li
- Paz Bernaldo
- Marina Freitas
- Jenny Molloy (as the representative from the GOSH US nonprofit that is managing GOSH funding)
Governance questions raised during the GOSH Community Call in June 2020:
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What is a Community Governance Council?
- This is the working title for the group who will have specific roles in community governance. The community governance working group will work with the broader community to determine its structure.
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Is the Community Governance Council legally part of the entity?
- This is to be determined. The GOSH nonprofit board are consulting a lawyer on legal and liability implications.
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What types of decisions are located in this Council? Which are not?
- The community governance working group will work with the broader community to answer this question. There are specific decisions related to the GOSH 501c3 organisation and the Sloan Foundation grant which for legal reasons need to remain with the board of the 501c3 and the named investigators on the grant (Jenny Molloy and Shannon Dosemagen).
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How are decisions made?
- The community governance working group will work with the broader community to answer this question.
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In the future, would it be useful to have a second base for the NGO?
- This may turn out to be the case and there is nothing to preclude this from happening in the future.
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Which are the responsibilities of the community manager?
- The community governance working group will work with the broader community to answer this question along with the named investigators on the grant who are responsible for ensuring the funded activities are delivered (Jenny Molloy and Shannon Dosemagen).
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Could the governance model be distributed in geographical groups?
- The community governance working group will work with the broader community to answer this question.
Summary of questions for GOSH community governance working group to resolve
- Structure and terms of community governance group(s)
- What types of decisions are located in community governance group(s) and which in the broader community
- How decisions are made
- How the community gets involved in the decision-making process
- How membership of the community governance group(s) turns over
- How new members are brought on the community governance group(s) and onboarded
- How do disagreements at the level of community governance group(s) get mediated
- How to indicate conflicts of interest
- Specification and responsibilities for the GOSH Community Manager
- How do decisions from the community move to either the Board and/or grant PI’s to ensure spending is within the guidelines and directive of each set of funds
- And others to be determined…
GOSH Web Update
Check out below the fantastic and energetic work of GOSH volunteers including @julianstirling and @kaspar to improve and add features to the GOSH Forum and work on setting up better open tools for community collaboration. Julian and Kaspar will update on this work during the call and also ask for suggestions of futre priorities.
