1 of 3: "What are these things?" Or, are these all the terms for community and events that we use?

Community Governance
#1

This is the first of three governance posts.

Hi everyone! The Council is pulling together a glossary of terms that we use in GOSH.
Can you take a look and see if we’ve listed all the terms you’ve seen used around GOSH? Also, which ones are you sure of their meaning, and which ones are you not sure what they mean? We are hoping that taking a high level overview might first help us simplify the list , and then clearly establish relationships between these entities. Just reply in thread with any comment, thank you!

Community entities:

  • GOSH community
  • GOSH working group
  • GOSH registered voters (as defined by active participation)
  • GOSH Community Council
  • GOSH-affiliated institutions: there is no single institution that backbones or represents the GOSH community. GOSH community activities and events have been fiscally sponsored and hosted by a number of organizations over the years.
    • GOSH Inc. — US-based 501c3 nonprofit
    • Other entity in Africa?
  • GOSH Regional Group: Regional Groups fractally embody the structure of the global GOSH community in their own geographies in that they may set up their own regional communication channels and platforms, host their own regional gatherings, establish their own regional institutions for holding and distributing funding.

Roles:

  • GOSH member
  • GOSH registered voter
  • GOSH Working Group member
  • Candidate for Community Council
  • Councilperson
  • Community Coordinator: The Community Coordinator is contracted by GOSH Inc, a US-based 501c3 nonprofit and is supported by a grant from the Alfred P Sloan Foundation.
  • Election Secretary
  • Election Observer
  • Board member of GOSH Inc
  • Community Council Board Seat on GOSH Inc
  • Safety Officer

Events:

  • Global Gathering
  • Regional Gathering
  • Local events
  • Network events

Also see Governance Structure - Gathering for Open Science Hardware

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Community Council meeting summary 2022-03-09
3 of 3: "What do we do?" Discussion of domains for each element. This will cover "what types of work happen where"
Heads-up: starting "election reflection" and "constitution writing"
#2

Building on this list, let’s take a closer look at six of the major types of groups within GOSH and associated with GOSH.

I think maybe some GOSHers might say that informal working groups are at the core of the GOSH “do-ocracy” … what do you think? An example would be the group of people who work together to host a GOSH Global Gathering. What are some other examples?

There are also Regional GOSH groups , like ReGOSH and Africa OSH. Regional Groups embody the structure of the global GOSH community in their own geographies, like a fractal. For instance, you might notice that some GOSH Regional groups have their own regional communication channels and platforms, host their own regional gatherings, and establish their own regional institutions for holding and distributing funding.

Another widely known example of a group associated with GOSH is the " GOSH-associated charity organization ," such as the US-based nonprofit/NGO called GOSH, Inc. This type of independent group works on fundraising for the GOSH community.

In the past year, three new entities were created. They’re pretty new, so many GOSHers might not yet know much about them. These three entities are GOSH registered voters , the GOSH Community Council , and Council-backed Working Groups . Here’s a quick recap: over the course of 2019-2021, the GOSH governance working group worked publicly and with consultants to create a process through which eligible GOSH members could register to vote on who to seat on an 8-seat empowered group known as the GOSH Community Council. In 2021 the inaugural crew of the Council was elected, and charged with figuring out a number of governance tasks like how to establish a formal relationship between GOSH and various charities located in different countries, and how to distribute money raised by a charity (case in point, GOSH Inc) to the community. To fulfill the charge of distributing money, the Council created Council-backed Working Groups. These are Working Groups chaired by a council member who then opens up membership to other GOSH members.

As far as i know, these are the 6 major types of groups within GOSH and associated with GOSH. What do you think?

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#3

Hi, that’s great!
Great ideia.

I have one comment:

I have no ideia what “501c3” stands for. It probably only makes sense for people who understands US legal terms. It can be useful to let the expression on the name, but can also unnecessary information, a source of confusion.

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#4

Thanks @lizbarry, love the discussion! :tada:

I just wanna underscore that - based on discussions I’ve been a part of - a key underlying issue with GOSH governance so far is that who “counts” as a “community member” and exactly what the “GOSH community” is are not well defined. This is IMO a foundational issue that affects all other governance considerations. Over the past year, one manifestation of this lack of clear definition is the concern over how GOSH - through the Community Council - is administering the money we received and give to the regional funding and collaborative development funding.

Of course, some groups simply institute a formal membership process. But is this what “we” want? And are there other ways to defining our community and who are in it?

Let’s keep talking in this thread about this and the other things!

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