Governance Group minutes 2019-09-23

Monday 23 September 2019, 15:00

Attendees: George Macgregor (GM – Chair), Nicola Dowson (ND), Suzanne Atkins (SA), Petr Knoth (PK)

Apologies: Paul Walk (PW), Nancy Pontika (NP)

Actions arising

Four actions arose from the meeting. These are as follows:

  1. PK to liaise with Balviar Notay regarding Jisc involvement in the RGG, following a lack of feedback to several email approaches by GM. PK to feedback to the RGG.
  2. GM to mail the UKCORR list to recruit a member(s) to participate in the RGG; Nicola to (possibly) step aside.
  3. GM to liaise with PW/Antleaf to publish minutes, charter, etc. on RIOXX channels and publicise.
  4. GM to work with PW to publicise GitHub repository in order to solicit requirements / change requests.
  5. Welcome

GM welcomed attendees to the first RIOXX Governance Group (RGG) meeting and apologies were noted from PW and NP.

  1. Proposed meeting structure

GM summarised how future RGG meetings might be expected to be operate. Future meetings were likely to be determined by issues of RIOXX governance and that requirements gathered via the GitHub repository would define the agenda of meetings. GM indicated that he would provide brief minutes of the RGG meetings for circulation and eventual publication on the RIOXX website.

  1. RIOXX Charter

Several matters were arising from the agreed RIOXX Charter.

PK enquired about how requirements or suggested changes to RIOXX were expected to be considered by the RGG. GM reported that the Charter set out the procedures for capturing requirements. The RIOXX GitHub repository was to be the principal channel, with change requests, requirements, etc. collated and presented to the RGG for consideration. GitHub was the preference to ensure openness and transparency in the standard. PK agreed with the approach and noted that openness and transparency was vital.

PK observed that the frequency of RGG meetings was not enshrined in the Charter. GM expected initial RGG meetings to be frequent owing to RIOXX’s prior hiatus, but thereafter meetings would likely be responsive to issues arising via the GitHub repository. PK felt the ‘responsive’ approach was preferable and indicated that CORE would like to see the first round of changes approved sooner rather than later.

GM highlighted the issue of RGG membership, final membership for which remained outstanding. GM’s invitations to Jisc remained unanswered, despite follow-up messages. GM asked attendees whether Jisc involvement was essential and whether alternative umbrella bodies should be approached.

PK felt continued Jisc involvement was important. Attendees agreed. PK reported that he would been meeting with a Jisc representative in coming days (Balviar Notay) and would take this opportunity to seek clarity of the Jisc position. (ACTION)

GM also noted that the Charter proposed inviting one or two members from the wider UKCORR community to participate in the RGG. Members agreed that it was important to promote participation from this group and ND proposed stepping down in order to accommodate the new RGG members. GM indicated that he would contact the UKCORR list inviting RGG participation in due course. (ACTION)

  1. AOB

Openness in RGG business was an important aspect of the Charter. GM indicated that he would liaise with PW to have the Charter, RGG membership, minutes, etc. published via the RIOXX website or GitHub repository. (ACTION)

ND highlighted PW’s forthcoming appearance at the UKCORR event on 30 September as an opportunity to publicise the formation of the RGG and solicit requirements for the standard. GM noted that he would liaise with PW about publicising the GitHub repository too. (ACTION)

  1. DONM

TBC – although RGG members expressed a preference for the last week of October 2019. GM to circulate a Doodle poll in due course.

GM 24/09/2019