How Are Working Groups Governed?

How Are Working Groups Governed?

Working Groups must operate in compliance with the IEEE SA Standards Board Bylaws, IEEE SA Standards Board Operations Manual, the Standards Committee’s Policy & Procedures (P&P) , and the Working Group’s P&P. Some Standards Committees allow each Working Group to develop its own Policies and Procedures, that must be approved by the Standards Committee. Some Standards Committee develop a single Working Group P&P for each project type (individual or entity) that each working group of that type must adopt and follow. The IEEE SA provides baseline P&Ps for Standards Committees and Working Groups.

A Working Group usually has a hierarchy of officers to ensure that the work proceeds smoothly. There must be a Working Group Chair. The Working Group Chair may be appointed by the Standards Committee or elected by the Working Group. In some cases, the Working Group Chair will serve for a finite, defined term or will go through regular votes of confirmation from the working group depending on the Standards Committees rules. It is the role of the Chair to provide leadership and guidance during the standards development process, helping move towards completion of the finished standard. The Chair also serves as a point of contact for people who have technical questions or comments about the content of the standard.

The Working Group Chair will plan the meetings and organize the work. It also helps if the chair delegates assignments for developing parts of the standard to members of the Working Group.

The Working Group may have other officers, such as a Vice Chair, Secretary, or Treasurer. All of these roles could aid the Chair and the Working Group in moving their project forward. A Vice Chair can assist the Chair in all areas, including running the meeting when the Chair is absent or wishes to recuse themselves.

The Secretary serves as record keeper, taking and maintaining minutes of meetings, lists of action items, and rosters of attendees. The Secretary may also send out mailings of minutes, papers, and drafts to the committee. The technical editor works specifically on maintaining the draft standard, a process that may be complicated. The technical editor also works as a liaison with an IEEE SA Project Editor to detect and solve any problems early in the development process and to ensure the integrity of the standard in the publication process after approval.

If needed, a Treasurer may also serve in the working group, collecting and processing any meeting dues and handling any bills that are incurred. A ballot coordinator works on distributing the tasks involved in ballot resolution so that they move more quickly. These positions are often filled by the chair, but there is nothing to preclude working group election of these roles if it is felt to be necessary.

Examples of Working Group Officers:

• Chair
• Vice-Chair
• Secretary
• Treasurer