Guidelines for the Working Groups#

All WGs, teams, and people within The Turing Way are responsible for adhering to our Code of Conduct and our (upcoming) Accessibility Policy, both in organising WGs and facilitating WGs’ activities.

Members of WGs will be responsible for establishing their group structures which are:

  1. Open & Transparent for others to learn about, and join in on;

  2. Inclusive for all kinds of people and expertise;

  3. Accessible to join and participate in.

Each WG will also be responsible for documenting their ways of working and ongoing projects. WGs should discuss specific support they might need in their work with the The Turing Way team, specifically our Research Community Manager (but you can reach out to any of the co-leads and project manager too!).

In this subchapter, we discuss the roles and responsibilities of WG, in the next subchapter, you will learn about how to propose and manage a WG.

Roles and Responsibilities#

We provide examples of structure and roles for different members in the WG. However, please note that the roles suggested below are not meant to be permanent (for example, a WG chair should not be a permanent appointee), but rather a guiding structure that WGs can begin their work with, and then expand, remix, and reuse for their purposes. All roles may be temporary appointments or long-term, as agreed within the WG.

One person may occupy multiple roles. However, one person should not chair multiple WGs, to enable the diffusion of responsibilities and ensure the representation of different members in leadership roles.

Community members can join any number of WGs, however, we discourage joining more than one or two WGs to prevent the over-extension of individuals within the community.

Roles are suggested not to create hierarchy within a WG, but to enable the smooth operation and maintenance of the collective team, as well as to define responsibilities clearly (and avoid the tyranny of structurelessness).

Chair and Co-Chairs#

These person(s) are responsible for the creation and continuation of a WG. Chairs provide leadership and facilitate the WGs’ work. Chairs are responsible for organising and chairing meetings, ensuring that the responsibilities are fairly distributed, and ensuring the broader accountability of the assembled group. While this role may be occupied by multiple people, it is important to establish how each person upholds the responsibilities of a chair equitably.

The Chair will serve as the “Liaison” for The Turing Way leadership and will participate in meetings where representation from the WG in wider governance spaces might be needed. Chairs will also be responsible for relaying feedback, announcements and discussions from the leadership or The Turing Way delivery team to the WG. If a chair is unable to represent their WG in a specific meeting, they must identify a member from the WG who can represent the group and share notes from the meeting.

Documentarian#

The documentarian supports the WG in improving transparency around their work so that those who are not yet part of the WG but are interested in their work can follow or engage with their work. The documentarian is responsible for ensuring the logistical reporting of the group’s work. They are responsible for uploading meeting notes (without any private and sensitive information), helping the chair in time-keeping and communicating about the group’s activities in a way that remains transparent, open, and accessible for others to access. For example, if the duties of the chair are distributed across multiple people, the documentarian is responsible for documenting this format in the WG’s repository.

The Turing Way Delivery Team Contact#

While WGs should be able to operate with autonomy in most decisions that apply to their work, sometimes they require help from The Turing Way project delivery team to scope and test some ideas of work within their group or make decisions that impact the project and the broader community.

To make it easy to invite support, such as with operational activities, logistics or resources, each WG should have an assigned contact. It could be a chair or other existing role, or someone else from the WG who keeps the line of communication and connection open with the project delivery team. In the initial stages of a WG, this person could also be a member of the project delivery team like the Research Community Manager or Project Manager of The Turing Way.

WG Members#

Any Turing Way community member is encouraged to join a WG without restriction, and without taking on a leadership role.

Responsibilities of all Members of the WG include the following, and can adapted in shared in the WG’s charter document:

  • Providing specific expertise, including identifying emerging challenges and opportunities.

  • Reviewing WG’s documentation and providing comments, such as on GitHub.

  • Attending WG meetings and preparing appropriately to contribute to the agenda, specifically those assigned to them.

  • Completing all necessary actions assigned prior to each meeting.

  • Supporting the distribution of information to other WG members after each meeting and gathering information/feedback.

  • Articulating and reflecting the interests of community members through community engagement.

  • Maintaining a focus on the roadmap co-created with the WG members for the benefit of the broader community.

  • Contributing to the documentation of the WG and sharing them broadly in The Turing Way book.

  • Representing and sharing WG’s work, recommendations, and accomplishments in community spaces such as Collaboration Cafe, Community Forum

Advisors and Experts#

This is a suggested role that can be invited or appointed by WG on an ad-hoc basis. An advisor will advise WG about key aspects of the project, provide a community perspective on key considerations, and be a sounding board for deliverables set within a WG.

An advisor or expert’s participation in a WG meeting or asynchronous work may include facilitating specific conversations, providing feedback on specific pieces of work or supporting WG towards building consensus among members on the desired project goals, building resources, sharing them openly and identifying risks or mitigation measures.

Infrastructure Requirements for WGs#

  • Dedicated Github Repository using the template provided in the GitHub organisation

    • Right permissions for members

  • Dedicated Slack channel

  • A shared document (such as Framapad) for meeting notes (that are archived on GitHub)

  • Calendar invites with joining link (ask Research Community Manager for support if needed) for WG meetings

WG Charter#

Each WG should develop a document that centralises information about the WG by providing the purpose of the WG, ways of working, different roles and responsibilities of the WG members, and anything a new member of the WG might need to participate.

We provide a working group charter template to help develop this document, which should be shared in the GitHub repository of the WG.

The group charter should provide, to the degree WG members can, the following information:

  • Purpose: a clear statement describing the area of WG’s work

  • Roles and Responsibilities: developed based on the guidance provided in this chapter

  • Infrastructure and Resources: selected by WG to support their work

  • Guiding Principle: suggestions are provided in the template document

  • Terms of Membership: WGs can discuss and agree on appropriate terms and length of membership, such as for each role

  • Meetings and Communications: details about WG meetings, and suggestions are provided in the template document

Reciprocity and Transparency in Decision-Making#

In addition, all WGs should ensure open communication of WG’s practices and ways of working through:

  1. Reciprocity within and towards the broader Turing Way community.

  2. Transparency in decision-making.

Below we share a few examples of questions that will help WG members in operationalising these practices.

Reciprocity#

All WGs within The Turing Way will foster reciprocal relationships with the wider community to promote cooperation, trust, and cohesion. This involves supporting community members’ engagement with topics or subjects related to the work of the WGs.

To facilitate this, the WG should actively ask the following questions to identify information and knowledge to share with the community:

  • Where in the WG’s work can community members engage or contribute?

  • Are there things that the WG is trying to do within a small group that the broader community can help with?

  • Are there lessons the WG has learned that can be fed back to The Turing Way book and the wider community?

  • What progress has the WG made that should be highlighted and shared more broadly?

  • Are there places where feedback and active discussions with more members outside the WG can be invited?

Recommendations and insights from answering these questions can be shared in the charter document.

The active sharing and reciprocity can be maintained through engagement in various forms, including:

  • Using Community Calls like the Collaboration Cafe for WG meetings, discussions, and/or ongoing co-working.

  • Hosting Fireside Chats and/or separate events (in consultation with and supported by the core staff delivery team) on topics related to the WG activities.

  • Documenting related practices and/or topics in The Turing Way guides, either in the Community Handbook or other ongoing guides within the project.

  • Creating a new recommendation and guidance in the Community Handbook to promote how The Turing Way community works.

  • Collaborating with existing WGs on projects related to infrastructure, accessibility, translation, or other themes.

All WGs should be represented at (such as through the WG chair), and contribute to the The Turing Way Community Forums (such as by sharing updates and inviting new members to participate in their work). Although it might not always be possible due to the time zones or other factors, all WG members are encouraged to attend these events.

All WG activities should be documented transparently so that members outside the WG (including those not already engaging with The Turing Way community) can learn about the WG’s activities and projects.

The WG members should also ask the following questions (and more) when creating their process documentation:

  • How can more community members join WG activities or start their own?

  • How visible are various WG’s activities for the rest of the community?

  • How can transparent reporting invite more people to participate in the conversation?

Transparency in Decision-making#

In principle, primary decision-making should lie with the WG team itself. However, there may be different types of decisions that might require input from different people across the community, project leadership and/or project delivery team for consultation and support.

To identify where in their work a decision may or may not require inputs, support, or involvement from a specific party outside the WG, we recommend that WGs use the following questions when creating their documentation, and invite clarity from the project delivery team:

  • What decisions does the WG feel empowered to take as an autonomous WG? (for example, Accessibility WG develops accessibility guidelines)

  • What decisions does the WG want to invite consultation and support from the broader community? (for example, Book Dash WG invites support from the community in planning their next agenda)

  • What decisions should WGs involve consultation and support from the project delivery team? (for example, resource or support needed to execute a plan)

  • What decision should be escalated to the leadership? (for example, Infrastructure WG will need input and approval when starting a new platform)

  • What other decisions would WGs want to make that don’t fall under the above three categories?