Constitution and proposals to be voted on at Conference 2022

Hello everyone,

This post contains important information about how to participate in votes relating to the constitution and formalising the set up of this community.

  • The constitution has been prepared over the past 6+ months with input from a wide section of the community. Full details are included in previous posts in this forum. The constitution document is now available (see bottom of this post) along with responses to the comments that were made in the recent consultation.
  • Ancillary documents are also available for the Social Contract, the Code of Conduct, and the Diversity, Equality and Inclusion policy; these will be posted later.
  • A number of propositions have been developed in order to bootstrap the new governance structures for the community. There are five of these, detailed below.

Voting

Participation in voting:

Voting is open to all involved in the DataSHIELD community.

  • For those present at the conference: voting will take place on Thursday afternoon during the session on governance.
  • For those not present at conference: If you are not able to attend the conference, you may still participate in voting. Please email your votes to andrei morgan [at] inserm.fr (replace [at] with @). For each proposition, please indicate your preferred option.

Voting options

Each proposition will have three voting options: AGREE, DISAGREE, or ABSTAIN. All votes will be by simple majority. The Chair of the Advisory Board will be responsible for counting the votes.

Propositions

Proposition 1: Acceptance of constitution

This conference agrees to adopt the constitution version 20221012v1 for formal use by the [Community/Project]

Proposition 2: Founding Voting Members

Founding Voting Members are members of the [Community Project] who were members of the [Community Project] at the time the constitution was inaugurated.

A person who is a “member of the [Community Project] at the time the constitution was inaugurated” is EITHER someone who was present at the DataSHIELD conference in 2022 (either virtually or physically) OR someone who is nominated by two people who were present at the conference.

People who fulfil these criteria and wish to be a Voting Member should self-nominate by notifying the Advisory Board before the 16th November 2022, including in the message how they meet the criteria and which Themes they wish to belong to initially.

A list of founding Voting Members will be collated by the Advisory Board. All founding Voting Members will be confirmed on the 16th of November 2022.

Proposition 3: Initial Theme Leads and Core Groups

Theme Leads are chosen by consensus among the Voting Members in that Theme. If there are more than two candidates, then the Theme will organise a simple majority vote to select the Lead. Theme Leads should be chosen by the 30th November 2022. In case of failure to agree a Theme Lead (or two shared Theme Leads) by this date, that Theme will not be eligible to contribute to the relevant Core Group (and, thus, to the initial setup of the Steering Committee).

Between the 1st December and 14th December 2022, Core Groups will be responsible for nominating their members to the Steering Committee.

Proposition 4: Initial Steering Committee

Each Core Group will nominate 2 or 3 Voting Members to be on the Steering Committee. This should be done by 14th December 2022.

Any Voting Member of the community who is not a member of a Core Group may nominate themselves to be a member of the Steering Committee. This should be done by 14th December 2022.

If there are 3 or fewer non-Core Group Voting Members, they will all be appointed to the Steering Committee. If there are 4 or more non-Core Group Voting Members who wish to be on the Steering Committee, a vote will be carried out using the Vote Counting mechanism outlined in section 9.6 of the constitution. The deadline for votes to be made will be the 21st December 2022.

The Steering Committee will be responsible for electing a Chair and Secretary as outlined in the constitution.

NB, any Voting Member can be nominated to the Steering Committee; they may also hold a position on the Advisory Board during the transitional period.

Proposition 5: Management of transitional period

There will be a transitional period following the ratification of the constitution prior to all governance bodies being fully set up. During this period, the existing Advisory Board will be responsible for supervising the community, including overseeing elections or adjudicating any disputes, until a full Steering Committee is in place. This is anticipated to be by the end of December 2022.

Documents

Will it be helpful for there to be a Community section of the forum?

There are a number of ideas for how to develop the forum. In particular, the constitution proposes that each Theme will have a dedicated area of the forum for coordinating and notifying about work within that area. Perhaps some of the workshop time at the conference should be used to discuss organisation of the forum and development of the wiki?

Clarification on voting procedure

Note: For those not attending in person, votes need to be emailed before midday on Thursday 20th October 2022.

Further clarification on voting procedure

In the previous post, ‘midday’ means 12:00 CEST (conference time).

Apologies for any confusion.

Dear all,

Here are the results from today’s votes on the propositions listed above.

Proposition 1

[minor change to version number only]
This conference agrees to adopt the constitution version 2022-10-12 for formal use by the [Community/Project]

For: 24
Against: 0
Abstentions: 0

Proposition 2

[unchanged from above]
For: 23
Against: 0
Abstentions: 1

Proposition 3

[unchanged from above]
For: 24
Against: 0
Abstentions: 0

Proposition 4

Proposition amended as follows:
Each Core Group will nominate 2 or 3 Voting Members from that Core Group to be on the Steering Committee. This should be done by 14th December 2022.

Any Voting Member of the community who is not a member of a Core Group may nominate themselves to be a member of the Steering Committee. This should be done by 14th December 2022.

If there are 3 or fewer non-Core Group Voting Members, they will all be appointed to the Steering Committee. If there are 4 or more non-Core Group Voting Members who wish to be on the Steering Committee, a vote will be carried out using the Vote Counting mechanism outlined in section 9.6 of the constitution. The deadline for votes to be made will be the 21st December 2022.

The Steering Committee will be responsible for electing a Chair and Secretary as outlined in the constitution.

NB, any Voting Member can be nominated to the Steering Committee; they may also hold a position on the Advisory Board during the transitional period.

For: 24
Against: 0
Abstentions: 0

Proposition 5

Proposition amended as follows:
There will be a transitional period following the ratification of the constitution prior to all governance bodies being fully set up. During this period, the existing Advisory Board will be responsible for supervising the community, including overseeing elections or adjudicating any disputes, until a Steering Committee is in place. This is anticipated to be by the end of December 2022.
[Word ‘full’ removed]

For: 24
Against: 0
Abstentions: 0

Summary of the votes

There were 15 people present in Barcelona, a further 5 people voted who were in virtual attendance, and 4 people emailed with their votes.

1 Like

Hello all,

We are slightly behind in terms of the time table for the process described in the propositions above, however we are still broadly following the schedule. According to the mail I sent to Voting Members on the 8th January, the time table is now:

  • Friday 16th January - for Themes to finalise selecting the Theme Leads.

  • Friday 30 January - for the initial Steering Committee to be selected.

NB, there were some errors in the dates in the email (as shown above), however both Friday 13th January and Monday 16th January are now passed and so we should just continue. The next important date, now amended, will be Monday 30th January for nominations to the Steering Committee.

So far, the following Themes have confirmed leads:

  • Tech: Infrastructure Development - Yannick and Morris

  • Tech: Operational Management - [no one has volunteered yet]

  • Tech: Statistical Development - Demetris and Manuel

  • Process: Education - Juan Ramon

  • Process: Governance - Andrei

  • Process: Communications and Outreach - Angela and Eleanor

Thus, the Core Groups are (currently):

  • Tech: Yannick, Morris, Demetris, Manuel
  • Process: Juan Ramon, Andrei, Angela, Eleanor

As per the propositions above,

  • Each Core Group should now choose 2 or 3 people from that Core Group to be on the Steering Committee.
  • Any Voting Member of the community who is not a member of a Core Group may nominate themselves to be a member of the Steering Committee.

The deadline for these nominations is at the end of the day on Monday, 30th January.

Dear all,

We have now passed the deadline for nominations to the Steering Committee, however there has so far been few responses and, after discussion with several Voting Members, it is clear that people have not yet had enough time to fully consider this step in the process. I therefore suggest that we extend the deadline until the end of next week.

Thus, the new deadline for (self) nominations to the Steering Committee is at the end of the day on Friday, 10th February 2023.

Further information about the Steering Committee is posted below.

The following is taken from the Constitution:

5.5 Steering Committee

The Steering Committee provides overall leadership to the [Community Project] and has day to day responsibility for the [Community Project].

5.5.1 Responsibilities

Below are responsibilities of the [Community Project] Steering Committee:

  1. To provide leadership and foster a respectful, inclusive, and collaborative environment in the wider [Community Project] community.
  2. To promote strategies for the implementation and use of [Community Project]-based research among existing research networks.
  3. To advocate for and represent the [Community Project] community at external meetings and events, including leading the organisation of the annual [Community Project] meeting, incorporating both scientific and administrative (“routine”) business.
  4. To be the penultimate body for adjudication of disputes and conflict.
  5. To effectively progress the vision and purpose of [Community Project] and the wider [Community Project] community.
  6. To meet on a regular basis, at least quarterly (i.e. every three months), and additionally when a situation arises that needs addressing urgently.

5.5.2 Role of the Steering Committee

The major role of the Steering Committee is to ensure the sustainable operational functioning and communication of the [Community Project] community. Specific roles are detailed below.

  1. Responsibility for community policy ratification and implementation: Example: new policies developed in the community to be reported to Steering Committee, who will decide how to and what policies to ratify/implement in a sustainable way.
  2. Authorise [Community Project] community events: top level decision making, delegating responsibilities to training, communications and events working groups to ensure the events happen. E.g. training, Annual Conference.
  3. Ratify decision-making presented by the Core Groups. Themes report to Core Groups and Core Groups present decisions to Steering Committee who ratify the decisions.
  4. Appoint new members to itself or remove existing members.
  5. Community conflict resolution: arbitrate on disputes that may be escalated to the Steering Committee by Core Groups.
  6. To keep an overview of the activities, progress and issues in the [Community Project] community.
  7. Report at least annually, both internally to the [Community Project] community and externally, on the progress of the [Community Project].
  8. To communicate externally about the work and activities of the [Community Project] when required.
  9. The Steering Committee may request that a working group is created to achieve a specific goal. For example, the Steering Committee may suggest that a working group is created to organise the Annual Conference.

5.5.3 Members of the Steering Committee

The Steering Committee is constituted of the Steering Committee Chair PLUS a minimum of FIVE and a maximum of EIGHT Voting Members representing three constituencies:

  • AT LEAST two members of the [Community Project] Steering Committee should be Contributors participating in the Technical Core Group;
  • AT LEAST two members of the [Community Project] Steering Committee should be Contributors participating in the Process Core Group;
  • AT LEAST one member of the [Community Project] Steering Committee should be a Voting Member not involved in either of the Core Groups.

5.5.4 Appointment

When the above thresholds are not met (i.e. when there are fewer than two members from either of the Core Groups, or no member who is not involved in a Core Group), the Steering Committee may appoint new members until the threshold for each constituency is met.

When the number of members of the Steering Committee is fewer than eight

  1. If there are at least two members from either of the Core Groups, the relevant Core Group is able to recommend new members to the Steering Committee who may then choose whether or not to accept the proposed new members.
  2. If there is already at least one member who is not involved in a Core Group, Contributors who are not members of either of the Core Groups may self-nominate themselves as a new member to the Steering Committee who may then choose whether or not to accept the proposed new member.

A Voting Member is eligible to serve a maximum of TWO consecutive terms.

If a Voting Member has previously been re-appointed to the Steering Committee (i.e. they are finishing their second of two consecutive terms), they are only eligible to stand for re-election if they have not been a member of the Steering Committee within the previous 12 months.

5.5.5 Term limit

  1. On January 1 st of each year the term of any Steering Committee member who has served more than 42 months (3.5 years) and who is one of the two most senior members is set to expire on December 31st of that year.
  2. A member of the Steering Committee is said to be more senior than another if they were appointed earlier, or were appointed at the same time and have been a member of the [Community Project] longer. In the event that a member has been appointed more than once, only the most recent appointment is relevant.
  3. Members may voluntary leave the Steering Committee at any time and for any reason. In the event that the departure is planned, i.e. not the result of a force majeure, a notification of the intention to leave should be made to the Steering Committee at least 2 months prior. This will allow the Steering Committee to fill the vacant position.

5.5.6 Removal of members

The Steering Committee may remove an existing member of the Steering Committee if there is agreement of two thirds of members other than the member to be removed. In this situation, the Chair is equivalent to the other members of the Steering Committee and there is no casting vote. In situations where the Chair is the member to be removed, this will immediately trigger a new election for the Steering Committee Chair.

5.5.7 Special members

The Steering Committee will elect a Chair and Secretary from among their members.

The role of the Steering Committee Chair is to:

  1. Adjudicate any disputes about interpretation of the constitution.
  2. May delegate part or all of their authority to someone else within the Steering Committee, or withdraw such a delegation at any time.

Specific responsibilities of the Steering Committee Chair:

  1. The Chair ensures that the Steering Committee functions properly, that there is adequate participation at meetings, that all relevant matters are discussed and that actions or decisions are made and carried out
  2. Plan and run meetings in accordance to the [Community Project]
  3. Bring impartiality and objectivity to meetings and decision-making
  4. In the event of a tie, the Chair shall provide a deciding vote
  5. In the event of absence from a Steering Committee meeting, the Chair will nominate one or more other Board members to organise a deputy. Any person who deputises shall temporarily assume the roles and responsibilities of the Chair.

The role of the Steering Committee Secretary is to:

  1. Take votes amongst the Voting Members, and determines the number and identity of Voting Members, whenever this is required by the Constitution.
  2. Stand in for the Steering Committee Chair if there is no other delegated Member or the Steering Committee Chair is otherwise unavailable.
  3. If there is no Chair then the Secretary may make any decisions if they consider it imperative to do so.
  4. When the Steering Committee meets, in conjunction with the Chair, ensure there is an agenda, and that minutes and actions are captured and recorded.