Governance
This section of the toolkit is focused on activities that will help you with planning how to establish, stabilize, and evolve sustainable governance for your program. It is designed to help you structure discussions and gain consensus about next steps for sustainable governance for your OSS program. It is not a toolkit for day to day governance.
Definition: A governance model describes the roles that project participants can take on and the process for strategic and tactical decision making within the project. In addition, it describes the ground rules for participation in the project and the processes for communicating and sharing within the project team and community.
Instructions
Brand new to It Takes a Village in Practice? Check out our Getting Started Resources before jumping in!
Review the activities and goals below to select ones you want to use for sustainability planning. These activities are designed to help you move from one phase to the next and can be used in any order. You can use any or all of them. Suggested persona pathways are outlined at bottom of page, but it is not expected that programs would do all activities.
These activities are currently available for beta testing. As you use them, the ITAViP Co Directors are eager for feedback via ITAV@lyrasis.org
Some beta testers have kindly provided samples of their work with activities. Those are available below as available.
Pre-Work | |||
These are activities that may be helpful if you haven’t already done strategic planning. | |||
A. Mission / Vision | Goal: To enable program governance to consider and create a Mission and Vision Statement if you do not already have one. Having a Mission and Vision Statement are helpful for many of the ITAV activities. Examples: Mission Vision | DOC | |
B. Strategic Priorities | Goal: To enable program governance to consider and create some high level strategic priorities if you do not already have them. These are helpful for many of the ITAV activities. | DOC | |
C. Who is Your Community? | Goals: To identify community stakeholders, consider goals for each stakeholder group, and prioritize community stakeholders This is helpful as pre-work, but also for programs in any phase. Note, there is a fuller version of this in the Community Engagement Facet. | DOC |
Phase 1: Establishing Governance | |||
Phase 1 Objectives include: Define the Need for Governance; Review Existing Governance Models; Selecting the Governance Model that Works Best Now, and Communicating Changes to Stakeholders | |||
1. Catastrophizing | Goals: Understand how the program’s current governance model (or decision making) works with unexpected issues; Understand if the model works well or has gaps; and Identify and document issues that need to be solved. Note: This activity is valuable for any phase. Examples: Ideate, Prioritize, Gap | DOC | |
2. Checklist of Governance Elements | Goals: Understand the elements of various governance models, and determine which your governance structure currently has. | DOC | |
3. Understanding Governance Models and Process Impact | Goal: Understand the range of various governance models, how they function, and what they could mean for your own program. | DOC | |
4. Structure: How Much Works Best for Your Program Now | Goal: Understand program needs in terms of more or less formality in governance structure. | DOC | |
5. Selecting a Governance Model that Fits Your Program Needs | Goal: Choose the governance model that most closely aligns with your program’s priorities and values. | DOC | |
6. Articulating the Case for Change | Goals: Draft your communication strategy and communicate change to your stakeholders. | DOC | |
7. Evaluate Communication Campaign Feedback | Goal: Evaluate how well your communication campaign was received. | DOC |
Phase 2: Stabilizing Governance | |||
Phase 2 Objectives include: Document Existing Governance Practices. Evaluate Each Element of Existing Governance, Increase the Level of Community Engagement, and Evaluate Long Term Home Organization Options | |||
8. Catastrophizing | Goals: Test resiliency of current model; Understand how the program’s current governance (or decision making) works with unexpected issues; Understand if the model works well or has gaps; Identify and document issues that need to be solved. Examples: Ideate, Prioritize, Gap | DOC | |
9. Pack Your Bags - Mapping Decision Journeys | Goals: Enumerate the strategic and tactical decisions the program stakeholders are faced with; Enumerate the paths those decisions take before they are finalized; For decisions that have no path, identify choke points, redundancies; and Identify gaps or areas of governance or program management that need improvement. | DOC | |
10. Financial and Organizational Stability Assessment Checklist | Goals: Assess the financial and organizational stability of your program’s governance, and identify gaps or areas of governance that need improvement. | DOC - Activity DOC - Checklist | PDF - Activity PDF - Checklist |
11. Position Descriptions for Elected Leaders | Goals: Create, update, or confirm position descriptions for elected leaders; Help elected leaders and community members understand the roles and responsibilities of each position; and Facilitate succession planning. | DOC | |
12. Creating Personas | Goals: Create more explicit stakeholder personas to help guide community efforts. | DOC | |
13. Recognition and Contributions | Goals: Understand how the program currently recognizes contributions; Understand how recognition and contributions are incorporated into the program; Understand the kind of recognition that is most appreciated/motivating to each kind of contributor; and Discover how the program can improve in this area. | DOC | |
14. Org Home: Requirements Gathering and Assessment | Goals: Determine if you need a new organization to provide functions; gather requirements for assessment and decision. | DOC | |
15. Five Elements Assessment | Goals: Evaluate the program’s current governance structure, determine potential needs, and prioritize work going forward. | DOC |
Phase 3: Evolving Governance | |||
Phase 3 Objectives include Support Consistent Structures, Continue to Evaluate and Evolve Governance Practices and Expand community Participation in Governance | |||
16. Succession Planning | Goals: Identify critical positions within your organization; Identify future staffing needs; Identify people with the skills and potentials to perform future roles; Develop action plans for individuals to assume those positions. | DOC | |
17. Continuing Education | Goals: Determine what information is necessary for Board members to feel invested, informed and engaged; Identify topics that inform Board discussions and decisions; Create a continuing education plan (schedule and content) based on those topics for Board members. | DOC | |
18. Catastrophizing | Goals: Test resiliency of current model; Understand how the program’s current governance (or decision making) works with unexpected issues; Understand if the model works well or has gaps; Identify and document issues that need to be solved. Examples: Ideate, Prioritize, Gap | DOC | |
19. Representative Governance Assessment Checklist | Goals: Evaluate if governance structure is representative, prioritize any gaps, document or revise governance policies or decision making process, and devise a plan to make change to practices. | DOC - Activity DOC - Checklist | PDF - Activity PDF - Checklist |
20. Expanding Community Participation | Goal: Develop a plan to expand community participation in governance. | DOC |
Suggested Pathways
You can use any of the activities in any order but we have designed some suggested pathways based on a few personas:
- Post Grant: Your program has been grant funded for some time and you are looking to transition governance to a post grant configuration A, 8, 9, 12, and 13
- Newbies: You are new to governance structures and trying to decide what works best but need a bit more context A, 3, and 5
- Major changes: Your main stakeholder/decision maker has left and you are now looking to transition governance A, 1, 10, 5, 6, and 7