Chair Role and Responsibilities

Owned by Green Software Foundation
Last updated: 2023-12-12 by Sophie Trinder (Unlicensed)
2 min read

WG Chairs

The WG Chair will be responsible for prioritizing tasks for the WG, organizing meetings, setting agendas, ensuring minutes and decisions are recorded, and providing the liaison between WG and the OSC.

  • Chairs SHALL maintain strict impartiality and act in the Organization's interest.

  • Chairs MAY limit the amount of time allocated to a particular agenda item or discussion point.

  • Chairs SHALL, after a reasonable period of discussion time, use the following means to reach a decision, but not limited to:

    • a statement of the Chair's view of group consensus, which shall be accepted by the group if there are no objections.

    • assignment of action items to progress the issue in as short as time as possible.

    • invite single or few objectors to no longer sustain their objections.

    • informal voting.

    • formal voting.

  • Chairs MAY require that new information be provided about an issue before earlier decisions can be reopened/revisited.

  • The work and progress of the group are appropriately communicated through regular status reports to the OSC.

  • Shared Chair positions MAY delegate tasks between them.

Decision Making

  • Consensus/Voting/Approval.

The WG will endeavor to make all decisions by consensus. Where the WG cannot reach consensus with respect to a particular decision, the WG will make that decision by a Supermajority Vote.

  • Appeals.

WG decisions may be appealed by issuing a written appeal to the Chairperson, and that appeal will be considered by the Chairperson and the WG in good faith. The Chairperson will respond in writing within a reasonable time.

  • Notifications and Electronic Voting.

The Chairperson is responsible for issuing all notifications of meetings and votes of the Working Group subject to the following minimum criteria:

- in-person meetings require at least 30 days prior written notice

- teleconference meetings require at least 7 days prior written notice (this requirement only applies to the notification of the first meeting of automatically recurring teleconference meetings)

- electronic votes require no advance notice but must be made pursuant to a clear and unambiguous ballot with only “yes” and “no” options, and the voting must remain open for no less than 7 days. These notification requirements with respect to the WG may be overridden upon unanimous consent of the WG members that have attended and participated in at least 50% of the last 4 meetings of the WG.