Workgroup:WikiEducator Workgroups/Workgroup report

Executive summary
A Workgroup was convened to develop a policy for the establishment of community-wide workgroups whose mission is to create policy, guidelines, tools, processes, etc., that impact the whole WikiEducator community. Eight WikiEducator members signed up as participants of the workgroup.

A charter for the workgroup was completed and formerly approved. A boilerplate for charters was completed as a resource for future work groups. This work group had the advantage of observing the operations of the Community Workgroups for Style guidelines and WikiEducator Adminstrators, which aided the development and refinements of the Charter by piloting concepts and processes with these three workgroups. All tasks and communications were duly completed in accordance with the charter. The Workgroup has achieved consensus on all aspects of the policy and we have no minority opinions to report.

The Workgroup on Workgroups now requests approval and ratification by the WikiEducator Community Council at the meeting scheduled to commence on 7 September 2009.

Approval of the charter
The Workgroup achieved the skills specification for members of the workgroup. Eight WikiEducator members signed up to assist with this task.

Unanimous approval of the Charter was attained on 14 August 2009. An additional approval vote was cast by a WikiEducator member, but the vote is void as the member was not a signed-up participant of the Workgroup.

Outputs
The workgroup has achieved its stated outputs, inlcuding the completion of:
 * Charter for the workgroup
 * Boilerplate for Workgroup charters
 * Draft policy for Community Workgroups

Completion of project tasks
Project tasks have been completed on schedule, with the exception of two advertised dates:


 * The community invitation for feedback on the 2nd draft which was delayed by one day (see point 9 above).
 * Review and edits of the final draft of the policy which was delayed by two days (see point 10 above).

Given that the delays were less than 48 hours and sufficient time for commentary before final submission to Council, we do not require a substantive revision to the Charter in accordance with the draft policy.

Minority opinions
The group has achieved consensus on all matters and there are no minority opinions or contentious issues to report.

Reflections on Workgroup activities
This has been a successful Workgroup that has achieved its objectives. The success of this workgroup is attributed to:


 * Achievable outputs clearly specified with corresponding target dates for completion in the Charter.
 * The provision of adequate time frames for completion of the alloted tasks taking the capacity requirements of the project into account.
 * Dedicated members in the workgroup who have actively monitored the project pages and corresponding talk pages.
 * Notifying members of the workgroup via personal email on key milestones of the project.
 * The deadline of a scheduled WikiEducator Council meeting has prioritised volunteer time ensuring completion of the project.
 * A candid and respectful disposition of Workgroup members to comment openly and question the progress of the project, while providing constructive suggestions on improving the outputs of the project.
 * Accepting the value of an iterative development process and a willingness of Workgroup members to learn and implement the lessons from engagement from the current Workgroups.

Request for approval
The Workgroup on Community Workgroups requests the WikiEducator Community Council meeting commencing on 7 September 2009 to consider a resolution for approval of the Policy for Community Workgroups and corresponding guidelines and support resources for implementation in WikiEducator.