This document specifies the
policies and expectations for subcommittees operating
under the auspices of the DITA Technical Committee
(TC).
Rationale
This
document establishes concrete policies and
expectations for subcommittees. The TC is doing this
to help subcommittees be more productive and to
avoid the misunderstandings that can arise when
expectations are informal.
Criteria
for subcommittee creation
Several
criteria must be met before the TC will vote to
approve the creation of a subcommittee. A
prospective subcommittee must have the following:
- A charter that explains the
subcommittee's mission
- A chairperson who is a voting
member of the TC
- At least one other subcommittee
member who is affiliated with a different company
- A willingness to comply with
all of the policies and expectations in this
document
Criteria
for remaining in good standing
The TC
expects the following conditions to be met for a
subcommittee to be in good standing with the TC:
- The chairperson shall maintain
voting status on the TC.
- The subcommittee should have
work in progress. Idle periods must not last more
than six months.
- The subcommittee shall meet at
least once a month when work is in progress
- Minutes for each subcommittee
meeting must be posted in the subcommittee’s OASIS
document repository (Kavi) before the next meeting
occurs.
- The subcommittee shall report
to the TC at least once a month when work is
progress.
Policies
affecting subcommittee chairpersons
The
following policies affect subcommittee chairpersons.
A subcommittee chairperson:
- Can be removed for any reason
by a majority vote in the TC
- Is accountable to both the TC
and the subcommittee
- Is responsible for keeping the
subcommittee in good standing
- Must maintain voting status on
the TC. A one month grace period is automatically
in place for chairpersons who lose voting status.
Beyond that, the TC is willing to consider
extenuating circumstance. For example, a
chairperson may live in a timezone that makes
attending TC meetings impractical or a chairperson
may have a persistent work-related conflict that
coincides with TC meeting times. In such cases,
the TC may agree to have the subcommittee
represented by another subcommittee member who is
also a voting member of the TC.
Deactivating
and reactivated a subcommittee
A
subcommittee can deactivate itself if no work is
anticipated for six or more months. If a
subcommittee believes that it will not be needed in
the future, it should ask the TC to decommission the
subcommittee. A deactivated subcommittee can
reactivate itself providing it still meets all of
the criteria for subcommittee creation.
Decommissioning
a subcommittee
The TC
should consider decommissioning a subcommittee under
any of the following circumstances:
- The subcommittee requests it
- The subcommittee has been out
of good standing for more than six months
- A deactivated subcommittee has
been abandoned by its members and by its
chairperson
Disposition
of work products from decommissioned subcommittees
The TC
should consider the following options for dealing
with work products left by decommissioned
subcommittees:
- Ousting the work product from
OASIS control
- Appointing an advocate to
service the work product
- Asking the OASIS DITA community
for volunteers who would be interested in re
instantiating the subcommittee by meeting the
criteria for subcommittee creation