NDSA:Organizing Workshop Notes

NDSA:Next Steps and Timeline

Organizing Committee Review
1/10/11 Circulate notes from the workshop to entire organizing committee
1/10/11 Draft compromise language for controversial topics
1/21/11 Request commentary from organizing committee on unresolved issues
1/21/11 Write up an executive summary or synopsis of the meeting
1/28/11 Incorporate new comments from organizing committee

NDSA Entire Membership Review
Timeline for document review and ratification by all NDSA members
2/04/11 Send revised draft of organizing documents to all members
2/18/11 Review and comment period for documents
2/25/11 Incorporation of revisions from entire membership
3/01/11 Vote by entire membership for ratification
3/08/11 Voting period ends

Determine initial Coordinating Committee formation practices
Confirm the next NDSA meeting –as a workshop at the NDIIPP Partners Meeting
Compile and circulate for review definitions of key terms (Member, Participant, Working Group, Action Team, etc.)

NDSA:Executive Summary

Members of the new National Digital Stewardship Alliance gathered for a two-day workshop, held December 15-16, 2010 in Washington, DC, to discuss how the NDSA will be structured and function as a collaborative, volunteer organization. The goal of the workshop was to make decisions about the basic structure of the NDSA.

Prior to the workshop, the member volunteers worked virtually to develop a draft set of recommendations for the Alliance mission and values, a membership model and governance structure. This Organizing Committee of volunteers reviewed and discussed those documents during the workshop.

The workshop allowed small groups to discuss each of the draft recommendation documents (see Appendix). Following the small group discussions, each group reported out to the larger group on the topic and questions presented for discussion. Overall, this exchange of information brought out similar comments, ideas and recommendations that were raised in the small group discussions. Conversely, contentious topics or conflicting viewpoints were identified during the report outs as areas where there did not appear to be a consensus or agreement.

The discussion on the values, mission and action statements resulted in a majority agreement around the draft documents. Pointed discussion revolved around specific terms in the mission and action statements, but overall, the group appeared to agree “stewardship” as the central, defining value of the Alliance. Agreement on the tightly crafted mission, value and action statements was the product of these discussions and the revisions of these documents will be put forward for the NDSA membership to ratify.

A spectrum of viewpoints was represented during the membership discussion. While the small group discussion revolved around how new member institutions could join the Alliance, divergent views emerged during the report outs as to ultimately what type of membership model the Alliance should follow. In particular, there was no consensus on membership eligibility (open to all interested parties vs. a restricted membership), if membership could be revoked, and what membership treatment (such as an affiliate status) international organization and commercial vendors/hi-tech companies should receive (or not at all). However, all participants in the discussions agreed that new member organizations should share the values of the Alliance, should demonstrate a commitment to digital preservation, and membership requirements/eligibility should be transparent. Based on the discussion, the Library will review the notes and comments from the workshop and attempt to derive a “middle of the road” membership model that will take into account the various opinions. This model will be proposed for review to the Organizing Committee for review and comment before being circulated to the entire NDSA membership for review, comment, and, eventually, ratification.

The discussions around the organization structure of the Alliance had many areas of consensus, similar to the mission and values discussion. Discussion highlighted that a light-weight governance structure is preferred over formal, hierarchical structure. It was also agreed that there should be a Coordinating Committee which will be tasked with providing the Alliance strategic vision and performing liaison duties with the working group to avoid duplication of work efforts, among other duties. While certain areas remain undecided (how to nominate Coordinating Committee members and that whether a Committee convener or chair/officer is needed), it was decided that a draft bylaws-lite document will be incorporate decision points and the document will provide a basis of the Alliance will work together in the first three-year period.

Also during the workshop, each of the working groups reported out and highlighted their work achieved to date. Many working groups drafted charters and work plans. Participants expressed concern how work across the groups would be transparent (this will be solved as a Coordinating Committee task) and asked for clarification of Working Groups and Action Teams. The Library agreed to draft NDSA terms for the membership to review to clarify roles and responsibilities; these terms will be incorporated in the organizational documents.

Regarding next steps, the Library agreed to review notes and decision points and revise the draft recommendations documents (see above timeline for more specific information). These documents will be forwarded to the Organizing Committee and posted on the NDSA wiki for review. Following the comment period, the revised documents will be distributed to the NDSA membership for review and ratification. Some matters remain undetermined – such as how Coordinating Committee members will be nominated – but it appears that the process of these organizational matters will be determined during or following the review of the documents.

NDSA:Meeting Goals

Develop and refine NDSA:
- Purpose of the Alliance and values, mission, and action statements
- Membership
- Organizational structure
Develop experience working collaboratively
Review what success looks like
Identify next steps and actions

The Mission and Values subcommittee presented the values statement and the rationale that went into creating it. Particular attention was given to crafting a statement that clearly did not exclude any organizations for participating in the Alliance in at least some capacity. The entire group reviewed the draft values statement (see Appendix). "Stewardship" was identified as the central, defining value and it was proposed that "Stewardship" become the first value listed. There was some conversation about the term "Diversity," specifically that it could be misunderstood out of context. This conclusion was reinforced by the small group conversations. It was determined that perhaps "Inclusiveness" was a better term for this value. Ultimately, the group concluded that the power of the values was in relation to one another, no one value alone could represent the shared understanding of the Alliance.

Small Group Discussion Topic: How can the alliance demonstrate these values?

In working groups
In NDSA communication
In alliance meetings

The group agreed about the basic values of the Alliance. Discussion indicated consensus around the importance of:

Align the NDSA work with the missions and interests of the members
Raising public awareness
Identify and reach out to marginalized and underserved digital preservation communities, specifically small and local communities
Clarify the idea of “exchange;” not just sharing and reuse of resources among the NDSA but reaching out beyond this group to the broader community we're trying to serve
Sustainability needs to be built into the values statement in a more prominent way
“Diversity” includes inclusion of organizations and heterogeneity and diversity of approaches
Stewardship as THE mission; collaboration, exchange and inclusion support the mission of stewardship; perhaps stewardship includes matching orphan collections with institutions willing to steward them
Articulate the distinction of NDSA from other initiatives and the benefits of participating in the NDSA

Comments were also made from some individuals about the value of the following activities as well:

Work with researchers (scientific) to raise awareness of the reproducibility of scientific results
Conduct gap analysis of current capacity to develop a research agenda
Leverage Web 2.0 communication channels to disseminate knowledge about existing capacities
Pair with high tech companies that are doing innovative things in data management and figure out how to motivate them to work with us, but also make sure that it's a mutually-beneficial relationship, perhaps an advisory group (possible models: FACA/NGAC?)

NDSA:Mission Statement and Action Statement Discussion

Mission Statement Discussion about this draft statement (see Appendi) indicated that "citizen" was too restrictive for the group. While the NDSA is a national alliance, the benefit of digital material and preservation practices cannot be restricted by boundaries of a nation. The discussion resulted in a second draft of the statement:

Mission Statement Draft #2
The mission of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance is to establish, expand, and promote [/publicize/sustain] the capacity to preserve our nation's digital resources for the benefit of present and future generations.

Action Statement Discussion (see Appendix B) indicated that infrastructure in the digital environment is not restricted to national borders. It was also generally held that there are many infrastructures rather than a single infrastructure. A stronger statement about innovation was requested. The group agreed that simple language and clarity were important objectives for all statements for the Alliance. The discussion resulted in a second draft of the statement:
Action Statement Draft #2
Members of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance, an initiative of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program, collaborate to preserve access to our national digital heritage by:

broadening access to our nation's expanding digital heritage
developing and coordinating sustainable infrastructures for the preservation of digital content and resources
advocating standards for the stewardship of digital objects
building a community of practice around the management of distributed digital collections
promoting innovation
facilitating cooperation between government agencies, educational institutions, non-profit organizations, and commercial entities
fostering the participation of diverse communities and relationships across boundaries
raising public awareness of the enduring value of digital resources and the need for active stewardship of these national treasures

NDSA:Membership Discussion

The membership discussion revolved around how new member institutions could join the Alliance with the objective of recognizing both organizational and individual contributions.

This discussion resulted in a few agreements:

New member organizations should share the values of the Alliance and support the mission statement to the best of their abilities
- Member organizations should demonstrate a commitment to preservation: education, technology development, participation in projects
All organizations should commit to participating in at least one of the NDSA working groups
Learning by doing should be encouraged, especially for smaller organizations
There should be a role for international organizations
Consortiums are welcome to join as members of the NDSA. They should work to determine that their participants identify with the consortium that person represents
There should be a way to bring in subject-matter experts
Membership expectations should be clearly defined

The discussion also resulted in several topics where the group did not arrive at any consensus:
The membership eligibility spectrum:

Membership fully open to all interested parties
Membership based on shared values -- interested parties promise to share the values of the NDSA and promote the mission
Partially restricted membership --all potential members to be vetted by the Coordinating Committee and/or the Secretariat
Restricted membership -- technology vendors are not eligible for membership

The role of funding organizations in the NDSA

Is there a conflict of interest for funders serving on working groups?
Should funders have their own sub-group?

Participation

There should be a maximum number of participants any one member organization can send to a single working group which should be clearly articulated
There should be no restrictions on the number of participants from a member organization in a working group; working groups should police themselves and make sure that their agendas are not being swayed

Sponsorship

"Sponsorship" of new members should not be necessary – implies exchange of funds
Nomination of new members is acceptable if deemed necessary
Members should be encouraged to seek and nominate other potential participants in the NDSA as a way of expanding the NDSA

Categories of Membership

There should only be one category of membership
There should be two categories of membership
- International entities should be able to join as affiliates
- Technology vendors should be able to join as affiliates

Revocation

There should be no clause for revoking membership, it is unnecessary
There must be clearly defined reasons for revoking membership

Note: it was commented on that renewal of membership wasn't addressed in these initial documents. This was not seen as problematic at this point, however, it was mentioned that renewal of memberships will need to be addressed in the next three years before the current membership terms expire.

The remaining discussion focused on:

The NDSA as a working Alliance – and the challenges of accomplishing work with a very large membership base
Application as declaration of interest
Keeping the governance of the NDSA light – and how that might influence membership eligibility decisions by this group

NDSA:Organizational Structure Discussion

The subcommittee reported on their draft document. The goal of the Principles of Collaboration is to act as a bylaws-lite that will spell out how the member organizations of the Alliance work together in the first three-year period. Attempts were made to acknowledge the importance of virtual meetings, a guiding group called the Coordinating Committee, and voting.

Small Group Discussion Topic: Review and comment on the Principles of Collaboration document.

The groups reported back about the following topics with a great deal of consensus:

Coordinating Committee
- Provide the NDSA strategic vision
- Maintain any membership eligibility standards
- Assist in reducing duplication of efforts between working groups
- Have a strong connections with the working groups
- Add or disband working groups as necessary
Secretariat role should be administrative and logistical in character
Votes are for identifying Coordinating Committee members, changing/ratifying the Principles of Collaboration, or other such tasks.
- A vote should happen online rather than at a convention
- Clarity on how a favorable vote is determined if needed.
Robert's Rules of Order is too formal for this organization

There were several points around which no consensus was agreed upon. The groups expressed differing view points about the following issues:

Officers on the Coordinating Committee
- There was general agreement that the person running the next Coordinating Committee should be identified in advance of the next meeting.
- Beyond that, there was a group or two that wanted more structure than others and would like to see officers
There was no consensus on what should replace Robert's Rules of Order.

NDSA:Coordinating Committee

The group agreed that the Coordinating Committee was a valuable entity to have in the NDSA. There was consensus that the Coordinating Committee should:

Should probably start off with 9 members but should be flexible enough to grow or shrink as needed by the NDSA
Provide the NDSA strategic vision
Maintain any membership eligibility standards
Assist in reducing duplication of efforts between working groups
Each member of the Coordinating Committee should be responsible for acting as liaison with one or more of the working groups
Add or disband working groups as necessary
Members of the Coordinating Committee should be voted in by the NDSA members Program Representative
Members of the Coordinating Committee could be nominated by others or volunteer to serve

Some individuals made the following recommendations but there was no clear group consensus about these recommendations:

Members of the Coordinating Committee should serve staggered terms (there should be some turn over every year and some stability at all times)
The Coordinating Committee should make recommendations about working group products that should be circulated more widely, especially items that should be submitted as articles or disseminated to the larger digital preservation community as reports

NDSA:What Does Success Look Like?

As a closing exercise, each participant at the organizing workshop wrote down what they imagined success of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance would look like. These were some of the indicators of success that were submitted in this exercise:

NDSA after Year 1

Outreach plan, our sound bite-sized message
Active membership recruitment
Strategy document
Key things executed after the first year.
Run smoothly with clear sense of direction.

NDSA after Year 3

Revisit organizational structure – are the working groups the right ones?
Public awareness enhanced – broad recognition about NDSA
Funding for key projects
New strategic plan
Best practices published and used by media and others
Bringing in underserved content and regions
Brand awareness for the NDSA and for digital preservation

NDSA after Year 5

new faces in the NDSA
Google adopts and publishes a digital preservation plan
not for profit, sponsorship campaign completed (1st major) promoting digital preservation
significant new content has been preserved for the future
General Public has an understanding of digital preservation
National digital network of content
Industry looks to NDSA for guidance
Infrastructure employed and in use
Restructured federal funding is in place - restructured version of NDIIPP

NDSA:Appendix A: Organizing Documents (Draft One From the Workshop)

National Digital Stewardship Alliance
Organizing Workshop
Washington, DC

December 15-16, 2010

Draft Recommendations from the Mission/Values, Membership and Organizational Structure Subcommittees

Background:
In December 2000, the US Congress in P.L. 106-554 mandated that the Library of Congress, in collaboration with other Federal and non-federal entities, identify a national network of libraries and other organizations with responsibilities for collecting, providing access and maintaining digital materials. The NDIIPP Program is has worked with over 185 partner organizations to establish strategies and take action for long-term digital preservation resulting in selecting over 1400 at-risk collections and developing over 36 tools and services by the end of 2010. In an ongoing plan submitted to, and funded with an annual appropriation by, Congress in 2007, the Program set goals to bring at-risk content under stewardship through a network of national partners by establishing a national alliance for content stewardship.

In June 2010, the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) at the Library of Congress initiated the National Digital Stewardship Alliance as a continuation of the network of partners brought together through the digital preservation projects. Sixty original partner organizations became the founding members in the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA). Thirty-five members volunteered to assist with the organizing activities of the NDSA leading up to an organizing workshop on December 15-16 in Washington, DC. The Library serves in the role of secretariat with NDIIPP staff providing program support.

The aim of the workshop is to make decisions about the structure of the NDSA that will result in a functional set of bylaws for the first three years of the Alliance. Members of the NDSA involved in the organizing activities have been invited to send a representative to the December meeting.

The 35 organizations that volunteered to be part of the temporary Organizing Committee were divided into three groups to concentrate on specific issues in standing up the Alliance.

Mission and Values – identify common values and draft a model mission statement
Membership – recommend membership qualifications and criteria, including a model for new members
Organizational Structure – define governance structure for NDSA and rules for participation

These groups began to address these issues in a series of preliminary discussions that inform the December workshop. They produced draft recommendations which will be reviewed and refined at the meeting. These resulting documents will then be complied sent to the entire NDSA membership for ratification early in 2011.

[DRAFT]Mission Statement

The mission of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance is to establish, maintain, and promote the capacity to preserve our nation's digital resources for the benefit of citizens today and future generations.

[DRAFT] Action Statement
Members of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance, an initiative of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program, collaborate to preserve access to our national digital heritage for the benefit of present and future citizens by:

broadening access to our nation's expanding digital heritage through specific programs
establishing a sustainable national infrastructure for the preservation of digital content and resources
advocating standards for the stewardship of digital objects
building a community of practice around the management of distributed digital collections
encouraging and sharing innovation
facilitating cooperation between government agencies, educational institutions, non-profit organizations, and commercial entities
fostering relationships across domains and boundaries

[DRAFT] Values Statement

The National Digital Stewardship Alliance and all member organizations are bound as a community by the following values.

Collaboration:
Collaborative work is the centering value of the Alliance, it is a value shared by all members and a priority in work with all organizations and associations. Approaching digital stewardship collaboratively allows the NDSA to coordinate effort, avoid duplicate work, build a community of practice, develop new preservation strategies, flexibly respond to a changing economic landscape, and build relationships to increase capacity to manage content beyond institutional boundaries.

Stewardship:
Members of the NDSA are committed to managing digital content for current and long-term use. The members of the NDSA are the entrusted keepers of the digital content that comprises our national history and empowers us as leaders in the global knowledge economy. Individually, these organizations actively oversee the administration of digital resources; as an Alliance, we commit to protecting our nation's cultural, scientific, scholarly, and business heritage.

Diversity:
The NDSA is a collaborative effort to preserve a distributed national digital collection for the benefit of current and future citizens. We value the range of experience, the potential for innovation, and the fault-tolerance that heterogeneity brings. We believe the preservation of digital information is a challenge that extends beyond the boundaries of domain and that by engaging across different communities we strengthen the nation’s digital preservation practices and increase the likelihood of preserving data now and into the future.

Exchange:
Members of the Alliance encourage the open exchange of ideas, services, and software. This leverages the commitments of each member to increase the capacity of the entire stewardship network. In this way the act of participation and engagement result in innovations and benefits that can be shared by all.

[DRAFT] Membership Model Recommendations

Membership

As an outgrowth of the Library of Congress National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP), the Alliance is open to government agencies, educational institutions, non-profit organizations and business with commitments and activities in the areas of collecting, preserving, or ensuring long-term access to digital content.

The term of membership is for 3 years.

Recommendations for membership:

Membership will be at the institutional level, but participation on Working Groups is open to one or more individuals at the institution.
Membership should be open and the process by which new members can join is though:
- Application process; then sponsorship by an organization w/in the NDSA
- Review and approval by consensus of the membership subcommittee
Membership may be revoked by a majority vote of member institutions

Eligibility and Requirements

The only responsibility of membership is participation. Members participate in one or more working group by making a sustained contribution to the work of the group for the benefit of the Alliance.
Recommendations for eligibility and requirements:

Members should have demonstrated a commitment to digital preservation.
Members should share the stated values of the Alliance.

Rights and Privileges

Recommendations for rights and privileges:

Voting power for the Alliance will be distributed:
- Institutions will have one vote on organizational and governance matters affecting the Alliance.
- Individual participants will have effective decision-making power at the Working Group level.
Working Groups (and Action Teams) can produce official work products and decide on work plans and work products autonomously, within their scope and provided that they do so in a manner transparent to the membership:
- All work products must be announced to the general membership and distributed in draft form well in advance of finalization
- Written discussion related to work product or plans should be conducted on mailing lists that are archived and open to review by the general membership.
- Where discussion is conducted through conference calls, the conference call minutes/notes should be circulated on the mailing list.
Working groups and their members will have the authority to create Action Teams
- The work of the Action Teams will be fairly autonomous; however, a process of transparency – a “lightweight charter” - should be created to inform the Working Group members of what work is going on.
- Action Teams should report back to the Working Group on a semi-regular basis about the work they are doing.
- Action Teams could be voted on by the main working group to become more formal if the work was something that was highly valued by the community.

Outstanding questions:

How will we engage the commercial sector while avoiding predatory vendor relationships that are not consistent with the goals of the Alliance?
Do the for-profit orgs have the same status as the not-for-profit orgs?
Who will review applications?
How could international organizations become affiliated with the Alliance?

[DRAFT] Principles of Collaboration

Scope: The name of this organization is the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA), also referred to as the Alliance. The mission of the NDSA is to establish, maintain, and promote the capacity to preserve our nation's digital resources for the benefit of citizens today and future generations.

The Library of Congress (LC), as an outgrowth of the December 2000 congressional charge that established the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP), shall support the Alliance through the office of the Secretariat.

Established on July 15, 2010, the Alliance is an organization of government agencies, educational institutions, non-profit organizations, and businesses committed to serving as digital stewards of America's national digital collection and employing standards, systems, and cooperative relationships that advance digital stewardship.

Membership – [pending recommendations from Membership group]: The Alliance shall have one (1) category of membership. The Members may create, by resolution or by amendment of these bylaws, additional categories of membership. Member organizations shall have the right to appoint one representative to vote on topics presented to the entire body of the NDSA.

Coordinating Committee: The Coordinating Committee is dedicated to the advancement of Alliance activities and furthering the communication within the Alliance. The Coordinating Committee works with the Working Groups to articulate a long-term, strategic vision for the Alliance. This committee assists the Alliance Members in evaluating the effectiveness of the working groups. Participants in the Coordinating Committee will act as liaison with each of the Working Groups.

The Coordinating Committee will also be responsible for maintaining eligibility standards for membership in the Alliance.

Coordinating Committee members are elected by the membership and must be part of Alliance Member organizations.

The number of Coordinating Committee members shall be not less than five (5) and no more than twelve (12). Coordinating Committee members are self-nominated, or nominated by another Member representative, and elected by the membership.

Coordinating Committee members shall serve for a term ending on December 31, 2013, or their resignation. Any Member may resign at any time by notification in writing to (a) the Alliance through the office of the Secretariat. Vacancies shall be filled by special election which may take place in person, in conference call, or by internet voting. .

Officers: The Coordinating Committee will not have any officers. The committee will designate an individual to preside at the beginning of each meeting. This responsibility will be rotated among the committee members.

Secretariat: The Secretariat shall (a) act as secretary of all meetings of the Alliance and of such other committees and working groups as the Alliance shall specify, (b) keep the minutes thereof, (c) see that reports and other documents are properly kept and filed, (d) coordinating the planning of annual conventions (with a program committee), and (e) set agendas for Coordinating Committee meetings with the input of that group. All minutes, reports, and other documents of the Alliance will be filed and maintained at the Library of Congress.

The role of Secretariat is fulfilled by staff of the Library of Congress, Office of Strategic Initiatives, National Digital Information and Infrastructure Preservation Program (NDIIPP).

Committees and Working Groups: The Alliance may designate Member representatives to serve on committees and working groups, other than the Steering Committee. Each committee shall have, and may exercise, such powers as authorized by the Alliance. Committee and working group members shall serve for a term ending on December 31, 2013, or their resignation. Any Member may resign from a working group at any time by notification in writing to the co-chairs of the working groups. Vacancies shall be filled by recommendation of Working Group members.

Conventions and Meetings: All meetings of the Alliance, and any committee or working group, may be held in person, or by means of telephone or video conference. The annual Convention of the Alliance shall be held at such time and place as shall be determined by the Secretariat, and designated in a notice in advance of the Convention.

Regular meetings of the Alliance committees and working groups may be held at such time and place as shall be determined by consensus of committee and working group members, in coordination with the Secretariat.

Except as otherwise required, any action by a majority of the voting representatives present at a Convention or meeting shall be deemed the action of the Alliance, committee, or working group. While a Convention or meeting may include guests, such guests shall not vote.

Parliamentary Authority and Amendments: The rules contained in the current edition of Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised shall govern the Alliance in all cases to which they are applicable.

These bylaws may be amended at any Convention of the Alliance by a simple majority vote, provided that the amendment has been submitted in writing to the Alliance members in advance of the Convention.