Working group guidelines

A Staff Association Working Group (SAWG) is intended to allow the Board of Directors to better address issues and to engage more UWSA members. It’s also intended to empower individuals by allowing a great deal of freedom to get an issue addressed. Most working groups must have a firm goal such as to create a whitepaper to bring an issue forward, or to maintain a database of information to be used by the Board.

1. Principle benefits
   1. gives the UWSA Executive more opportunities to bring issues forward and to better address them
   2. gives the UWSA Executive more opportunities to manage people and projects
   3. engages more members
   4. allows us to better engage subject matter experts
   5. can produce results quickly
2. Key elements
   1. The Sponsor
      1. must be a member of the Executive
      2. must bring the issue forward
      3. must secure a Chair
      4. must ensure the project gets off to a good start
      5. must approve the Terms of Reference
      6. must have the Board approve the Terms of Reference
   2. The Chair
      1. must be either a member of the Executive, a general member, or in special circumstances a non-member
      2. must approve and adhere to the Terms of Reference
      3. must secure and have sole discretion over the members of their Group, who should be UWSA members (this is not mandatory)
      4. may use the Nominating Committee to secure members
      5. must report to the Board monthly
   3. The Terms of Reference
      1. should be one page
      2. must include
         1. Working Group name
         2. purpose that includes some history and identifies the players
         3. list of group members
         4. goal
         5. timeline
      3. can be changed with Board approval

Updated: 2016-02-08