UWSA working groups

A working group is intended to allow the UWSA 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 UWSA.

Operations working group guidelines

Principle benefits

Working groups:

  • provide opportunities to bring issues forward and to better address them

  • provide opportunities to manage people and projects

  • engage more members

  • allow us to better engage subject matter experts

  • can produce results quickly

Key elements

The sponsor

  1. must be a member of the Operations Team

  2. must bring the issue forward

  3. must approve the Terms of Reference

  4. must have the Operations Team approve the Terms of Reference

  5. must ensure the project gets off to a good start

The Operations Team

  1. must approve the creation of the Working Group and Terms of Reference before members are selected

  2. issues a call for members to apply to be the chair or a member of the WG through the Appointments Committee

  3. is ultimately responsible for the work of the WG

  4. must receive and respond to any reports or other outputs resulting from the Group

  5. is responsible for disseminating any results to UWSA Members and/or the university community

  6. must approve any plans to communicate or consult with members

The chair

  1. must be a UWSA member, except in special circumstances

  2. must approve and adhere to the Terms of Reference

  3. must report to the Operations Team monthly

The Terms of Reference

  1. should be one page

  2. must include:

    1. working group name

    2. purpose and rationale that includes some history and identifies the players

    3. seats required (e.g. two members of the Operations Team and three members at large)

    4. goal, including any expected outputs

    5. timeline

  3. can be changed with approval from the Operations Team

Updated January 2024.