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ICG: Membership Benefits and Responsibilities

Last updated: March 2021

Welcome to the Islandora Collaboration Group (ICG). We are a responsive, supportive and engaged community of peers representing a broad range of roles and skills within our organizations including systems and application managers, librarians, metadata specialists, archivists, technologists, and repository managers. ICG offers many opportunities for professional development with activities that help build staff skills and depth in the Islandora platform. For example, we conduct hack/docs, contribute to governance and user groups, give presentations and workshops, and interact with the larger Islandora community.

ICG Mission Statement

The Islandora Collaboration Group (ICG) is an inclusive community of practice committed to helping our members make Islandora a sustainable long-term solution for the preservation and access of a wide array of cultural heritage and scholarly materials.

About the ICG

The Islandora Collaboration Group (ICG), founded in 2012, is an inclusive community of practice committed to helping our members make Islandora a sustainable long-term solution for the preservation and access of a wide array of cultural heritage and scholarly materials. The ICG holds monthly membership meetings which are open to all staff at ICG member institutions. The ICG holds face-to-face and virtual hack/doc meetings at least once a year for code and documentation development, open to all members. Additionally, the ICG has working groups which meet electronically on specific topics. Current working group topics include metadata, project management, needs assessment, functional requirements, and environmental scan matrix. General communication and meeting announcements happen via the icg-information@googlegroups.com mailing list and Slack.

Expectations of ICG Member Institutions

  1. A reasonable and low annual membership contribution (see "Membership Types")

  2. Nominate one or two staff members to be an ICG Member Representative, who will vote on major ICG initiatives and help facilitate communication between their institutions and the ICG

  3. Attendance and participation in the monthly membership meetings (Zoom, every second Monday of the month, 2-3:30pm EST)

  4. Participation in hack/docs (see "Hack/Docs")

  5. Participation in at least one current ICG initiative, the ICG Governance Group, or an ICG working group

  6. Agree to the ICG Code of Conduct (let us know if you would like to suggest changes)

Membership Benefits

  1. A responsive, supportive community of peers with a variety of skills (and willingness to answer questions about individual installations, features, and bugs)

  2. The ability to participate in collaborative group development projects and hack/docs, which helps build staff skills and depth in the Islandora software

  3. An established structure for pooling development resources, allowing us to achieve larger projects than we could individually

  4. Opportunities for professional development through ICG activities, governance, presentations, and interacting with the larger Islandora community

  5. Input into the Islandora Leadership Group and Islandora Coordinating Committee through our membership in the Islandora Foundation

Membership Types

Institutional Memberships

The ICG membership year runs from July 1-June 30, and suggested dues are $600.00 USD. (If joining after January 1, we prorate memberships and are pleased to welcome new institutions throughout the year.) If these membership fees are a barrier to your institution’s participation in the ICG, let us know and we will work out a sliding scale. Membership funds are used to pay membership dues to the Islandora Foundation (IF) at the Partner Level, and may also be used to support ICG projects and hack/docs. This contribution is intended to remain low, may change depending on the number of members at any given time, and is announced by the ICG Governance Group in the fall for the following fiscal year. Membership contributions are currently paid to and managed by Mount Holyoke College. Payment is invoiced and must be made by paper check.

Consortial Memberships

Same as "Institutional memberships" except that a consortium may join the ICG at the single institution rate and would be limited to two ICG Member Representatives.

Partner Memberships

Same as "Institutional memberships", but with the following differences:

  • An example of a partner is an organization or vendor that wishes to work with the ICG on a specific project, share expertise, or retain an ongoing membership.

  • A partner may not vote on ICG initiatives.

  • No sliding scale offered.

  • At the discretion of the ICG Governance Group, the partner may be allowed to contribute an equivalent number of expert hours towards an ICG specified task in lieu of dues.

The current members of the ICG are listed on Github.

ICG Member Representatives and ICG Governance Group

Each ICG member institution is required to nominate one or two staff members to be an ICG Member Representative. Member Reps attend the monthly membership meeting, vote on major ICG initiatives, help facilitate communication between their institutions and the ICG, and are required to participate in at least one current ICG initiative, the ICG Governance Group, or an ICG working group during their term.

The ICG is governed by the ICG Governance Group, with input from the ICG Member Representatives. Current Governance roles include:

  • Co-chairs: Francesca Baird (Wesleyan) and Natalie Shilstut (Bryn Mawr)

  • Hack/Doc Coordinator: Martha Tenney (Barnard)

  • Islandora Technical Advisory Group (TAG) Member: Joanna DiPasquale (Union)

  • Islandora Foundation Coordinating Committee Member: Amy Blau (Whitman)

  • Islandora Leadership Group Representative: David Keiser-Clark (Williams)

  • Membership Coordinators: Jenifer Monger (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) and Brianna Gormley (Franklin & Marshall)

  • Member-at-Large: Nicole Scalessa (Vassar)

  • Metadata Working Group Coordinator: Lisa McFall (Hamilton)

  • Project Management Working Group Coordinator: Nicole Scalessa (Vassar)

  • Treasurer: Sarah Goldstein (University of Connecticut)

The current governance term ends June 30, 2021. The ICG Governance Group will make a call for elections and volunteers in the spring of 2021 for the new term starting July 1. Expanding participation in ICG governance overall is important to our success. We welcome new members to be a part of the governance team! See our current roster of governance positions and contact info here.

Monthly Meetings

  • ICG Membership meetings (Zoom): Participation of at least one ICG Member Representative from each institution is expected for our monthly meetings. These meetings are also open to any staff member from an ICG member institution. Agendas for these meetings are shared in advance and generally focus on a specific topic of interest. Examples of topics at recent meetings include: digital preservation strategies; collecting in 2020: C19, BLM, privacy restrictions, and content warnings; migration to I8; and a demo and discussion of Archipelago.

  • ICG Governance Group (Zoom): The Governance Group holds separate monthly meetings to coordinate, steer, and keep a high-level view of the operations and initiatives/activities of the ICG. These meetings are also open (but optional) for ICG Member Representatives.

  • ICG Working Groups (Zoom): Working Groups also have recurring virtual meetings, usually on a monthly or bi-monthly basis. See the "ICG Opportunities and Projects" section for more information.

Voting

Major ICG decisions are usually reached by consensus through discussion, followed by a vote by the ICG Member Representatives. In 2016 the ICG decided to use the Apache Voting Method. Members respond with: +1, 0, -1 (fractions are okay) and if a vote is other than a +1, we expect the member to add a brief note of explanation. The ICG uses the "procedural" voting format by default for routine business. (We also support using the "code modification" voting method when appropriate and explicitly stated at vote outset.) Voting is faciliated by the ICG Governance Group, and ICG Member Representatives are asked to record their vote in a shared Google document. Voting is typically done after a period of discussion during the monthly meeting and/or via email. Typically, we allow 5 business days from start to finish. We will make every effort to allow and record every institution’s vote; however, as long as more than half of the ICG institutions have voted, we will consider that quorum.

Generally speaking, the ICG’s approach to governance is informal and cordial, and in the spirit of finding ways to leverage collaborative initiatives, alignment, and activities that will benefit member institutions in managing Islandora repositories. For example, the ICG pools our funds to pay for membership to the Islandora Foundation to provide our institutions with a voice in the development of Islandora. The ICG recognizes that changes, especially increases in membership, may require corresponding changes in governance.

Time Expectations

Most ICG Member Representatives contribute anywhere from 1.5 hours per month to several hours per week depending on need, activities, and responsibilities to projects or working groups.

Hack/Docs

A hack/doc is a special type of open hackathon in which members meet face to face (or virtually), share skills, and contribute code and documentation development simultaneously. We have created a model for these events in which we seek to make it easier to allow new members to ICG (or those unfamiliar with Islandora) to learn together and contribute to our codebase. Member institutions rotate in the responsibility for planning and hosting hack/doc events, assisted by the Hack/Doc Coordinator.

Communication

Email Lists:

Slack: used for general communication across the ICG as well as for communication related to specific topics, working groups, and events

Google Drive: used for meeting minutes and other shared internal documentation

The ICG Membership Coordinators are responsible for enabling (and disabling when members rotate off or leave the ICG) privileged permission for ICG Member Representatives to access our ICG Google Drive, calendar invites, Github, and Slack.

ICG Member Representatives from each institution act as managers of the general ICG Google Group mailing list and are encouraged to add any colleagues from their institution to help connect them with other ICG members and ICG initiatives.

ICG Opportunities and Projects

Working Groups As a member of the ICG, there are many opportunities and projects to participate in! Besides volunteering in our governance structure, we welcome your involvement in our projects and working groups. We maintain this spreadsheet with current working groups.

ISLE (Islandora Enterprise)

The ISLE project was created and shepherded by our ICG. It has been successfully handed off to the Islandora Foundation where it is now being supported by the larger Islandora community.

LASIR (Liberal Arts Sprint for Institutional Repository)

Like ISLE, the LASIR project was created and shepherded by our ICG. We're hopeful that our work will be picked up by the larger community and refactored into the current release of Islandora.

Hack/Doc Events

A hack/doc brings together ICG members to collectively improve our Islandora environments. This allows for both technical and non-technical folks to contribute to a software development process, and emphasizes a friendly and welcoming experience for everyone. Stay tuned for information about our next event. If you would like to get involved, contact Martha Tenney, our current hack/doc coordinator.

Participating in the Broader Islandora Community

The ICG supports and contributes to the larger Islandora Foundation (IF) and community in many capacities. ICG members participate in interest groups (IG) and advisory groups, sit on the Islandora Leadership Group, and have contributed to release testing. As we begin to plan for migration to Islandora 8, it’s especially important to join in on community conversations. Some specific areas and groups are listed below; ICG members are strongly encouraged to add their voices, especially from content experts like librarians, archivists, and metadata specialists.

ICG Participation within Islandora Community

  1. Islandora 8:

  2. Islandora Interest Groups

  3. Islandora Technical Advisory Group: [Joanna DiPasquale]

  4. Islandora Coordinating Committee: [Amy Blau]

  5. Islandora Leadership Group: [David Keiser-Clark]