Guidelines+for+Community+Participation



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1. Community Engagement and Participation
The success of the S&I Framework relies on the participation of a wide range of stakeholders including Health IT vendors, health systems, standards development organizations, and the general public. Any interested party is invited to get involved in S&I Initiatives, and can choose from several options outlined below. 

1.1 Initiative Committed Member
An Initiative Committed Member is an organization or individual who has a particular interest in solving the Challenge Statement and reaching the Initiative Goal and commits to actively achieve the Initiative Deliverables. The nature of the commitment will vary depending on the Initiative Deliverables, but must be meaningful and relevant.

A meaningful commitment will not be fulfilled by merely attending required meetings but instead will require significant contributions outside of meetings; Each Initiative defines the specific activities and deliverables to which Initiative Members should contribute meaningfully. Some examples of meaningful commitment include, but are not limited to:
 * Testing implementation specifications in the real-world
 * Supporting providers in real-world pilot implementations
 * Writing code for production or test implementations
 * Writing and editing implementation specifications and/or other deliverable documentation

The commitment will be documented in a public Statement of Commitment within the timeline of the Call for Participation. The Initiative Coordinator will be responsible for verifying that the Statement of Commitment is meaningful and relevant to the Initiative Deliverables. Should the Initiative Coordinator believe the Statement of Commitment is not meaningful or relevant; the Initiative Coordinator will inform the prospective member of the issue with the Statement of Commitment to provide an opportunity to address the issue. Should the prospective member feel the Statement of Commitment does meet the tests of relevance and meaningfulness; the member will have the right to a single written appeal to the S&I Steering Team. After the Call for Participation timeline, Statements of Commitment from prospective members may only be approved by the S&I Steering Team.

Organizational Initiative Members may assign multiple employees to participate in Initiative workgroups or other activities, but will only have one vote in Consensus decisions. Organizations that provide S&I Staff may not be Initiative Members. When an individual represents an organization, the individual’s vote represents the organization’s vote. Lastly, organizations and individuals should not create “pseudo-organizations” to gain multiple votes in the S&I Consensus Process.

1.2 Invited Experts
Invited Experts are individuals who do not individually meet the requirements of the Initiative Group and whose organization is not an Initiative Committed Member. These Experts are invited by the Initiative Coordinator to participate in discussions but do not have voting rights in the S&I Consensus Process.

1.3 Other Interested Parties
Any interested party is invited to participate in discussions and can provide comments and feedback by joining the Wiki. However, only Committed Members have voting rights in the S&I Consensus Process.

1.4 Good Standing
Participation of Initiative Members in Good Standing is defined as:
 * Attending most meetings of the Initiative
 * Supplying input in most Consensus decisions
 * Providing committed deliverables or drafts of deliverables in a timely fashion.
 * Being familiar with the relevant documents of the Initiative, including minutes of past meetings.
 * Following Initiative discussion on the wiki, mailing lists, or other established fora
 * Complying with the IPR and Conflict of Interest policy

An Initiative Member may be declared Not In Good Standing if:
 * The member has missed more than one of the past three meetings
 * The member has not supplied input in one of the last three Consensus decisions
 * The member has not provided committed deliverables or drafts of deliverables on a timely basis
 * The member has not complied with the IPR and Conflict of Interest policies

The Initiative Coordinator is responsible for fairly and accurately enforcing and interpreting Good Standing. If the Initiative Coordinator deems an Initiative Member to be Not In Good Standing, the Initiative Coordinator will inform the Initiative Member and allow for an opportunity to address the issue. The Initiative Member declared to be Not In Good Standing will have the right to a single written appeal to the S&I Steering Team. The Initiative Coordinator may re-apply Good Standing status to the Initiative Member if the issue triggering Not In Good Standing has been addressed.

1.5 Expulsion
If the Initiative Coordinator deems an Initiative Member's behavior to not be in the best interests of the project (for example, disruptive, obstructionist or otherwise inappropriate), the Initiative Coordinator MAY at their sole discretion expel the Initiative Member from the Initiative.

1.6 Resignation
An Initiative Member MAY resign from a group.

1.7 Initiative Meetings
Initiative meetings SHOULD observe the meeting requirements in this section. An Initiative Coordinator MAY invite an individual with a particular expertise to attend a meeting on an exceptional basis. This person is a meeting guest, not an Initiative Member. Meeting guests do not have voting rights. It is the responsibility of the Initiative Coordinator to ensure that all meeting guests respect the chartered level of confidentiality and other requirements. Meeting guests can be different from Initiative Invited Experts. Meeting guests do not have voting rights in the S&I Consensus Process.

Meeting announcements SHOULD be sent to all appropriate wiki, mailing list or other fora, i.e., those most relevant to the anticipated meeting participants.

The S&I Framework distinguishes two types of meetings:
 * 1) A face-to-face meeting is one where most of the attendees are expected to participate in the same physical location.
 * 2) A distributed meeting is one where most of the attendees are expected to participate from remote locations.

The following table lists requirements for organizing a meeting:
 * || **Face-to-face meetings** || **Distributed meetings** ||
 * **Meeting announcement (before)** || **eight weeks*** || **one week*** ||
 * **Agenda available (before)** || **two weeks** || **24 hours** (or longer if a meeting is scheduled after a weekend or holiday) ||
 * **Participation confirmed (before)** || **three days** || **24 hours** ||
 * **Action items available (after)** || **three days** || **24 hours** ||
 * **Minutes available (after)** || **two weeks** || **48 hour** ||
 * = To allow proper planning (e.g., travel arrangements), the Initiative Coordinator is responsible for giving sufficient advance notice about the date and location of a meeting. Shorter notice for a meeting is allowed provided that there are no objections from group participants.

2. Call for Participation
The Initiative Charter will define a timeline for a Call for Participation. This Call must be provided on the S&I Framework Wiki, blog, mailing list, or other appropriate public forum. The Call MUST:
 * Provide or link to the initiative charter
 * Define the timeline after which Initiative Committed Members will not longer be considered
 * Define the process for supplying Statements of Commitment

Within the timeline for the Call for Participation, prospective Initiative Members may supply Statements of Commitment. Afterward, Statements of Commitment may only be approved by the S&I Steering Team.