The Carpentries Task Force Guidelines

These guidelines provide the recommended process for establishing a task force to ensure transparency, accountability, and sustainability of task forces’ activities.

Task Force Proposal

A task force proposal should:

• explain the need for or the context of the task force

• list the aims and objectives of the task force

• set a timeline for starting and completing the task force’s activities/deliverables.

Task force proposals can be submitted by creating an issue in the task forces repository in The Carpentries GitHub or by emailing the proposal to the Core Team.

Task Force Formation

Task force proposals do not require formal approval, though the Core Team should be informed of task force formation. Active task forces are listed in The Carpentries task forces repository with a link to its public documentation.

Task Force Operations

The following are recommended guidelines for committees. Each committee should:

• Create the official task force charter, including the task force’s roles and responsibilities

• Appoint the task force chair and, optionally, a co-chair

• Request a Core Team member liaison to serve as a point of contact and (optionally) attend the task force meetings

• Create a public space for the task force, including:

  • The task force’s charter and its current status (e.g., active, completed)

  • Contact information for the task force

  • Other public materials (if available)

  • Information on when the task force meetings are held

  • Meeting notes (if appropriate)

  • Name of the Core Team liaison

  • Information on how to apply to join the task force

• Create internal documentation for operational procedures (which may also be made public), including:

  • Process for recruiting and/or selecting new members

  • Decision-making process

• Maintain internal and public-facing communication:

  • Organise regular meetings to progress with the task force’s activities and post meeting notes in a consistent location (meeting notes should be public unless the work of the task force requires them to remain private)

  • Post meetings in the community calendar (note that meetings do not necessarily need to be open to the public to attend even though they are added to the calendar)

  • Utilise other Carpentries community communication pathways to engage with the community as needed

The task force’s public documentation should be stored in a folder within the task-forces repository in The Carpentries GitHub.

Task Force Termination

A task force will naturally cease to function upon fulfilling its goals, in which case the Core Team should be notified.

Past & Current Task Forces

• CarpentryCon Task Force - a recurring task force that gets periodically reformed to organise the international CarpentryCon conference on behalf of The Carpentries.

• Other past and current task forces can be found in The Carpentries Task Force Repository.

Update Log

• 2024-01-25: Renamed Task Force Policy to Task Force Guidelines, including recommendations and removing requirements for task forces.

• Approved on 2022-12-02 by the Executive Council.

• Approved on 2020-09-23 by the Executive Council.