NENA Development Group Guide

Introduction
This document provides guidelines to NENA working group chairs to help them lead their groups in fulfilling the charter that was developed when the group was formed. Our volunteer working group chairs assume considerable responsibilities when they agree to lead a working group. The information presented here is intended to help guide them through the tasks that are often appear to be more complicated than necessary but are required to satisfy the requirements of a Standards Development Organization (SDO) seeking standards accredited by ANSI (American National Standards Institute). ANSI has approved the organizational structure and processes described in NENA ADM-001 NENA Development Group Organizational Structure and NENA ADM-002 Document Development and Approval Process. Since our working groups play a critical role in document development and approval, it is important that they conform to those provisions when developing documents, and that the processes can be verified. Only then can NENA standards qualify to be classified as ANSI-accredited.

Roles and Responsibilities of Working Group Chairs
The roles and responsibilities of Subcommittee and Working Group Chairs are described in NENA-ADM-001 NENA Development Group Organizational Structure, Section 7.3:

Subcommittee and Working Group Chairs/Co-Chairs preside over their Subcommittee/Working Group, and shall coordinate their team efforts to include:
 * Ensuring that procedures are followed and meetings are conducted in a fair and efficient manner.
 * Understanding and following the NENA Document Development and Approval process document (NENA-ADM-002).
 * Utilizing the conference bridge, web and other resources as provided, to collaborate with team members in the development of documents and resolution of Issues assigned by the Development Committee Chair.
 * Upon direction from the Development Committee Co-Chairs, review NENA documents to ensure they are still applicable, in accordance with the Document Development and Approval Process document (NENA-ADM-002).
 * Directing any conflicts/problems to the Development Committee Co-Chairs for resolution.
 * Fulfilling the minimum requirements and direction for any task that could result in an Information, Requirement or Standard Document as established by the Development Committee Co-Chairs.
 * Providing periodic updates to their Development Committee Co-Chairs and, if necessary, discuss the activities of their Subcommittee/WG in conference calls with their Development Committee leads, or with the DSC.
 * Participating in all Development Committee leadership calls and activities, and participating in DSC calls when necessary.
 * Working closely with other standards-setting bodies and related organizations as required.
 * Responding to questions from the DSC.
 * Providing leadership for and assisting in establishing the NENA Development Conference (NDC), Critical Issues Forums (CIFs), and in developing educational sessions and recruiting speakers for the NENA Annual Conference.
 * Submitting Subcommittee/Working Group Scopes & Goals status reports on a quarterly basis (NENA-ADM-006).
 * Upon direction from the Development Committee Co-Chairs, provide answers to questions received on nena.org in support of FAQ feature.

How Working Group Chairs are Selected
Working Group chairs are selected by Development Committee co-chairs after an Issue is assigned to the committee. Thereafter, the working group chair position is reviewed by the Development Committee co-chairs annually.

NENA members who are interested in serving in a leadership position are encouraged to submit NENA Development Group Committee Leadership Application (NENA-ADM-009).

How to Manage a Working Group
NENA processes and procedures that govern working group functions are described in NENA-ADM-002. In this section, we’ll describe the details of the working group processes and how they are accomplished using the various NENA resources and tools. Following these guidelines will help working group chairs manage their groups fairly and efficiently.

The NENA Development Group has established a collaboration web site called NENA Workspace. The NENA Workspace Member Guide contains information for all members about using the resources of the NENA Workspace. Working group chairs have additional capabilities for managing their working groups.

Managing NENA Workspace Rosters
NENA Workspace working group rosters control all aspects of a working group member's participation including:


 * Voting
 * Participation in email discussions
 * Access to the document library

Managing these rosters is an important responsibility of working group chairs. The management and control of working group rosters is shared between the Committee Resource Manager (CRM), Committee Co-Chairs, and Working Group Chairs. The table below shows the who can do what in a member's working group roster.

How to Add Member in NENA Workspace to Working Group
In many cases, members are added to working groups and their parent committee by the Committee Resource Manager when the member is added to NENA Workspace. Members who are already in NENA Workspace can be added to the working group by the working group chair.

Here are the steps to add a member already in NENA Workspace to your working group.


 * 1) Log on to NENA Workspace (http://dev.nena.org).
 * 2) Select your working group.
 * 3) In the Roster section, click on add member.
 * 4) In the New Member section, select the member's name.
 * 5) In the New Member Role section, choose WG Member.
 * 6) Choose a method to notify the member.  If you want NENA Workspace to send a notification email to the member, select Yes, send an email now.  If you want to send an email similar to the Welcome Letter for New Members, select No, I will do that later.
 * 7) Click Add New Member

Issue Processing Steps
This diagram is a summary of the steps for processing an Issue according to NENA-ADM-002. See that document for the details of these steps.



== Forming the Working Group