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2025 07 04

Attendees: Eleanor Broadway, Stephen Longshaw, Mai Hoang, Damian Jones, Marion Weinzierl

Agenda

  • Review the Terms of Reference:
    • Agree purpose and scope
    • Agree Chair and Member terms, roles and responsibilities
    • Choose a regular meeting slot
    • Define quorum
    • Agree communication and dissemination of outcomes
  • Agree a process for appointing first chair(s)
  • Discussion about inviting other members and/or communities

Actions

Arising:

  • ACTION: (Eleanor) Update the Terms of Reference to reflect discussions and decisions made.
  • ACTION: (Eleanor) Send regular meeting invite
  • ACTION: (Eleanor) Create a landing page on the CAKE website
  • ACTION: (Eleanor) Create a GitHub repo in the CAKE GitHub organisation
  • ACTION: (Eleanor) Create a mailing list for working group members
  • ACTION: (Eleanor) Create a spreadsheet for nominations to join the working group

Ongoing:

Completed:

Minutes

Review of the Terms of Reference

  • The Working Group (WG) aims to produce practical outputs, actively creating material for dissemination to the community.
  • Proposal: Two co-Chairs to:
    • Share group management and organisation.
    • Rotate chairing monthly meetings.
  • Chair Term:
    • Add a minimum term for continuity.
    • A standard maximum length is three years
    • The maximum term should include a defined overlap with the next Chair.
    • Include a process for removal of the Chair, which is currently missing.

Meeting Arrangements Decisions

  • Regular meeting: 1st Friday of each month at 10am
  • Quorum: 50%. In case of no consensus, the Chair(s) make the final decision.

Communication & Dissemination of Outcomes

  • Landing page on the CAKE/CoSeC website.
  • Public repositoty within the CAKE organisation to store:
  • Meeting minutes
  • Terms of Reference
  • Best practices
  • Community-submitted help requests or discussion topics

Chair Appointment Process

  • Eleanor has been acting in this role to set-up the Terms of Reference and initial meetings.
  • The Terms of Reference state:

    “The CAKE-CoSeC EDI Working Group will elect a new Chair(s) through a nomination and anonymous voting process. Details of the process, including timelines and voting method, will be shared with all group members in advance of the election.”

  • Discussion:
    • Many working groups start small, so it is reasonable to bypass the formal election process and informally elect a chair.
    • Could optionally invite a Chair from CoSeC
    • Alternatively, could start the group then offer the opportunity to all. Follows a more inclusive practice, uses the ToRs and helps to ensure that people with genuine interest and drive will nominate themselves as Chair.
  • Decision: Eleanor will continue to act in the Chair role for the first couple of meetings. Once we have introduced more members into the group, she will initiate an election process for the two Chair roles.

Working Group Size Discussion

  • CoSeC represents 25 different research communities, one representative from each would already consist of a large group of people.
  • We need to decide on the vision of what size and composition this group might look like: (A) A small maximum group of members (10 - 15) who are more agile as a singular group. (B) A large group which is inclusive and open to recruiting people who are keen. - Most likely require sub-working groups to be effective.
  • Predicting there to be two types of engagement with the working group
    1. General interest in improving EDI
    2. Specific motivation relevant to their community (i.e. recruitment)
  • Option b) suits both of these groups, where those who are generally interested can lead initiatives and bring the wider goals of the EDI group to sub-working groups for specific focuses.
  • We want to create materials and disseminate practical advice, dividing this work amongst a large group of people will help to achieve more.
  • Idea to organise future hackathons to create materials and best practice guidance.
  • Decision: Do not restrict the group to a specific number. Allow for it to grow naturally with sub-groups spinning out of the main group.

Member Invitation Process

  • Create suggestion list including:
  • Name
  • Community they represent
  • Why they have been recommended
  • Likelihood of joining
  • Refine list before sending initial invitations.

Date of Next Meeting (DONM): 25/07/2025, 10am, Teams