Documentation

Write it down and share it.

Information is power. When you write down information and share it your are sharing that power. When you document and share details of decisions, plans, results and other aspects of organization activities you are creating transparency for collective oversight and understanding for cooperation. Common important documents include:

Organization's mission, goals and objectives.
By-laws and policies.
A map of the activities and responsibilities within normal operations.
Project plans and progress information.
Contracts for persons with special responsibilities.
Employee manuals.
Committee terms of references.
Contacts: internal and external.
Budgets.
History and contextual information.
Frequently asked questions.
Minutes from meetings.

Documents are useful for referencing between collaborating parties and for informing people taking on new responsibilities. Without shared documentation people are always dependent on asking someone, creating hierarchy, delays and potential misunderstandings. Keep your documentation up-to-date and ensure everyone who wants or needs certain documents gets a copy. Empower the librarian types in your organization who have a passion for organizing, filing and labelling. Have a decent photocopier and give away binders for people to keep their documents in. Ideally keep copies of documents on-line linked from your organizations web site.

Recommended Resources: Google Docs, Exploring the World of Wikis

Write with clarity, brevity and structure.

Documentation is only useful if people read it and can find the information they need. Eight pages of dense paragraphs describing discussion from a meeting is generally not helpful. A point form list of facts, decisions, actions items and pending questions is useful. Three years of chronological policy decisions is frustrating to search. A collection of active policy decisions organized by theme and/or relevancy to roles in the organization is easy and sensible to browse. Digital documents are most easily searched on the web.

Recommended Resources: Plain Language guide

Committee Terms of Reference Template

It is a good idea that each committee of an organization (AKA team, working group or sub-group) be clearly defined in writing. This promotes understanding of who is in the group, what they aim to achieve, and how they intend to go about doing it. Below is a detailed template of what such a committee charter or definition sheet might include. Of course your group should customize this format to best match your group's unique needs and tendencies.

Also See Standard Committee Terms of Reference - Advice from the United Way of Canada

Committee Terms of Reference

Name:

(Official name of the committee or working group)

Members:

Name, Contact Information - Roles / Responsibilities (e.g. chair, secretary, treasurer, report to the board)

Goals:

(primary)
(secondary)

Deliverables

(Specific outputs required/requested from the committee.)

Scope / Jurisdiction

(What are the bounds of responsibility and authority of the this sub-group? What do they need to address and what is outside their area of concern? What can they decide on and what needs group/board input?)

Guidance from the Board / Lead Group

(Initial direction and suggestions from the board and/or larger group.)

Resources and Budget

(E.g. equipment, materials, rooms, funds available to the committee.)

Governance

(Decision-making technique, e.g. consensus, 2/3 majority vote or chair's authority, etc. Relationships of authority within the group and with the greater organization.)

Additional Notes

Relationships to other committee.
How communications outside of meetings will be conducted, e.g. phone or email.
Where shared information, such as plans and contact information, will be stored.
Related policies / by-laws.
How reporting back to the organization will be conducted.
History of the committee.
Schedule or meetings and/or other important timelines.
Information about specific committee projects.

- - - -

Does your committee struggle with prioritizing issues and ideas? Do you find it challenging to reach agreement among a large number of meeting participants? Try using Dotmocracy Sheets, another free resource by Jason Diceman.

Dotmocracy is a simple, transparent, equal opportunity, and participatory large group decision-making tool.

>> Download the free Dotmocracy Handbook

Project Charter Templates

Project charters define how a team will collaborate to achieve its goals. Below are a few examples of headings in typical project charters.

Project Charter Elements - from USDA template

Purpose of the charter
Project objective
Summary Scope Statement
Project Authority
Project Manager
Roles and Responsibilities
Project Constraints
Project Assumptions
Preliminary Schedule and Cost Estimates

Project Charter Elements - from Business Justification template
Section 1. Project Overview

1.1 Problem Statement
1.2 Project Description
1.3 Project Goals and Objectives
1.4 Project Scope
1.5 Critical Success Factors
1.6 Assumptions
1.7 Constraints

Section 2. Project Authority and Milestones

2.1 Funding Authority
2.2 Project Oversight Authority
2.3 Major Project Milestones

Section 3. Project Organization

3.1 Project Structure
3.2 Roles and Responsibilities
3.3 Responsibility Matrix
3.4 Project Facilities and Resources

Section 4. Points of Contact
Section 5. Glossary
Section 6. Revision History
Section 7. Appendices

Project Charter Elements - from Key Consulting template

Mission
Objectives
Deliverables
Stakeholders
Roles and Responsibilities
High-Level Work Breakdown Structure
Assumptions
Communications
Risks
Documentation
Boundaries
Decision Making Process
Signatures

Project Charter Elements - from Microsoft template
1 PROJECT CHARTER PURPOSE
2 PROJECT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
3 PROJECT OVERVIEW
4 PROJECT SCOPE
4.1 Goals and Objectives
4.2 Departmental Statements of Work (SOW)
4.3 Organizational Impacts
4.4 Project Deliverables
4.5 Deliverables Out of Scope
4.6 Project Estimated Costs & Duration
5 PROJECT CONDITIONS
5.1 Project Assumptions
5.2 Project Issues
5.3 Project Risks
5.4 Project Constraints
6 PROJECT STRUCTURE APPROACH
7 PROJECT TEAM ORGANIZATION PLANS
8 PROJECT REFERENCES
9 APPROVALS
10 APPENDICES
10.1 Document Guidelines
10.2 Project Charter Document Sections Omitted

A quick template to follow for drafting a project plan in one meeting (from anecdote.com.au)

Project Name
Team Members - Name, contacts and roles if applicable.
Purpose - Why should we do this project?
Outcome - What would a good outcome look like?
Brainstorming - Get your ideas out.
Organize - How will the project get done? What are the components, sequences and priorities?
Next Steps - What are the immediate next actions and who will do them?

- - - -

Does your group struggle with prioritizing issues and ideas? Do you find it challenging to reach agreement among a large number of meeting participants? Try using Dotmocracy Sheets, another free resource by Jason Diceman.

Dotmocracy is a simple, transparent, equal opportunity, and participatory large group decision-making tool.

>> Download the free Dotmocracy Handbook

Committee Report Template

Committee's are often required to report their progress to the board and/or to the larger group. While such a report may be presented orally at meetings, it is often recommended, if not required, to also publish a report in print format. Below is a suggested format for such a committee report.

The number of items and depth of detail depends on the nature of the committee and the issues being addressed. In general, it is a good idea to keep points of information short for easy review, with additional information available through a committee contact.

Committee: (committee name)

Liaison to the Board: (board member name)

Date of last meeting: (day month year)

Date of next meeting: (day month year)

Action Items Completed:

(item)
(item)
(item)

Action Items In-progress/Pending:

(item)
(item)
(item)

Announcements:

(item)
(item)
(item)

Questions for the board/larger group:

(item)
(item)
(item)

Other Notes:

(item)
(item)
(item)

-- END OF REPORT--

- - - -

Does your committee struggle with prioritizing issues and ideas? Do
you find it challenging to reach agreement among a large number of
meeting participants? Try using Dotmocracy Sheets, another free resource by Jason Diceman.

Dotmocracy is a simple, transparent, equal opportunity, and
participatory large group decision-making tool.

>> Download the free Dotmocracy Handbook

Action Implementation Plan - a two page template

For BikeCamp TO I created a simple one page (two-sided) form to help small groups to document a plan to get something done.

Sections included in the form are:

Name for the plan
Desired results to be achieved and strategies to be used
Key strengths, challenges, opportunities and threats (aka a SWOT analysis)
Contact information for team members
Timeline of important tasks and major milestones

This simple template can help focus ad-hoc teams and give concrete outcomes to open space conferences. I hope you find it useful!

Download the Action Implementation Plan form (PDF)

- - - -

Dotmocracy is a simple, transparent, equal opportunity, and participatory large group decision-making tool.

>> Download the free Dotmocracy Handbook