Board Charter

General Page Body

Background

Google Workspace for Education has been used across five campuses since 2009 at the University of Minnesota. Google releases new product features and enhancements in their portfolio on a quarterly basis, and the decision to advance these features has solely been left to the Service Owner based on ad-hoc requests from the university community.  Over time, these requests often arise as a result of ad-hoc community needs or enhancements discovered.   

Purpose

It is the charge of the UMN Google Advisory Council (GAC) to inform and advance new Google Workspace features to the Service Owner by recommending which features should be made available to the University community. Ultimately, this will enhance the overall user experience of Google Workspace.

The GAC accomplishes this:

  • by carefully evaluating and reviewing Google Workspace releases and use cases submitted by the University community
  • by adhering to best practices recommended by Google and University Information Security (UIS)
  • by performing the necessary evaluations and testing of new releases and enhancements of Google Workspace
  • by actively communicating approved releases and enhancements

The GAC relies on the expertise of a systemwide staff that spans academics, business, health sciences, security, as well as intercollegiate units.  GAC meetings are held bi-weekly (or as needed).

Roles and Responsibilities

Working Group Chair/Co-Chair

  • Set the agenda for meetings.
  • Gather and distribute any needed information prior to meetings.
  • Facilitate meetings and steering the group to timely decisions.
  • Organize any needed subject matter expert or vendor presentations or discussions to familiarize members with features.
  • Document discussions, recommendations, and decisions related to each G Suite feature/enhancement.

Working Group Members

  • Attend monthly GAC meetings.
  • Review notes, agendas, and supporting documentation between meetings.
  • Use the established criteria to assess and review features and enhancements for discussion. 
    • Research and document best practices.
    • Research and document accessibility issues and solutions.
    • Perform evaluation and testing of feature/enhancement.
    • Vote on proposed G Suite feature/enhancement to be enabled or disabled.
  • Approach all meetings, topics, and decisions with the good of the University system in mind.
  • Represent the needs of their respective areas and stakeholders while keeping the University system in mind (wear your University hat)
  • Google Workspace topics for discussion may be under a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), so members will be asked to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement by Google and to keep the information discussed confidential.

How Are Decisions Made?

  • Decisions and recommendations will be reached by the five finger voting method.
    • Five fingers:       Absolutely, no brainer. I’ll champion it.
    • Four fingers:       I like this idea, sounds good.
    • Three fingers:     I will support the idea.
    • Two fingers:        I have some concerns, but I’ll go along and try it.
    • One finger:         Serious reservations but vote to move forward
    • No fingers (fist):  No way, terrible choice, I will not go along with it.

Meetings and Documentation

  • A quorum of at least 7 members will be needed to meet. 
  • Meetings will be held bi-weekly for some time until a regular cadence of monthly meetings can be established
  • Prepared materials will be sent to the UMNGAC prior to meetings.
  • Meetings will have a physical location with remote access via Zoom or Google Meet.
  • A Google shared drive will be used for all working documents.
  • Communication to the GAC will be via Google group at [email protected]
  • Rolling meeting notes will be posted in the meeting Google calendar.