Board Charter

Background

Since 2009, Google Workspace for Education has been implemented across all five campuses of the University of Minnesota system. Google introduces new features and enhancements to its portfolio on a quarterly basis. The decision to adopt these updates has historically rested solely with the Service Owner, guided by ad-hoc requests and identified needs within the university community.

Purpose

To enhance the University community's experience with Google Workspace, the UMN Google Advisory Council (GAC) informs the Service Owner about new features and recommends those beneficial for implementation.

To achieve this, the GAC:

  • Evaluates Google Workspace releases and community-submitted use cases.
  • Follows best practices from Google and University Information Security (UIS).
  • Performing the necessary evaluations and testing of new releases and enhancements
  • Communicating approved releases and enhancements

The GAC draws on expertise from staff across teaching and learning, administrative business functions, health sciences, security, and intercollegiate units. Meetings are held every other month 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 Google Workspace 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 (if necessary).
    • Vote on proposed Google Workspace 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?

  1. Proposal: Any Google Advisory Council member may introduce a topic for consideration.

  2. Discussion: The Council evaluates the proposal, discussing potential pros, cons, and specific use cases to determine its value to the institution.

  3. Vote: Decisions are finalized during the meeting through an anonymous Zoom poll.

Meetings and Documentation

  • A quorum of at least 7 members will be needed to meet.
  • Meetings will be held every other month
  • Prepared materials will be sent to the UMNGAC prior to meetings.
  • Meetings will be held remotely 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]