Hello REFEDS participants!

It's that time of year where the terms of about half of our Steering Committee (SC) members are open to nominations for new members or renewals for existing members. 

As announced at the recent REFEDS meeting, Christoph Graf will be stepping into the SC role opened with Thomas Bärecke's departure. AS Thomas' term ended this year, Christoph's term will cover the 2024-2026 term.

The terms for Pål Axelsson and Maarten Kremers are also up this year. Pål has indicated a willingness to continue to serve on the SC, but Maarten is stepping down. We would love to increase the diversity of the SC, including broader geographic participation, sector experience (e.g., VO, RP, IdP, other), and other demographics. 

If you know someone who would be a good representative on the SC, please submit their name to Nicole Harris or myself by 15 December 2023. 

If you have any questions about the nomination process, qualifications, or responsibilities, please see the REFEDS Participant's Agreement (an excerpt is included below).

Thank you for your engagement and interest!

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From the REFEDS Participant's Agreement:
7. REFEDS Steering Committee
The REFEDS Steering Committee consists of six members, who are appointed for a two-year term of office. When there are vacancies in the REFEDS Steering Committee, the REFEDS Participants nominate candidates to fill these vacancies. Each candidate must be supported by at least one sponsor. These are announced on the general REFEDS mailing list and the REFEDS Secretariat takes into account any comments received before taking the final decision about the appointments.
The REFEDS Steering Committee oversees the execution of the annual workplan and proposes agenda items for the semi-annual general REFEDS meetings. It also provides input to the REFEDS secretariat when the workplan for the next year is drafted. The Steering Committee may produce an evaluation of the work carried out in the past year and its results, which is then sent to the REFEDS Sponsors and published on the REFEDS website together with the annual report.
The REFEDS Steering Committee monitors the execution of the annual workplan; if it is of the opinion that insufficient progress is made in a particular (sub-)work-item, it may decide to freeze the execution of that (sub-)work-item until the next semi-annual general REFEDS meeting, where it then proposes to delete that (sub-)work-item from the workplan. The REFEDS Steering Committee may propose to include a new (sub)work-item in the workplan of the running year. Such a proposal will be submitted for decision taking by ‘rough consensus’ to the next semi-annual general REFEDS meeting, or if that is not possible, to the general REFEDS mailing list. If contributions from REFEDS Sponsors are required, they will also be consulted about the proposal.