Merge pull request #461 from pllim/strategic-planning-kickoff

Planning the Strategic Planning Committee

Author: ceb8

policies/strategic_planning_committee_draft.md

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+Are you interested to join Astropy Strategic Planning Committee?
+Here is what to expect.
+
+## Initial membership / Beta test year
+
+* Coordination Commitee will solicit interest from the community.
+* From the interested parties, Coordination Commitee will pick 5 people to form the first committee.
+  One of the committee members must serve as liaison to Coordination Commitee.
+  One of the committee members must serve as liaison to Finance Committee.
+* The first year of the first committee will be the "beta test year."
+
+During the beta test year, this committee should sort out its governance,
+including but not limited to:
+
+* Are 5 people a good number for the committee? If not, what number is?
+* How does committee pick its liaisons?
+* Does the committee need a chairperson? This person does not have to be
+  one of the liaisons.
+* Determine if no term limit and not an elected position, will this committee
+  be hoarded by a few people and no opportunity for fresh prespective?
+* Determine resolution for if some committee members become inactive but refuse
+  to step down or just MIA?
+* Determine a process to pick new members for this committee going forward
+  (with the above two points in mind).
+
+As with other committees (e.g., Finance Committee) except the Coordination Committee,
+the governance of this committee does not need to go into APE 0.
+
+If this committee is unable to reach a consensus, as with other matters in the Project,
+the committee may request Coordination Commitee to step in.
+
+## Time commitment
+
+* Meet at least monthly. Each meeting could be 30-60 minutes long.
+  Notes should be publicly available.
+* Must be willing to attend the annual Astropy Coordination Meeting, either
+  in-person or remotely. This is about a week. Or if you join remotely just
+  for certain sessions, then a few days.
+* Outside of meetings, must be willing to invest time in actually accomplishing
+  duties laid out below. Time estimate is tough here because it depends on
+  workload at a given time, and how that load is divided among committee members.
+  Maybe no more than a few days a month?
+* Some of the duties might involve even more meetings (e.g., reaching out to
+  specific communities). Time estimate is quite impossible to predict at this point.
+  No more than 1-2 weeks a year?
+
+## Expectations
+
+You have to be willing to perform duties as laid out in https://www.astropy.org/team#strategic_planner,
+i.e., do long-term planning for the Astropy Project as a whole, including:
+
+* Shape and provide a vision for next major steps in the Project, in consultation with the whole Astropy community.
+* Maintain an overview of all the project activities (both from developer and user perspectives).
+* Provide points of contact for external stakeholders on the above (with the Coordination Committee).
+* Monitor project activities to see how well aligned they are with the roadmap and strategic goals of the project, and report back to the community and Coordination Committee.
+* Coordinate writing grant proposals (in collaboration with the Finance Committee, Coordination Committee, and community).
+* Maintain the Astropy Project Roadmap.
+* Engage with, and collect input from, the whole Astropy Community on project vision and priorities.
+
+Deliverables based on Team page duties:
+
+* Progress reports, as needed. At the very least, annually during Astropy Coordination Meeting.
+* Grant proposals, as needed. At most once every few years?
+* Roadmap in https://github.com/astropy/astropy-project/tree/main/roadmap.
+* Project boards?
+* Documentation, communication, or assets necessary to accomplish duties above.
+
+Additional ongoing deliverables proposed by Coordination Commitee:
+
+* A plan for more support/involvement with radio? Telescopes include but not limited to
+  SKA, SKA pathfinders like ASKAP and LOFAR, ALMA, and a whole panoply of other projects
+  of various sizes (CHIME, DSA-2000, etc.). Organizations include but not limited to
+  NRAO, ESO, and NAOJ.
+* A plan for more administrative support, e.g, maintain email lists.
+* A plan for any additional initiatives the committee feels is important for Astropy's future.