ITC Sub-Committee Action Approval Process

Draft - 3/07/05

An approval process is needed to understand and set the level of approval for actions within the ITC sub-committees (ISC). All actions will be initially raised before the ISC and then the action's level of approval will be determined. The ISC will manage almost all actions; only those actions that have a broad scope will be forwarded on for further approval. The highest level of approval requested by any ISC member will be used to set the approval process for an action. All ISC Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and high-level policies are required to go through the entire process.

All levels of approval determined by the ISC will be posted to a log, which then may be viewed, by ISC and ITC members. At any time the approval level needed for an item can be questioned and may initiate another determination of the approval level by the ISC. The minimum acceptance level of any item would be 2 - ISC unless the idea is abandoned at the draft level. Any modifications to an action made outside of the engineering group or support division will require review by the engineering group creating an engineering group review cycle or feedback mechanism. The levels of acceptance are as follows:

1. Development Draft
2. ISC Response
3. Divisional Response
4. ITC Response
5. Presidents Council Response

All items will be given a collaboration location where ISC members and others may comment. All documentation for the action should be referenced or be included on the page.

1. Development Draft - ISC/engineering group
   A. Documentation developed
   B. Service provider/work resource group review
   C. Generalized presentation developed
   D. This process may take a variable amount of time
2. ISC Response
   A. Presentation given to ISC
   B. Determination of Approval Level needed for item
   C. Post item introduction and Approval Level to ITC by emailing ISC recommendations to the ITC
   D. ISC comments due by Friday before the next ISC meeting (post comments on collaboration site)
   E. This process will take at least one ISC meeting cycle (usually one month)
   F. ISC Response
   G. Record tally of ISC
   H. Revisions made to documentation
   I. Revisions made to presentation
3. Divisional/Groups Response
   A. Email draft to divisions and groups (Use appropriate ISC mailing list)
   B. Comments given to ISC members
   C. Comments due by email one week before the next ISC meeting
   D. Comments addressed before ISC meeting
   E. Elapsed time of one ISC cycle (typically one month) for discussion
   F. Divisional response by emailed director approval (given at ISC meeting or shortly after)
   G. Record tally of divisional responses
   H. Revisions made to documentation
   I. Revisions made to presentation
4. ITC Response
   A. Email draft to ITC
   B. Elapsed time of about two weeks, depends on ITC cycle (could be one month or more)
   C. Comments addressed by email
   D. Email response
   E. Elapsed time could be short or over a month
   F. ITC response
   G. Final revisions made to documentation
   H. Final revisions made to presentation
5. Presidents Council Review
   A. Draft emailed to PC
   B. Potential presentation
   C. Comments addressed by email
   D. Email response by all PC members
   E. Elapsed time could be short or over a month
   F. Record final tally of response
   G. Update all documentation
   H. Documents incorporated into rest of UCAR/NCAR web site

Action Acceptance Requirements
A unanimous or two-thirds acceptance with dissenting vote comments is required before an action is accepted at each level. Voting tallies and comments are made available for review threw the log of committee actions.

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