An update for circle role holders – October 2020

Language: Español

Hello SoFA Circle Role holders!

You’re receiving this because you’re a circle role holder (secretary, facilitator, leader, delegate) for a SoFA Circle.

If you are a circle secretary, please be sure to read this. If you’re not a circle secretary, and your circle’s secretary is available to read this, then you don’t really have to read all of this unless you’re curious about the changes (or think you might be a circle secretary soon). If the circle secretary isn’t available at this time for some reason, then hopefully another circle role holder can stand in to help out.

If you want the short version, just read the parts of this email in bold. If you want the long version, read the parts in between ?

There are a couple of easy action items at the bottom. I don’t think they will take the secretary more than 15 minutes for each item.

We’re improving how we manage the SoFA Shared Drive and maintain the SoFA Organizational Structure and Policy Manual.

In case you don’t know me, my name’s CJ O’Reilly. I hold a few roles in Support Circle and Information Systems (including IT Training & Support, and IT Systems Administrator), and General Circle recently selected me as the General Circle Log Keeper (which means I oversee our policy and circle structure record keeping) and delgated oversight to Support Circle. To clarify the work adopted the SoFA Google Suite Best Practices. This policy improves our Google Drive’s security, and functionality (some of you may have noticed those unfortunate requests for permissions that go to too many people – this will resolve them!).

There are a couple of changes to how things work you should understand and a couple of requests.

I estimate that most tasks might take about 15 minutes or so to complete, though some are things which we might work on gradually over time, with a goal of getting everything all zipped up by the end of the year. There are clear directions for each of the tasks, and you can always email [email protected] if you need any help with SoFA systems (like the website, google drive, etc.), especially if you’re having technical difficulties.

Doing most of these things would be the domain of the circle’s Secretary by default (but if you need help, be sure to ask).

However, I’m including all role holders in these communications in order to both spread the organizational knowledge in case roles change in the future, and in case a circle’s secretary happens to desire a little support from their other circle role holders, other folks might be able to easily offer such help and have the required permissions and information to do so. ?

What’s happening? (things to understand):

1. We are changing how we share files with the SoFA Shared Drive to improve permissions access and distribute the administrative work.
2. Part of this change means we will create Google Groups for all SoFA Circles. (Some circles may already have groups, and we will be using them in some new ways.)
   1. You should see an invite to your Circle’s Google Group soon if you haven’t already.
   2. You can use these groups for communication if you wish (but you don’t have to).
   3. However, it’s important that all circle members are added (and removed when needed) from these groups to maintain Google Drive access permissions.
3. Rodger Mattlage (Content Circle’s Content Architect) has done a wonderful job of making our Kumu diagram beautiful and easy to navigate. We want to make sure we keep the Kumu diagram up to date.
   1. this is mostly done by the Log Keeper, but some help from you will make the process easier ?
4. Another thing to know (but more for the future) is, there are also clarifications and changes to how circle folders are structured and how files are named. The hope is these changes will make it easier for everyone to find things.
   1. These changes can be made over time. If you would like support with making the, I can help (see the “File Systems & Deep Clean Support” process) ?
   2. Mostly Circles are very much in control of their folders. You can make your own policies on how to store things if needed.
   3. The naming conventions are a bit more specific. You can implement them over time with support from me as needed.
   4. No action is needed around file names at this time, but we’ll work on it in the future.

Things to do now:

(Each of these might take 15 minutes or so. Only one person from each circle needs to do this; usually it would be the secretary.)

1. Add your Circle Members to your circle’s Google Group using these directions. Let me know if you have any trouble.
2. Check your Circle’s Kumu Diagram for accuracy. Click on “general circle” and the ‘crosshairs’ with the ‘remove focus’ tool-tip to view all operational roles and sub circles in the whole organization. Let me know if it’s missing something, if possible, please include in your message a link to the minutes where the decision was made and/or a link to the position description and other information. It will be a bit of work to get it caught up, but once it’s caught up it should be easy enough to maintain. If more information needs to be clarified, perhaps bring it up and your next circle meeting and then let me know afterward by tagging [email protected] in your minutes on the topic by adding a comment and putting @[email protected] in the comment (you can see more about that here or here under “send a comment to a specific person”).

Things to do going forward:

1. Stay tuned for information about managing your circle’s SoFA Shared Drive folder, files names, and other log keeper coordination ?
2. If you have any questions, let me know! [email protected]