You may or may not know, that the DPC’s Executive Board has four Sub-Committees which oversee and shape our work.
Each Sub-Committee is chaired by a Board Director and brings together around 12 people from right across the DPC membership including a diverse mix of people at all points in their careers and across all the sectors and agencies we represent. They meet quarterly for around two hours, normally by video conference; receiving reports about work we have done in specific areas, and reviewing plans for upcoming or new initiatives, as well as asking for new ideas, thoughts, opinions and actions!
Each one is facilitated by a DPC staffer and we aim to refresh the Sub-Committee membership once a year with some new faces.
The Sub-Committees are:
- Advocacy and Communications, chaired by Prof Jane Winters which receives reports from Sarah Middleton on our ‘Community Engagement’ and ‘Advocacy’ programmes including things like the BitList, Digital Preservation Awards and World Digital Preservation Day (which in fact was initiated by this group).
- Workforce Development, chaired by Susan Corrigall which receives reports from Sharon McMeekin on our training and skills initiatives, makes grants from the Leadership Programme and is the editorial committee for the Digital Preservation Handbook.
- Research and Practice, (formerly chaired by Tracey Clarke, with a new chair to be confirmed) which receives reports from Paul Wheatley on our Capacity Building and Standards initiatives, reviews any major research projects and which acts as editorial board for the Technology Watch Reports
- Management and Governance, chaired by Maureen Pennock which receives reports from Alyson Campbell on all matters to do with finance, staffing and good governance.
We really do want to hear from all our members: no one is too junior, nor is anyone allowed to say, ‘I am not sufficiently an expert in digital preservation’, because the only expertise that really matters is the extent to which you understand the challenges of digital preservation in your own working environment. The only restriction is that we want to optimise the plurality of voices on each Sub-Committee and reduce any conflicts of interest. We’re especially keen to hear from members who have not previously had a turn of the DPC steering wheel before.
Existing members of the Sub-Committees will confirm that each of them is lively and typically generates more ideas and enthusiasm than we have practical resources to achieve: so the Sub-Committees have been incredibly useful in helping us prioritise all the many ideas in the context of the real needs of members.
We also work hard to make sure that members can participate easily by doing as much of the preparation for you and by shifting meeting times to accommodate members in different time zones around the world. There’s an implicit assumption that if you come up with a great idea, we’ll do it! …on the basis that you help us achieve it, that is. And we’d like you to stay for at least 12 months, with a maximum tenure of three years. Those are our only stipulations.
It’s a new year, and with the start of 2019, we’re looking for one or two new recruits from the DPC Membership for each Sub-Committee. So, if you are interested, drop us a line before the end of January. Or, maybe you have a junior member of staff that you think would be good at this sort of thing but hasn’t had an opportunity like this before. Send the message to them if so! If one of the Sub-Committees in particular interests you then let us know: we can’t always guarantee you will get your first choice so it’s even better still if you give us a couple of options.
We tell the world that the DPC is member-owned and member-run. Will you be that member?
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