How to consult the steering committee

This is the procedure for consulting the steering committee once new procedures have been drafted. If successful, this will change the status of the procedure from “provisional” to “accepted”.

1. Add the line show: yes to the procedure’s Markdown file, if it isn’t already there. It should go at the top, somewhere between the two rows of ---. Commit and push this change.

2. Make sure the new procedure is showing on the website’s “about” page, and that it is tagged as “provisional”.

3. E-mail the steering committee with the following:

   Dear HATCH steering committee,
   
   Please can you read and comment on the newly-drafted procedure, [procedure], available online at [link].
   
   If this looks fine to you, please let me know. If you have any comments on how we could improve this procedure so as not to exclude anyone who may need the support of HATCH, please let me know.
   
   If you have not responded by this time next week, I will assume you have no issues with this procedure.
   
   Thanks,
   
   [name]
   
   P.S. You should invoice HATCH for the time spent reviewing this procedure, rounded up to a whole number of hours. The invoice e-mail address is: invoices@hatch-collective.uk

   Replace “[procedure]” and “[name]” with the name of the new procedure and your own name, respectively. Replace “[link]” with the URL of the procedure.

4. If the committee come back with any issues, do your best to resolve them either by editing the draft, or creating a new draft. Once you think you have resolved these issues, repeat Step 3.

   • Repeat this process until everyone on the steering committee is happy with the procedure.
   • If you’re not sure how best to resolve the issue a committee member has raised, ask them for advice.
   • Note: Just because a committee member was happy with an earlier draft of the procedure, doesn’t necessarily mean they are happy with the current one! You must make sure that the entire steering committee is happy with the most recent version before you can proceed.

5. Once the steering committee has unanimously accepted the procedure, change the status in the file to “adopted”. Commit and push this change.

6. Make sure that the procedure on the website is now tagged as “adopted”.

7. Message the other members of HATCH to let them know the procedure has been adopted.

Alternative procedure

If you have a lot of procedures that need to be approved, you can arrange for a video or audio call with the committee.

• You must give the committee the list of procedures to be discussed at least a week before the video call.
• You must make every reasonable effort to arrange the video call at a time that as many committee members can make as possible.
• If any committee member is unable to make it to the meeting, they can make a written submission stating which procedures they have comments on, or nominate a delegate. The delegate can be another committee member, or a volunteer for HATCH collective.
• If a committee member who cannot make it to the meeting is unwilling to make a written submission or nominate a delegate, then discussion of the procedure at issue must be deferred to a later time. (This might happen if they believe the issues at hand are complex and require an in-depth discussion, though there may be other reasons.)

Consulting the steering committee on a non-procedure matter

You can also consult the steering committee on things other than procedure. This isn’t a hard requirement, but it is probably a good idea for any major decisions regarding how HATCH is run, such as major fundraising efforts or awareness campaigns.