Dear Working Group members,

 

The Co-Chairs would like to add an item to the agenda for the call later today. As discussed on our 13 February Working Group call, the WG leadership team has been considering the best way to manage the WG’s process for reviewing and revising draft recommendations to include in the draft Final Report. The WG has now discussed a number of draft report sections on calls, and would like to propose the following next steps:

 

• We are currently using the following Working Document to support initial review and discussion of draft recommendations: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kUlmZH8nxWTgfcRluA5FxLheMm4XhhOwkRt7om52aQU/edit#. This will continue to be the document where you will find newly drafted recommendations that have not yet been discussed on a call. You are encouraged before each call to review the sections on the upcoming agenda and insert comments into the document and/or raise questions/concerns on the mailing list. Staff will continue to note preliminary suggested edits in the Working Document during the call as items are discussed.
• Once a section has been discussed on a call (or multiple calls), the leadership team will work on revisions in redline in the Working Document.
• When a set of revised sections are ready for review by the WG, the leadership team will add a “clean” version of those sections to a new document, what we are tentatively calling the “Production” document, which will be read-only. These sections will be released in logical clusters, for example all sections related to Pre-Launch Activities. The leadership team will send an email to the group with date by which any comments on those sections should be provided. A redline of the revisions will be available in the Working Document for reference, but once the revision is sent out, members should not add new comments or suggestions in the Working Document. Instead, they should follow the process below.
• The Working Group will use the method used successfully by the EPDP Team in the finalization of their Initial Report. Specifically, WG members will be asked to limit comments to items in the revised section that they absolutely “cannot live with.” If there is text that they cannot accept, they will fill out a form like the one attached and send it to the WG by email. The form asks for the specified text that the WG member cannot accept, a suggested revision, and the rationale for the revision.
• Any issues identified will be addressed and resolved on the mailing list, or if necessary, scheduled for discussion on a subsequent call.

 

We realize that this process is new and WG members may have questions about it, which is why we are starting this discussion about the process on the upcoming call. Given the large amount of material we have to cover in the coming months and the importance of staying on schedule with the revised work plan, the leadership team is confident that the proposed path forward will keep the group moving forward. We look forward to continuing the discussion as we finalize the next steps.

 

 

Jeff Neuman & Cheryl Langdon-Orr

Subsequent Procedures PDP Co-Chairs