NATIONAL DIGITAL FORUM
Terms of Reference for National Digital Forum Board
May 2008

1.1        Vision

To achieve the cooperative development, delivery, and preservation of high quality digital resources which reflect the natural and cultural heritage of Aotearoa New Zealand.

1.2       Purpose of the National Digital Forum

The National Digital Forum will encourage, support and promote, a national, cooperative, bicultural and cross-sectoral approach to enhancing access to natural and cultural heritage resources online. The Forum will seek to foster best practice, and build expertise nationally and across all sectors.

1.3        Strategic Objectives of the National Digital Forum

1. To share information on digital projects, initiatives, and activities.
2. To identify, promote and advise on best practice in digitisation activity.
3. To promote the use of agreed standards to ensure ‘interoperability’ and effective resource discovery and retrieval now and in the future.
4. To develop expertise in the regions and nationally in the area of digitisation.
5. To achieve collaborative and cost effective digitisation outcomes through the avoidance of duplication of effort and resources.
6. To promote the long-term storage and preservation of digital resources.
7. To be a national voice for advocacy on digitisation initiatives.

• Provide direction and steer the work of the National Digital Forum.
• Agree the strategic objectives of the NDF.
• Undertake projects which progress the strategic objectives of the NDF.
• Identify funding requirements and seek funds for NDF projects, for example by applying for grants.
• Endorse / adopt best practice as developed by NDF project groups.

A project approach should be applied, ie. sponsors, project management team, working groups.  This reflects the current project nature and diversity of much of the work of the Forum.

4.1

Membership shall be of partner organisations. Partner organisations are those which support the goals and purpose of the National Digital Forum and wish to be involved in its work towards achieving these goals.

4.2

Partners can be any sort of organisation interested in the work of the NDF and willing to support it, eg. government departments and agencies, iwi groups, businesses – the principle is to be inclusive based on interest and willingness to contribute. The 3 national cultural institutions can be partners as well as sponsors.

4.3

Partner organisations are an organisation or institution, not an individual, however their support would be demonstrated through the involvement of one or more individuals from that organisation.

4.4

All partner organisations would need to register as a partner to support the NDF.

4.5

No membership fee is required as no entity exists for this purpose. Instead partner organisations will agree to make available resource-in-kind to support the work of the NDF, eg. staff time.

4.6

Partner organisations will receive benefits such as reduced cost of attending annual conference, training etc. In addition the Forum will collaboratively advance projects of particular benefit and interest to partner organisations, eg. clearing house and website for ongoing learning; training opportunities; guidance on intellectual property rights, standards.

5.1

The Chief Executives of the three national institutions Te Papa, National Library of New Zealand and Archives NZ will be referred to as ‘sponsors’, denoting both their role within the project-based approach, and as supporters of the NDF.

5.2

The role of the sponsors is to help progress and enable the work of the NDF and the NDF Board through:

• strategic support, advocacy and direction
• resource support, including employment of specialist staff where appropriate; and provision of financial support and seeding funds on an equitable basis.

5.3

The sponsors might nominate a lead sponsor to streamline their involvement, this could be on a rotating basis.

ˆ Top

6.1

The NDF Board will consist of 12 people made up of the following:

• Three permanent places for the CEOs from each of the three national institutions as sponsors of the NDF, or their appointed representative, as a full participating member of the NDF Board.
• One permanent place for Kaihautu Māori to ensure the integrity of mātauranga Māori is maintained in all NDF activities and are aligned with a bicultural approach, selected by Māori partner roopu to be a full participating member of the NDF Board.
• Eight places for members elected from the partner organisations, with a skills focus, noting the need also to ensure representation across broad sectors and institution types, as indicated in 6.3 below.

6.2

The NDF Board will have the power to co-opt to fill identified skill or sector gaps as required. New members may be co-opted to the Board of the National Digital Forum under the following circumstances:

• If a Board member resigns or for some other reason is required to terminate their membership during their term.
• If a Board member is absent from four meetings in a row, without an acceptable explanation to the Board.
• To meet a clear skills gap required for leadership of a strategic project identified by the Board.

The process to be followed will be:

• The Board will agree whether it wishes to co-opt a new member to fill the vacancy.
• Board members will be invited to propose candidates for the co-opted position (having obtained confirmation that the person is willing to be co-opted)
• The Board will vote on the proposed new member at the next regular Board meeting.

The term of any co-opted member will last until the next Board election

6.3

The NDF Board should be skill based rather than sector specific. Members of the NDF Board should:

1. Represent three general constituencies:
• National policy bodies, e.g. the bodies that represent libraries, archives, museums, the parallel Māori bodies, government agencies, LIAC etc;
• End users – might include community, iwi, government and commercial sector end users;
• Practitioners – those actively involved in digitisation.
2. Reflect specific and different areas of expertise in digitisation initiatives, including: best practice e.g. in relation to metadata and rights management, mātauranga Māori, technical infrastructure, strategic planning and overview, funding, communications and marketing, customer research, networking, training, project management, etc.

6.4

Elections will be held for the eight partner members. Nominations will be called for from the partner organisations, and members elected by the partner organisations, based on quality and fit to the criteria above (i.e. best person for the job). Each partner organisation has one vote, regardless of size.

6.5

Election will be for two years, with half of the positions available for election each year to achieve continuity. Members can be re-elected. Elections will be held only if the number of nominations exceeds the places available. The initial election will be for two and three year periods, to achieve a rotation of places after two years. The maximum number of terms a person could serve is two.

6.5

Selection of the Kaihautu Māori role will occur at least every three years. Nominations based on the role’s profile will be sought from Māori partner roopu, and if more than one nomination, an appropriate process involving all Māori partner roopu will be used to select the successful candidate with the best fit to the profile. The Kaihautu Māori can be reappointed once for a second term.

7.1

The NDF Board will elect its own chair from amongst its members and determine its own secretarial support arrangements (see also Funding below). The Chair may be one of the 4 permanent representatives.

7.2

The NDF Board will aim to meet no more than 6 times a year, of which some meetings could be face to face, the remainder by teleconference. The aim is to keep meeting overhead costs to a minimum (see also Funding below).

7.3

NDF Board decisions will be by consensus as far as possible, or where this is not possible by vote.

7.4

An annual meeting of partner organisations will be held in conjunction with the annual NDF conference. This will provide the NDF Board with an opportunity to report on progress and seek direction on strategic objectives.

7.5

This structure replaces the current NDF Advisory Group

8.1

The NDF will incorporate Māori in all activities from governance to project-based advisory and working groups wherever possible.

9.1

The work of the NDF will be delivered primarily through a series of project work streams, reporting to the NDF Board. The structure of these groups will be determined by the nature of the task being undertaken. NDF Board members can be designated as a Project champion for each work stream to maintain a connection with the NDF Board, however this person would not necessarily be the project manager.

9.2

NDF work streams for which a Project Advisory Group or Project Working Group might be set up include: Matapihi; clearing house and NDF website development; training; best practice; review of NDF strategic direction; annual conference. The project structures, membership and duration for each would reflect the natures of the work stream. Please see attached diagram for indicative examples. Alternatively Matapihi might continue under a separate governance structure with a link to the NDF.

9.3

Membership of the Project Groups can be drawn from many partner institutions to extend participation beyond the NDF Board. A project group could be regionally based, or could support and work with employees employed by a national organisation to carry out a specific role eg. Matapihi.

10.1

The 3 national institutions will provide seed funding of $5000 each per annum to support the operation of the NDF Board. This will cover limited administrative overheads, eg. essential travel; cost of secretariat; writer employed to write funding applications, etc

10.2

It is recognised that all partners, including the 3 national institutions, also provide in-kind contribution to the work of the NDF, including travel and contribution of expertise

10.3

As a partner-based organisation, the NDF will be able to consider seeking grants for specific projects.

10.4

The annual conference is a potential source of funding and will aim to at least recover all costs while setting registration fees at a level which will ensure maximum participation.

11.1

The three national institutions will continue to lead the organisation of the annual conference, and will underwrite its cost. The conference will aim to at least recover all costs whilst setting registration fees at a level which will ensure maximum participation.

11.2

The annual conference is an important NDF activity. The conference programme committee will be a work stream reporting to the NDF Board, but will remain accountable, from a financial perspective, to the Chief Executives of the three national institutions.

11.3

Partner organisations outside of the 3 national institutions will be included on the programme committee, ideally a maximum of 3 to retain a workable size.

11.4

The programme committee will seek opportunities to expand expertise and subsidise conference costs by making keynote speakers available to work with partner organisations for a charge.

12.1

The NDF Board is responsible for ensuring timely and regular communication with all partner organisations and the wider cultural sector, using a variety of appropriate media. This will include communication regarding activities, events and meetings.

12.2

The NDF Board will ensure timely communication of agendas and minutes.

12.3

The NDF Board will establish a secretariat to assist with this communication role.

13.1

These Terms of Reference were adopted by the incoming NDF Board at its meeting of 24 November 2006.

13.2

The NDF Board will review the overall NDF governance structure and the terms of reference as required .

13.3

The NDF Board revised section 6.2 in relation to the process for co-opting Board members at its meeting of 12 February 2008.

13.4

The NDF Board revised sections 6.1, 6.6 and 8 in relation to Kaihautu Māori at its meeting of 9 May 2008.