Covenanting Process and Considerations - Draft

Our Covenanting Process:**

The English word covenant means "a coming together." Covenants can include treaties, alliances, agreements, compacts, pledges, mutual agreements, promises, and undertakings on behalf of another. Covenants may contain both law and promises, both stipulations and obligations. They frequently contain: 1) a preamble explaining why the covenant was made or what circumstances caused it to be made; 2) covenant regulations or stipulations; 3) promise 'sanctions' if the covenant was kept, and 'curse' sanctions if it was not.

At CSDI, our covenant is a binding set of behaviors and understandings, undertaken as parity agreements between equals.

1. The circumstances which initiated our software group to use a covenant: (The problems of social interaction and order are often ignored in the software and online industry. Common responses to the challenge of designing systems that support robust social interaction include pretending this issue is not important, or that there is nothing one can do about it, or that it is simply a user interface issue. Yet Team Design decisions need to be evaluated for their effects on social interaction and organization. These factors have led us to the Covenant process to support robust social interaction.)

2. Covenant regulations and stipulations:

General:
Any software programmer (define limitations) can be a Member of the Team, given agreement to the following:
The Team Member has agreed to actively participate in the overall planning, management and work required for (define)
The Team Member has agreed to attend as many planning meetings as possible,
The Team Member will make best efforts to fulfill his/her commitments to help accomplish the projects and activities of the Team.

Chair (or Co-Chairs) Responsibilities:
To set the dates the Team shall meet to plan and carry out the work,
Working with the Team prepare an Agenda for each planning meeting and assure that Meeting Minutes are prepared to capture the business that was conducted at each meeting,
Facilitate each Planning meeting,
Assist and support the Team in carrying out the selected projects and other opportunities to fulfill (define)
Shall serve as the primary point of contact for the Team with the Business Partners,
Shall maintain the list of Team members and Behavioral Covenants
.
Planning Meetings:
All meetings should begin and end with (a moment for reflection,)
All planning meetings shall be open to the covenanted membership and advertised through (means)
Whenever possible decisions on which projects and other opportunities that CSDI Team members will be encouraged to participate in will be made at Planning Meetings,
Decisions shall be by consensus of all active Team Members present at the meeting.

Covenanted members of the Collaborative of Software Designers and Innovators have signed a behavioral covenant declaring that they will, to the best of their ability:

*    Offer clear and honest communications with clients and with other members of CSDI.
*    Develop a climate within CSDI that facilitaties giving helpful feedback on our work, thus eliminating guesswork and confusion.
*    Speak to each other in the spirit of encouragement, rather than ad hominem criticism.
*    Seek ongong ways of improving communication throughout all of CSDI.
*    Meet together in person or via teleconferencing on a regular basis, to facilitate clear, mutually agreed upon processes.

3. Benefits to our covenanted members for keeping the covenant:

Sanctions to our members if the covenant is not kept.

**The covenant here is from another organization and is intended to be an example and not a specification for the covenant we believe to be essential to sustain a relationship based collaborative organization.