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Give the Advisory Board a mission statement #1021

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Give the Advisory Board a mission statement
fantasai Apr 10, 2025
6b4eee0
grammar
frivoal May 1, 2025
932d733
community -> SDO
fantasai Aug 11, 2025
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23 changes: 13 additions & 10 deletions index.bs
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Expand Up @@ -872,27 +872,30 @@ Advisory Board (AB)</h4>
<h5 id=ab-role>
Role of the Advisory Board</h5>

The <dfn export lt="Advisory Board|AB">Advisory Board</dfn> provides ongoing guidance to the Team
The <dfn export lt="Advisory Board|AB">Advisory Board</dfn>
is elected by the Membership to advance the effectiveness of W3C as a community by:

<ul>
<li>Providing ongoing guidance to the Team
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@chaals chaals May 1, 2025

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Suggested change
is elected by the Membership to advance the effectiveness of W3C as a community by:
<ul>
<li>Providing ongoing guidance to the Team
is elected by the Membership to provide ongoing guidance to the Team, on behalf of the Membership,

(with subsequent markup tweaks left for the editor - I think they're obvious).

on issues of strategy,
management,
legal matters,
process,
community engagement,
and conflict resolution.
The Advisory Board also serves the Members
<li>Serving the Members
by tracking issues raised between Advisory Committee meetings,
soliciting Member comments on such issues,
and proposing actions to resolve these issues.
The Advisory Board manages the <a href="#GAProcess">evolution of the Process Document</a>.
As part of a [=W3C Council=],
members of the [=Advisory Board=] hear and adjudicate on [=Submission Appeals=]
and [=Formal Objections=].
<li>Managing the <a href="#GAProcess">evolution of the Process Document</a>.
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@nigelmegitt nigelmegitt Apr 15, 2025

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I thought the role was stronger than this with respect to the process?

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@frivoal frivoal Apr 16, 2025

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I thought the role was stronger than this with respect to the process?

In what sense?

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</ul>

The [=Advisory Board=] is distinct from the [=Board of Directors=]
and has no decision-making authority within W3C;
and has no decision-making authority over W3C;
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@tantek tantek Apr 15, 2025 •
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and has no decision-making authority over W3C;
and has no decision-making authority over W3C.

Punctuation consistent with the prior suggestion.

its role is strictly advisory.
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@tantek tantek Apr 15, 2025

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its role is strictly advisory.

Given the AB's role in managing the Process document (and now also The Vision, and facilitating the Code of Conduct, which can be a separate PR), and FO Councils, it's high time to remove this legacy phrase which causes more confusion than clarity in practice.

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@frivoal frivoal Apr 16, 2025

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I am cautiously in favor of this proposed removal. Removing this sentence does not cause the AB to gain any decision power it does not otherwise have, so this seems to be a safe change, and "strictly" hasn't really been true, so this is a likely source of confusion.

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@plehegar plehegar Oct 17, 2025

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In fact, I don't believe that sentence is correct anymore. The Process says: "Revision of the W3C Process and related documents (see below) undergoes similar consensus-building processes as for technical reports, with the Advisory Board acting as the sponsoring Working Group.".

So, the AB does have decision powers, similar to Working Groups. Both are subject to AC Reviews.


Note: While the [=AB=] as such does not have decision-making authority,
its members do when sitting as part of a [=W3C Council=].
However, as part of a [=W3C Council=],
members of the [=Advisory Board=] hear and adjudicate on [=Submission Appeals=]
and [=Formal Objections=].

Details about the Advisory Board
(e.g., the list of Advisory Board participants,
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