IOI Governance

# IOI Governance Last updated: 2025-06-17 URL for this page: https://hackmd.io/@investinopen/governance URL for this site: https://hackmd.io/@investinopen/how-we-work ## Overview As of January 2022, IOI employs a tiered governance structure consisting of a **Financial Oversight Committee**, a **Steering Committee**, **Governance & Nominating Committee**, and **Community Councils** (no longer active as of 15 September 2022). In 2024, IOI introduced two new governance bodies, the **Transition Committee** and **IOI Fund Subcommittee**. This design accommodates needs for oversight, strategic support and guidance, as well as community stakeholder input. This model also reflects a need for an agile, responsive structure to support IOI’s work moving forward, and is intended to reflect the need for both clear decision making support and a commitment to working with and for the community in advancing our aims for a more sustainable ecosystem. This enables support for rapid decision making on the leadership level, while also providing space for smaller, focused, affinity groups to have an active feedback and engagement channel to inform IOI’s work. This structure would ensure that IOI’s core decision making body is informed of the needs of the communities it serves, without presenting a risk of a quid pro quo / buying access or privilege. ## Current governance members Roster: https://hackmd.io/@investinopen/governance-members Biographies: https://hackmd.io/@investinopen/governance-bios ## Governance bodies ### Steering Committee * [IOI Steering Committee meetings + minutes](https://hackmd.io/@investinopen/steering-meetings) * [Biographies of current members + advisors](https://hackmd.io/@investinopen/governance-bios#IOI-Steering-Committee) * [IOI Steering Committee Charter](https://hackmd.io/@investinopen/steering-charter) * [IOI Steering Committee recruitment + onboarding process](https://hackmd.io/@investinopen/steering-committee-recruitment) #### Background (7-12 members, quarterly meetings) The IOI Steering Committee represents community leaders, practitioners, and experts who have demonstrated success in influencing and bringing systemic change to communities. This group exists to bring new ideas, strategies, and learnings to the work of IOI from adjacent communities and areas of infrastructure. This group provides rapid decision making support to IOI’s Executive Director, and works with and alongside leadership in helping to secure partnerships and support for IOI, inform IOI’s activities, and champion and expand our work. ### Governance & Nominating Committee * [IOI Governance and Nominating Committee meetings + minutes](https://hackmd.io/@investinopen/nominating-meetings) * [Charter of the Governance & Nominating Committee](https://hackmd.io/@investinopen/CharterGovernanceNominatingCommittee) #### Background The Governance & Nominating Committee was established to support Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI) to develop project governance and review its effectiveness. The responsibilities of the committee include to establish and support the implementation of a governance structure and to identify candidates to serve to maximize the effectiveness of IOI. Initially, the committee is formed from the Steering Committee by a group who represent diverse perspectives and stakeholders. This group will appoint members of the Committee and a Chair, each to serve for one-year terms. Future membership decisions will be evaluated once the initial governance responsibilities of the committee are underway and a committee framework is implemented. ### Financial Oversight Committee * [Charter of the Financial Oversight Committee](https://hackmd.io/@investinopen/financial-oversight-charter) * [Financial Oversight Committee meetings](https://hackmd.io/@investinopen/financial-oversight-meetings) #### Background (3-5 members, quarterly meetings) This group will support IOI leadership on ensuring compliance and administration of the organization, providing oversight on financial and organizational items. We recommend this group consist of 3-5 members, including the IOI Executive Director, and (to be appointed) Chair, Vice Chair, and Treasurer. The Governance & Nominating Committee recommends that the Chair of this group be a non-US resident. This group will be established in early 2022, at the start of the new Steering Committee term. ### Transition Committee * [IOI Transition Committee meetings](https://hackmd.io/@investinopen/transitioncommittee) * [Charter of the Transition Committee](https://hackmd.io/@investinopen/CharterTransitionCommittee) #### Background (3-5 members, as needed meetings) The Committee is established to support Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI) in its process of transitioning from fiscal sponsorship to establishing itself as an independent not-for-profit organization (501c3). The Transition Committee was established to support IOI in its next phase of organizational growth and maturity. The responsibilities of the committee include supporting the Executive Director in navigating and providing oversight of the logistics associated with incorporating a new 501c3 nonprofit in the US, and transitioning legal and fiscal identity successfully from Code for Science & Society (CS&S), IOI’s fiscal sponsor. ### Fund Subcommittee * [Charter of the IOI Fund Subcommittee](https://hackmd.io/@investinopen/charter_of_the_ioi_fund_subcommittee) * IOI Fund Subcommittee meetings (in progress) #### Background (5 members, quarterly meetings / as needed) The IOI Fund Subcommittee (the "Subcommittee") is established to provide dedicated oversight and governance for the IOI Fund for Network Adoption (the "IOI Fund"). The Subcommittee will ensure that the Fund's activities are aligned with IOI's mission, values, and strategic objectives. The responsibilities of the Subcommittee include overseeing the selection process, managing the distribution of awards, and monitoring project progress and impact. --- ### Community Councils *As of 15 September 2022, the Community Oversight Council's activities have been paused and have not resumed as we reflect on this format, our experience, and how we’d like to move forward.* * [IOI Community Oversight Council - Main Page](https://hackmd.io/@investinopen/community-oversight-council) * [IOI Community Oversight Council meetings](https://hackmd.io/@investinopen/community-oversight-meetings) * [Biographies of former members](https://hackmd.io/@investinopen/governance-bios#Community-Oversight-Council) #### Background (2-3 max) IOI relies on these groups to represent and bring forward what’s important to key communities IOI serves. These Community Councils reflect IOI’s commitment to stakeholder conversations to inform future strategies for IOI and our attentiveness and responsibility to the needs of key communities IOI serves. We propose 2-3 Community Councils to start, to ensure there’s capacity within IOI to sufficiently support these conversations. Community Council members do not have voting rights or roles in the Steering Committee, to safeguard against conflict of interest or perceived self-dealing. --- ## See also * Archived copy of this page (via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine): https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://hackmd.io/@investinopen/governance --- This page first published: 2022-05-25 --- <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />This work is made available under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License</a>. Users are free to share, remix, and adapt this work. (Please attribute [Invest in Open Infrastructure](https://investinopen.org/) in any derivative work).