Even if you think everyone in your group is on the same page, it’s still a really good idea to have a discussion about expectations, ways of working, and even pet peeves. Think of a charter as an excuse to have a healthy discussion.
Your group must submit a charter via CCLE by 11:55 p.m. on Wednesday, February 1. Your answers don’t have to be long; a few sentences will suffice. The important thing is just to have an open conversation about these matters as a group. If you’d like, you can use this template to fill out your charter.
- Choose three words to describe the spirit in which your group will work together. Tattoo them on your arm. (Just kidding about the last part.)
- How will you communicate with each other (e.g., text messaging, email, Google group, Trello, etc.)?
- Where will you store your files (e.g., Dropbox, Google Drive, server, etc.)?
- When you work on a document collaboratively, how will you ensure that you don’t overwrite each other’s changes?
- How often will you meet outside of class? Where will you meet? Do you need a regular meeting time? If you’ll schedule meetings as necessary, what days and times are generally good for people?
- When are people planning to be out of town or especially busy? How can you work around this?
- Do all decisions need to be unanimous, or is “majority-rules” OK?
- How will you prevent meetings from going off-track?
- If someone doesn’t do what they said they would by the agreed-upon time, how will the team handle the situation?
- What are group members’ pet peeves from previous collaborations? How will you avoid these?