User:CHGiffen/CPDL organization
CPDL Organizational Document
Preface
History
CPDL before ChoralWiki (December 1998 – July 2005)
The online Choral Public Domain Library (CPDL) was founded by Rafael (Raf) Ornes with an initial posting of 6 scores in December 1998 (in all, 24 new scores were posted that month). Scores were posted entirely by hand by Raf during these early years. With the amount of interest in CPDL growing and, unfortunately, with problems from hackers on the old site, Raf abandoned the old site structure in favor of ChoralWiki, a wiki site, after a major hacking of the old site in the summer of 2005. By this time there were over 320 contributors and 8,700 scores in the CPDL database.
CPDL as ChoralWiki (August 2005 – July 2008)
On 16 August 2005, the MediaWiki software was successfully installed at CPDL and the work begun on transferring information from the old database (and Google cache), as well as customizing the new ChoralWiki. Composer pages were up by 22 August, and by 28 August score pages had been created for nearly all scores in the database (it would take another couple of months with the help of volunteers to clean up various loose ends, such as scores that did not get properly transferred). The phpBB2 discussion forum was added by 9 September 2005. And by mid-October 2005, the ChoralWiki Main Page assumed more-or-less its present form. Almost daily updates of most recent scores listed on the Main Page were carried out by hand by a handful of volunteers.
In late July of 2008, Raf Ornes felt that the task of managing CPDL by himself had become too great, and asked a small group of Adminstrators to form a new structure and assume operation of CPDL.
CPDL in transition (August 2008 – December 2008)
A Transition Committee was formed, which began the multifaceted tasks of trying to decide how best to carry CPDL forward with goals and an operational structure that would be ongoing and self-sustaining, as well as managing several aspects of CPDL that needed immediate attention.
CPDL renewed
Goals of CPDL
Since its inception, the primary purpose of CPDL has been to create a large repository of editions of public domain choral music. Over time, this purpose has expanded to include other aspects of choral vocal music.
Organizational structure
CPDL is an organization made up of volunteers, and the organizational structure reflects this. Nevertheless, to give purpose and continuity to its operation, CPDL is organized into several work groups, whose Leaders and Deputies form an Executive Committee.
Work goups
CPDL is currently organized into five work groups (teams), carried over from the Transition Committee:
- Management and Administration
- IT Operations
- User Interaction
- Maintenance and Improvement
- Copyright Issues
- Membership in work groups
Because each team at CPDL is staffed by volunteers, it is understood that each volunteer may have varying amounts of time to devote to working with a group and might leave a group at any time. To ensure continuity, each team is headed by a Leader and a Deputy.
The Leader of a team oversees the functioning of that group, sharing certain responsibilities with the Deputy and allocating specific duties with other active members associated with that group as necessary. The Deputy assists the Leader, often with an agreed upon division of responsibilities, and steps to assume leadership role if the Leader is unavailable for an extended period of time. Other members of a team may assume specific roles or responsibilities with the approval of the team Leader.
Executive Committee
The Executive Committee of CPDL consists of the Leaders and Deputies of the working groups, as well as any other members that the Executive Committee agrees to include. The Leader and Deputy of the Management and Adminstration group serve respecitvely as Chair and Vice Chair of the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee is the formal, legal ownership body of CPDL and represents CPDL in all official capacities, such as nonprofit organization, financial, and any other legal matters.
Management and Administration
The Management and Administration (M&A) group is charged with the overall responsibility for the day-to-day operations CPDL. Specific responsibilities include:
- Assign resources (funds, responsible persons).
- Coordinate operations of the other working groups.
- Maintain and update as needed this CPDL Organization document.
- Periodically review the status and performance of CPDL.
- Oversee the implementation of any decisions made by the Executive Committee.
- Make decisions necessary for the smooth operation and improvement of CPDL.
By virtue of their roles on the Executive Committee, the Leader and Deputy for M&A must be United States citizens.
IT Operations
User Interaction
Maintenance and Improvement
Copyright Issues
Additional topics
Changes to this document
Current staffing of work groups and the Executive Committee
Executive Committee
Management and Administration
IT Operations
- Head: johnhenryfowler
- Deputy: Choralia
- Members: Carlos, User:Bobnotts, CHGiffen