Outline of the CONvergence Steering Committee
The Steering Committee is made of existing leaders on the convention committee, and that their work in the committee should not replace their existing work on the convention if they choose not to. Instead, the role of the Steering Committee member would be to represent the interests of the whole convention, while also bringing the unique and immediate experience of someone working on it.

The basic expectations for Steering Committee members are:

• Job one: lead us to a terrific convention!
• Help make event specific implementation decisions not already made by individual departments guided by the policies adopted by the CE Board.
• Help arbitrate disputes, help identify pain points, help describe convention goals, improvements and initiatives, both new and based on outcomes of the event’s postmortems.
• Be aware of budget issues and compliance, report any budget issues.
• Help lead Concom meetings, report (after each concom meeting) to the Board of Directors on readiness for the convention, progress against plan, progress on initiatives.
• Assist in implementing and making executive decisions to implement policies during the run of the event Establish procedures for the election of steering committee members and define methods to implement the procedures.

The Nominating Committee charged by the Convergence Events Board of Directors also provided the following expectations and recommendations to the Board:

Independent Leadership
Expectation: The Board wishes to delegate the day-to-day management of the convention planning to the Steering Committee, which shall be taught to independently decide matters of policy and operation.
Recommendation: Steering Committee members shall be sourced from existing leaders on the Convention Committee. These leaders will have demonstrated superior leadership, quality results and collaboration skills and be seeking opportunities to grow their skills and responsibilities.

Board Support
Expectation: The Board intends at least the first year of the Steering Committee’s inception to be a “training period” where the Board shall guide the formation and operation of the Steering Committee.
Recommendation: The Board shall provide guidance and support to the Steering Committee for a period of at least one (1) year, beginning with the 2010-2011 convention cycle. The Board shall also provide sufficient information to the Steering Committee to ground them in the history, values and goals of the organization. Furthermore, we recommend the Board will ensure the Steering Committee guides and encourages the delegation of tasks and responsibilities to other leaders in the convention committee and the convention staff.

Steering Committee Size
Expectation: The Board anticipates the size of the Steering Committee to match the size of the current Board of Directors: seven (7) members.
Recommendation: The Steering Committee will have seven (7) members, in keeping with the proven success of this size of leadership team. However, we recommend the Steering Committee will be allowed to grow to no more than nine (9) members, in cases where superlative talent exists among the leadership of the CONvergence Convention Committee, or where special initiatives are undertaken requiring additional leadership presence.

Leadership Diversity
Expectation: The Board wishes to diversify the leadership of the organization in order to represent fairly the constituents the organization serves.
Recommendation: The Nominating Committee focused its Steering Committee recruitment efforts to reflect this expectation.

Leadership Development
Expectation: The Board expects to provide and support opportunities for emerging leaders in the organization.
Recommendation: We recommend a set of individuals be considered to be approached to be on the Steering Committee should the pending recruits decline the offer or afforded other opportunities to grow their leadership skills and responsibilities with CONvergence or the larger organization.