Facilitate involvement of colleagues across continents/time zones

[ksauby]

I think reliance on synchronous "virtual meetings" and asynchronous discussions (e.g., via GitHub) are valuable in making progress determining our governance structure and updates to the ACDD. However, the ability to actively participate in virtual meetings will be limited by time zones and scheduling constraints. How should we ensure that all interested participants are able to meaningfully engage in discussions? Is there guidance from other groups we can adopt/modify? How should we make decisions (e.g., we will include "X" attribute in the next release of ACDD)?

[Abdeltoto]

Hello @ksauby
In a similar distributed group I’ve worked with, we faced the same challenge.What worked best for us was leaning async-first. Not because meetings weren’t useful, but because participation shouldn’t depend on being available at a specific time. We used written proposals with a defined comment period, and decisions were always confirmed in writing.
Meetings helped clarify things, but the real value came from having a transparent, documented process that everyone could engage with — even if they couldn’t attend live. That approach felt more fair and sustainable over time.
Hope this help.