Terms of Reference (ToR) for Steering Groups

All Steering and Advisory Groups follow a Terms of Reference. All participants shall acknowledge and agree to these Terms of Reference and related supporting documents before engagement in such meetings. See the Advisory Group Terms of Reference.

V2025-12-01

References: governance & definitions

Steering Group (SG) members agree to the governance process, principles, roles, responsibilities and rules as detailed at https://ib1.org/sops/governance-schemes.

IB1 acts as Secretariat to coordinate programmes and is responsible for ensuring Members are aware of these Terms of Reference, and enables their enforcement (working with the DoC where applicable). 

Definitions (if relevant)

https://ib1.org/definitions/scheme
https://ib1.org/definitions/trust-framework/ 

Steering Group purpose, roles, commitments

All members and observers acknowledge and agree to these Terms of Reference and related supporting documents prior to engagement. 

Purpose 

The purpose of a Steering Group (SG) is programme oversight, formal adoption of recommendations, and holding Advisory Groups (AGs) accountable for deliverables.

Convened by/reports to: One of: regulator or related national or supranational body, industry coalition, public-private partnership.

Reports to: Delivery Oversight Committee (if applicable)

Frequency of meetings: Determined by programme needs (e.g. monthly, 6 weekly, quarterly)

Authority and responsibilities: 

Members

Member commitments

Observer commitments

The estimated time commitment for a Steering Group member is defined in aggregate (including preparation time) in briefing and scoping materials two (2) hours per meeting.

Antitrust guidelines for collaboration between competitors

Members will adhere to antitrust guidelines, aligned with competition law. https://ib1.org/sops/antitrust-guidelines 

Co-chair role and responsibilities

The Steering Group will be co-chaired by one individual with deep domain/sector expertise and one with deep expertise related to data sharing, Schemes, Trust Frameworks, Open and Shared data. The Secretariat will manage the co-chair selection process. Co-chairs must:

Co-chair’s time commitments are estimated in the aggregate to be three (3) hours per meeting.

Transparency

Outputs from groups shall, as appropriate and once approved, be published openly, including formal minutes, updates, briefings and reports. Where relevant, voted decisions and/or endorsements will be included. These will be published on programme website(s) and disseminated using social media, as relevant to the outputs. By default, all outputs will be published under an open licence (CC-BY). Members consent to be listed publicly as participants. 

Members and observers shall sign a formal Agreement to these Terms of Reference linked to their specific programme and group(s). 

Quorum, attendance, enforcement and communication

Quorum is defined as having a minimum of two-thirds of the voting Members participation. If quorum is not met, a meeting may be cancelled or rescheduled. Requests to vary quorum on voting matters may be considered if requested in advance.  To meet quorum at Advisory Group meetings, members must RSVP to calendar invites in advance. Members can RSVP on the calendar invite by selecting accept/tentative/decline or by contacting the programme-specific email address. 

Delivering programmes in a robust manner requires engagement from all Members. While it is understood that it is not always possible to attend all meetings, it is important to communicate so that absences can be managed.

To enable the Secretariat to implement this, a ‘three-strike’ policy is in place for those who do not RSVP or otherwise notify the secretariat team in advance regarding any absences. If applicable, Members will be notified and reminded of the policy on each occurrence. Following a ‘third strike’, members are informed and must arrange an alternative representative. As such they will no longer receive invitations to meetings and their alternative must represent their Member organisation. Should no alternative be found, the account management team will be notified as part of the Membership management process.

Published Changelog

2025-01-01 First public release

2025-12-01 Removed ‘scheme’ in title to make generalisable; added clarity around observer commitments