Introduction

This document is intended to serve both as an aide-memoire for the Open Repositories organization and as a loose guide for each year's conference organisersorganizers. We attempt to keep this as up to date as possible, but there may be areas which are inaccurate. If you have questions, please contact the Chair of the Open Repositories Steering Committee..

Following the overview, the middle sections of the document are essentially a walk through of the conference "creation" process whilst the Appendices contain related documents that will be useful in the process.

The Open Repositories Vision

The annual international Open Repositories (OR) Conference occupies a unique place in the landscape of open knowledge, open source and digital preservation conferences. Acknowledging institutional interests in the vital role open repositories play in preserving and creating access to scholarly outputs, the OR conference's focus on "how to" rather than "how come" has made it a favorite among librarians, developers and repository managers among others. OR is the conference where attendees learn about formative techniques and technologies while connecting with people who are solving related issues at their institutions. OR provides participants with an informal look at current community practices and future repository trends combined with collegial networking opportunities. This dynamic makes this conference the preferred event for people who have on-the-ground responsibilities for stewarding institutional digital resources.

Open Repositories Organization

The Open Repositories Steering Committee (OR SCORSC) is the organizing group whose members have deep knowledge of the open repository space. The OR SC ORSC has the overarching responsibility to ensure the continuation of the conference from year to year and to guide the direction of the conference. 

In practice, this means that the ORSC identifies future conference sites and host organizations, selects a programme program committee in a process that is independent from that of selecting a conference site, helps to reach out to potential sponsoring organizations, manages fellowships, maintains the code of conduct and associated documents, develops policies, coordinates the work of presenting the conference each year, and is responsible for managing the OR finances (made up of surpluses from previous conferences and used primarily for fellowships). In the event of something that might prevent a conference from happening (as happened with the COVID-19 pandemic), the ORSC makes decisions such as canceling a conference or shifting to virtual only. 

The ORSC The OR SC meets monthly (via video conference call) or more often as needed. The OR SC ORSC is made up of 12-13 standing members as well as the Program and Host Chairs for the current year and the upcoming year as they are selected. Program and Host chairs rotate off of the OR SC ORSC when their responsibilities are complete. There may be some items which only the standing members may act on such as the decision on a bid to host or voting on new standing members. The OR SC ORSC elects a Chair and Vice-Chair for terms of two years. The Vice-Chair moves into the Chair position at the end of Chair’s term, and a new Vice-Chair is elected.

The Open Repositories Host Organizing Committee (OR HOC) changes with each new venue conference and is responsible for managing the conference logistics (whether the conference is physical or virtual) including the venue, accommodations, receptions and dinners, sponsorships, and the budget. For a virtual conference, the responsibilities may include recommendations on online platforms and tools, hosting online sessions, scheduling and running test sessions with speakers, and social media monitoring and management. Generally the chair(s) chairs  of the Host Organizing Committee OR HOC are named when the bid for hosting is put forward; the chair(s) is chairs are then responsible for naming the remainder of the committee. It is recommended to have at least two OR HOC chairs. The OR Host Organizing Committee Chair(s) (HOC Chairs (selected by the Host organization) attend the monthly OR Steering Committee ORSC meetings, and work closely with the OR SC ORSC and the OR Program Committee Chair(s)Chairs. If a conference shifts from physical to virtual (as happened with COVID-19), the original OR HOC may shift substantially in membership as the needs of a virtual conference can be very different than that of a physical conference.

The Open Repositories Program Committee (OR PC) changes with each new venue conference (whether physical or virtual) and is responsible for managing the program including building a program committee with chairs for each track, identifying the theme of the conference, issuing the call for proposalsCall for Proposals (CfP), identifying and inviting keynote speakers, managing the peer review process, selecting proposals for presentation, and establishing the program schedule. The Chair(s) - generally there There are at least two - are , usually three, chairs selected by the Steering CommitteeORSC; the Chairs then select members of the committeewider OR PC. The OR Program Committee chair(s) PC chairs attend the monthly OR Steering Committee ORSC meetings, and work closely with the OR SC ORSC and the OR Host Organizing Committee Chair(s)HOC Chairs.

Specific responsibilities of each group are outlined below.

Responsibilities of the Steering, Program, and Host Committees

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