Communication Working Group/Volunteer Manual/CWG Membership Roles
CWG Membership Roles and responsibilities
This section describes the Chair role, Secretary role, member responsibilities.
It is in DRAFT form. The content will be finalised once the group has constituted itself and roles have been agreed.
A Note on Deputies
The appointment of a Deputy-Chair and/or Deputy Secretary is good practice as it helps to share workload and builds skills in the group. There is no specific role described for Deputies. The Chair and Secretary will decide how to share their workload with Deputies.
Working Group Chair — Role Description
Purpose
The chair holds the group together and keeps it moving. This is a leadership role not a management role. The chair has no formal authority to direct anyone's time, and members can leave at any point with no consequences. The chair's authority comes from being a leader who builds trust and relationships within the group and makes sure that members are willing to do the work.
The Chair is supported by the members of the group who understand the importance of consciously managing the experience of the members of the group. Much of the work of the Chair can be delegated to a Deputy-Chair or CWG members, but the responsibility cannot be delegated; the Chair remains responsible.
Chair Core responsibilities
Group Cohesion
Monitors the health of the group, not just its work output. Notices when someone has gone quiet, when tension is building, when one or two people are carrying a disproportionate load, or when the group's sense of shared purpose is fraying. Intervenes early and informally, before small frictions become reasons for people to drift away. This is largely invisible work; done well, nobody notices it's happening.
Recruitment and retention
Actively brings new people in rather than waiting for them to arrive. Equally, and often overlooked, the Chair works to keep the people already there: recognising their contributions, protecting people from burnout, making sure returning members still find a reason to stay involved.
Scheduling and cadence
Ensures meetings actually happen on a predictable rhythm. This sounds administrative but is foundational: a group with no regular meeting rhythm quietly stops being a group. Evidence from CWG's own history bears this out, meetings have repeatedly lapsed for lack of anyone taking this on.
Agenda and meeting facilitation
With the Secretary, sets the agenda, or ensures one exists, and runs meetings in a facilitation style so that everyone gets heard and feels heard without discussion sprawling indefinitely. Keeps meetings anchored to making decisions and outcomes rather than becoming purely conversational.The Chair has the power to cut discussion and defer topics that get bogged down.
Onboarding
Gives new members enough context to be useful quickly: what the group is trying to achieve, what's already been decided, who does what, where things are documented. Without this, every new volunteer starts from zero and the group's accumulated knowledge never compounds. This work can be delegated to a CWG member but the Chair remains responsible.
External liaison
Acts as the group's point of contact outward, to the board, to other working groups, to the wider organisation, so that outsiders have one visible person to ask rather than needing to track down whoever happens to answer first. Carries information back into the group in the other direction too. If the Chair is absent this task falls to the Secretary.
Task formation and distribution
Summarises discussion about broad intentions into specific, small, independently actionable tasks with an owner and a due date attached. Does not leave work as vague shared intentions that nobody in particular ever picks up. Avoids bundling unrelated tasks together, since one stalled task should not be allowed to block others in a volunteer setting. Spreads the load of tasks across the whole membership according to their skills. Makes sure that task progress reports are on every agenda.
Continuity and documentation
Makes sure decisions, context, and institutional memory survive turnover. Volunteer groups lose knowledge fast when a long-standing member leaves; the chair's job is to make sure that loss isn't total. Work closely with the Secretary to make sure that agendas, minutes and CWG work products are created and stored. Keeping this Wiki up-to-date is also recommended.
Conflict resolution
Handles disagreement within the group directly and early, informally where possible, long before it drives people out. Members tend to leave quietly if there is toxicity in the group. If there are toxic individuals, act quickly. The Board can assist.
What the role deliberately isn't
The Chair is not a position of command. The chair coordinates and enables, the group decides collectively on anything substantive. The chair cannot instruct volunteers to do anything. The group runs on willingness, enthusiasm and very much runs on relationships. The CWG Chair is explicitly not a board member, so that the group has a leader whose authority comes from the group itself rather than from any institutional position.
CWG Secretary — Role Description
Purpose
The Secretary is the administrator of the CWG. The role is to arrange meetings, keep records, track assigned tasks and deal with logistics like hiring contractors or buying media and materials. The work can be shared with a Deputy-Secretary or CWG members.
Recording
Keeps a record of what was discussed, decided, and actioned at each meeting; distributes minutes promptly enough that people still remember the context and are reminded to do their tasks.
Manages Membership
Maintains the group's list of current members, so there's a clear and up-to-date answer to "who's actually in CWG." The secretary is responsible for circulating notices of meetings and any other correspondence to all members.
Librarian and Archivist
Acts as custodian of the group's working documents: design guidance, campaign materials, access records, past decisions, so nothing lives only in one person's head or inbox. Maintains continuity across leadership changes: if the Chair role changes hands, the secretary is often the person who actually knows where everything is.
Project Manager
Tracks recorded action items to completion, following up with members on outstanding items between meetings rather than letting them sit until the next agenda. Flags process gaps early, such as missing owners on action items, stale documentation, or unclear access, rather than letting them surface only when something breaks. Helps members access resources needed to complete tasks.
Scheduling
Schedules meeting times and venues, prepares and circulates the agenda in advance, working in close coordination with the chair.
Correspondence
Handles routine correspondence and requests directed at the group, so incoming questions have somewhere to land rather than going unanswered. Directs correspondence to the person best able to prepare an answer.
CWG Member — Role Description
Purpose
The CWG members form the group. Their role is, in order of importance:
- to support group cohesion,
- to participate in decision-making and
- to carry out work tasks as assigned.
Cohesion responsibilities
- Shows up, or communicates clearly when they can't, so the chair and secretary aren't left guessing about available capacity for tasks.
- Welcomes new members and actively helps them get oriented, rather than leaving onboarding entirely to the chair.
- Notices when someone else is overloaded or has gone quiet, and says something, rather than assuming it's someone else's job to notice.
- Gives credit to other members' work.
- Support the work of the Chair and Secretary by taking on some of their tasks. (See their roles above)
Decision-making responsibilities
- Members actively assist in setting the group's direction and every member can raise things for discussion.
- Speaks up during meetings rather than staying silent and then disagreeing afterward. A working group depends on disagreement happening where it can still be resolved.
- Respects collective decisions, even if opposed to them.
Task responsibilities
- Contributes actual output in at least one area: writing, graphic design, translation, social media posting, video, or another concrete skill the group needs.
- Takes on discrete, self-contained tasks with a clear scope, in line with the group's action-item discipline.
- If tasks are unclear, say so early and assist in refining the task so that it has clear goals and timelines.
- Delivers on the cadence the group has agreed (e.g. the current weekly-post, monthly-blog rhythm), or says early if that's not realistic, rather than quietly falling behind. There is no penalty for an honest declaration of work not done.
- Brings relevant expertise or outside knowledge into the group when they have it, rather than waiting to be asked.
- Follows existing design, voice, and branding guidance once it exists, rather than working in isolation from what the rest of the group is producing.
What the role deliberately isn't
Membership of CWG is not passive. It carries an expectation of presence, ongoing contribution on tasks and work on group cohesion, not just a lurking presence on a mailing list.