Committee Sunset Process

<<STILL DRAFT>>

This process describes how QIBA committees are inactivated and/or dissolved. The process differs based on the type of committee.

Task Forces

Task Forces are created by a Biomarker Committee when useful to perform work in a focused subgroup for subsequent review & use by the Biomarker Committee.

Task Forces are informal (no provision for minutes or voting), intended to be temporary, and are generally dissolved by the Biomarker Committee when they have returned their work.

• A Task Force can be dissolved by a simple motion/vote in the Biomarker Committee.
• The Task Force wiki page(s), if any, are typically retained but would no longer be listed on the Committees page.
• Further meetings are no longer scheduled.
• The Biomarker Committee might choose to recreate the Task Force in the future if appropriate.

Biomarker Committees

Biomarker Committees are proposed by a Modality Coordinating Committee and approved by the Steering Committee to develop a biomarker profile and advance it through the QIBA Profile Stages. A Biomarker Committee is a collection of subject matter experts specific to its assigned biomarker profile.

A Biomarker Committee is expected to go dormant, or be dissolved, when work on its profile is suspended for a time, or is completed.

• A Biomarker Committee goes dormant by an email ballot of the Biomarker Committee.
  • The Modality Coordinating Committee might suggest to the Biomarker Committee Cochairs to hold a dormancy ballot.
  • During dormancy discussion and ballot it is recommended to record how long dormancy is expected to last and/or what trigger might prompt reactivation.
• The Biomarker Committee wiki page(s), are retained but are listed as dormant on the Committees page.
• Further meetings for dormant committees are no longer scheduled.
• It is desirable for at least one cochair of a dormant Biomarker to continue attending Coordinating Committee calls, in particular for reactivation discussions.
• A dormant Biomarker Committee may be reactivated by an email ballot in the Modality Coordinating Committee.
  • Just as with forming a new Biomarker Committee, the Coordinating Committee will need to consider the impact on the resources it has available.
  • Since the ballot is essentially yea/nay, it is expected that discussion/debate on the merits will happen in the Modality Coordinating Committee when the motion is made to send out a ballot.
• When reactivated, all members in attendance at either the first or second meeting will start with voting privileges.

• A Biomarker Committee is dissolved by an email ballot of the Modality Coordinating Committee.
  • The Biomarker Committee might suggest to the Coordinating Committee Cochairs to hold a dissolution ballot.
  • A Biomarker Committee might be dissolved if there is no imaginable way to reach the next Stage (but the Profile would still be published and available for use)
  • A Biomarker Committee might remain active despite a Profile reaching Stage 5 if there were plans for a a new edition of the Profile to incorporate new technology or information.
• Typically, a Biomarker Committee will go dormant prior to being dissolved.
• The Biomarker Committee wiki page(s), are retained but are listed as dissolved on the Committees page.
• Further meetings for dissolved committees are no longer scheduled.
• A dissolved Biomarker Committee may, if appropriate, be recreated by an email ballot in the Modality Coordinating Committee to assign it a newly approved Biomarker proposal.
  • Since the ballot is essentially yea/nay, it is expected that discussion/debate on the merits will happen in the Modality Coordinating Committee when the motion is made to send out a ballot.
  • It is permissible for a Biomarker Committee to work on more than one Profile at the same time, however this raises logistical/timesharing issues which the Biomarker Committee will have to resolve, so it is generally recommended to have a different Biomarker Committee for each Profile.

Considerations for the Modality Coordinating Committee:

• A Biomarker Committee consumes significant QIBA resources (Staff support for agendas, minutes, meetings, process, coordination with co-chairs).
  • Typically a 1 hour teleconference consumes about 2 hours of additional overhead for staff.
• A dissolved or dormant Biomarker Committee frees up staff resources and frees up active members to migrate to new related work in another Committee
  • When making a Biomarker Committee dormant, the Modality Coordinating Committee should think through when they expect to reactivate it and where the necessary resources will then be taken from.
• The Steering Committee effectively allocates resources to the Modality Coordination Committee by approving a new Biomarker Profile proposal.
  • <Should we think about Steering allocating a "tcon quota" to each CC, then let CC manage BCs? Steering could review adherence to quota (and available slack) when considering new biomarker proposals? Sort of like the start-one;stop-one idea>
  • Steering might consider the upper bounds on resources. Limited staff. Limited weekly time slots for calls when West Coast, East Coast and Europe all want to be on calls
• for outside secretariats that can defray the resource issues
• The Modality Coordination Committee is responsible for balancing its allocated and available resources across its Biomarker Committees.
  • <Think about what might be good triggers for this periodic review? maybe dashboard updates? certainly any time the CC plans to submit a new proposal to Steering>
• One tool for doing this is dissolving Biomarker Committees or making them dormant.
  • One BC might be waiting for groundwork and could go dormant and free up time for others in the same CC - but there is a risk that the new one is still working when groundwork comes back. How will CC resolve?
  • BC might go dormant because no things in the near future they expect to add - give time for adoption, free up resources for others
  • Mostly BCs would go Dormant - even if they reach Stage 4/5, profiles might need review/update cycle with advances/new data after a couple of years
• Start discussion with staff - tracking total # of calls per quarter or half or year or something in the dashboard.

Other Committees

Other Committees, such as the Process Committee, the QIDW Oversight Committee, and the Sustainability Task Force, are created, made dormant, and/or dissolved by the Steering Committee as part of normal business.