Steering groups
All ULF projects are responsible to a project steering group which meets at least every 6 months, although most meet quarterly. The steering group’s purpose is to assess the effectiveness of your project in terms of governance, management, delivery against outcomes and milestones, quality assurance of learning activity, support and guidance, and progress towards sustainability of the learning agenda.
In summary, they assess whether the project is doing what you intended!
Steering groups are usually made up of key managers and project leaders and provide overall guidance and direction for your project. When engaged and motivated, a steering group can assist you by providing support, guidance and challenge. If you can, maximise the impact of your project by engaging the top level of management in the union with your project’s steering group. This provides a mechanism for the flow of information to the main committees of the union, and a great opportunity to demonstrate the effect of the work that the project is doing for the membership and future members. See a sample progress report from the Project Manager to the steering group.
Your steering group
- Who’s on the steering group? How many people are involved?
- Who will chair the meeting? (Ideally the most senior person from the union, not the project manager)
- What remit does it have? Is it a written remit?
- What links are there to the union at large?
- Are outcomes reported?
Terms of Reference
Terms of reference (TOR) set boundaries for the project and ensure a shared understanding of the project outcomes and end date. The TOR need to be clear and agreed by the group, ideally at the first steering group meeting.
Terms of Reference can include:
- Mission statement describing the group’s purpose
- A list of persons/organisations involved and their role
- Desired outcomes/outputs
- List of challenges to address
- Project administration - timeframes, meetings (who will take minutes, produce reports etc); sign off procedures; lines of command; budget; what constitutes a project ‘emergency’ and contingency plans
The TOR can be saved on the ULF database with any supporting documents to save printing them.
Further Documents are:
