Following the news of Karla Soares-Weiser’s appointment as the new Editor in Chief of the Cochrane Library, which was the Governing Board’s principal focus at the Governance Meetings in Krakow earlier this month, the Board is pleased to report on its other main items of business:
1. The Board spent a valuable and important day exploring all of the issues surrounding the future publishing contract for the Cochrane Library
An open tender process will be launched in May inviting potential future publishing partners to bid for the rights to publish the Library beginning January 2021. The Board focused on three main themes linked to this decision: Cochrane’s future financial sustainability; our open access and accessibility ambitions; and our Cochrane Library product & operational strategy. It was agreed what the Governing Board oversight and involvement of the process should be; the organizational aims and objectives of the future publishing arrangements; and the criteria which will be applied in evaluating the competing bids. These strategic discussions gave all Board members an excellent foundation to inform its involvement in the process over the next six months, including final consideration of the special Project Board’s recommendation in September 2019. The Board recognized it is important to keep the Cochrane community well informed on the future publishing contract process throughout this period; and further communications on it will follow.
2. The Board and the Senior Management Team discussed the new format of the Governance Meetings, which were based around extended cross-group strategic sessions made up of the leaders of all Cochrane Group types
All agreed that this new format was a success, with many participants providing feedback that it was far more useful to be able to discuss key issues together as one leadership and management group. The Central Executive Team is currently conducting a survey on the meeting, which you are welcome to complete if you attended, and will use the feedback to inform planning for next year and beyond.
All Cochrane members and supporters are also invited to view a round-up of the meeting activities including videos, pictures, and documents discussed. We are pleased to share with you the opening ceremonies for the Cochrane Governance Meetings 2019. We also have a recording of the Cochrane Review Group Networks Panel. This was an interactive discussion and presentation session on the opportunities and challenges for all Group-types in supporting the continuous improvement of editorial standards for Cochrane Reviews and the development of CRG Networks. Even more videos will be shared in the coming weeks.
3. The contribution of the Cochrane Council at the Governance Meetings was greatly appreciated
It played an important role in securing deeper community involvement and engagement on the strategic priorities discussed during the meetings. It was agreed that, in future, the Board and Council meetings at Governance Meetings and Colloquia should be held on different days, to facilitate interaction between the two and to make it easier for the Senior Management Team to support them during their meetings.
4. The Board commended the success of all Cochrane Groups and the Central Executive Team in delivering on the organization’s strategic priorities in 2018
CEO Mark Wilson and Editor in Chief David Tovey reported to the Board and Cochrane Group leaders at the opening strategic session of the Governance meetings (View Mark's PowerPoint presentation and David's PowerPoint presentation. See the 2018 final report on the delivery of the Strategy to 2020 Targets for 2018 on the Cochrane Community website here). The delays to the delivery of an integrated technology workflow for Cochrane Review production were noted and the Board is confident in the plan in place to complete this project in 2019.
It was also recognized that this year’s plan to run a tender process for a Cochrane Library publisher from 2021 may impact on Central Executive Team’s capacity to support the delivery of some of Cochrane’s organizational 2019 Targets. This situation will be monitored closely to ensure that everyone has the appropriate support.
5. The presentations made by the Senior Editors of the new CRG Networks at the strategic sessions were excellent
You can view recordings of both the presentations and the question and answer period. The Board is particularly excited by the possibility of closer interaction between these Networks and Geographic Groups in developing priorities for review production and training, which were a key theme of the discussions.
Karla Soares-Weiser reported back to the Board on the positive impact the new Support Fellows provided to the Networks through funding from the UK’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The Board recognized that, as expected, the Networks are at different stages of their development, but that each is working hard to deliver their own strategic plan.
6. The Board approved a new way of managing organizational risk for the organization
This new way of managing organizational risk provides clearer ‘ownership’ of different organizational risks, managed by the Senior Management Team who report back to the Board at each of our meetings.
7. A working sub-group of the Board will be established to look into some important issues related to Cochrane Colloquia
There is strong interest in ensuring that Cochrane Groups in Low- and-Middle Income Countries and/or those that might not normally consider hosting a Colloquium, feel able to do so as an important opportunity to build capacity for Cochrane activities all over the world.
8. Several important decisions were also made on Board membership
Catherine Marshall was formally re-appointed as Treasurer following her re-appointment to the Board; Tracey Howe was thanked for her contribution as Treasurer in the interim period. Marguerite Koster reported that she plans to step down from her position as Board Co-Chair at the end of August due to increased commitments at her job with Kaiser Permanente in Southern California. The Board recorded its grateful thanks to her and will run an open appointments process for a new Co-Chair within the next few months.
The Board also decided to re-appoint Martin Burton as Co-Chair for one more year, to September 2020. Martin may only serve one more year – rather than the normal two – as he will reach the six-year limit on Board membership, as specified by Cochrane’s Articles of Association, in 2020. It was agreed that staggering the appointments of Co-Chairs is important for Board stability and continuity of decision-making.
Finally, the Board agreed to invest more resources in recruiting a Board member from a Low-and Middle-Income Country by engaging the support of an external recruitment agency with experience in sourcing Board members for charities.
In closing the meeting, the Board once again recorded its sincere thanks to outgoing Editor in Chief David Tovey for his outstanding contributions to Cochrane over the past decade.
The full Minutes from the Board’s meeting in Krakow will be available in the coming weeks. In the meantime, you are welcome to read all the open access supporting documents on the Cochrane Community website.
Yours sincerely,
Cochrane Governing Board
Martin Burton (Co-Chair)
Marguerite Koster(Co-Chair)