5 April 2022
Charter and Scope
The User Advisory Committee (UAC) is a committee reporting to the SCC Board of Members (“Board”). In the context of this committee, a User is an individual who interacts directly with Specify software products. At a mission level, the UAC will provide insight to the organization to ensure awareness and understanding of existing and emerging requirements for collection management and research. This involves communicating with the SCC staff and Board regarding collection management practices, cataloging and transactional processes, legal requirements related to collections and collection data, migration of collection data (both in and out), integration with external tools and systems, and software User experience. UAC membership will include a balance of those using Specify software on a day-to-day basis for managing collections and those using data from Specify for research. The UAC will advise the board on changes and developments necessary to ensure that Specify remains a competitive collection management system.
Responsibilities and Roles
• To develop and enhance SCC Board and staff understanding of current and evolving requirements for collection management, research, and assessment. This includes having primary responsibility in the Consortium for identifying and prioritizing capabilities needed for Consortium products.
• To gather and/or assess input from member institutions and the broader biodiversity collections community in order to provide advice on how Consortium software development and service priorities can more effectively be aligned with the needs of members and prospective members.
• To provide evaluation of existing Consortium software and services: their completeness, conformance with best practices, compliance with standards, and overall usability. Such evaluation will improve the effectiveness of the Consortium’s products for collection management and research.
• To serve as a liaison to other relevant organizations and initiatives, to foment collaboration with them, and to advocate for the Consortium.
• Utilize Specify’s User Forum to collect feedback and increase and improve communication with the broader user-base.