POC Charter

Plant Ontology Consortium Charter

The mission of the Plant Ontology Consortium (POC) is to develop a universal controlled vocabularly to describe the anatomic structures and developmental stages of members of the plant kingdom. The core consortium members are the four groups funded by the NSF in the fall of 2003: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cornell University, University of Missouri, and The Carnegie Institute. Consortium members participate in POC core mailing list and have full read/write privileges for the Consortium web site (www.plantontology.org) and CVS server.

As the project matures, the POC core members will invite other groups to join the consortium. The prospective new member must be sponsored by an existing member of the core. At the first appropriate core consortium PI's conference call, the sponsor will recommend the new member, and the PIs will vote. A quorum of at least three quarters of core consortium PIs (rounded up the nearest whole number) must be present in order for the vote to be binding. Once admitted to membership the non-core members will have the same rights and privileges as the core members.

Criteria to be used when considering for admission to the POC core include (1) willingness and ability to provide a substantial intellectual contribution to the POC; (2) a commitment to the open source principles of the POC; (3) sufficient time to participate in POC conference calls and quarterly meetings. Academic and industry partners are equally welcome to join the POC core.