Resources for Committee Secretaries

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Resources for Committee Secretaries

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Resources for staff supporting School Academic Committees

The Academic Secretariat is responsible for providing support to Academic Senate and its Standing Committees listed in Part A and Part B of the Academic Senate Standing Committees Policy. 

School Academic Committees listed under Part C of the Policy are serviced by School administrative staff.  This page has been developed as a resource for staff servicing School Academic Committees, and for any other staff who assume the role of committee secretary as part of their duties. 

The primary responsibility of the committee secretary is to work in partnership with the Chair to manage the business of the committee.  This may include maintaining the membership list, organising meetings, preparing agendas, and writing minutes and reports.

Please click on the links below for further information.

2012 Academic Senate and Standing Committees Meeting Schedule (opens in a new window) (PDF, 28Kb)

Documents and templates for guidance

James Fitzgibbon
Associate Director
Secretariat
Phone: 9678 7803 

Orientation for Committee Secretaries

The primary responsibility of the committee secretary is to work in partnership with the Chair to manage the business of the committee. The work may include maintaining the membership list, organising meetings, preparing agendas, preparing minutes, reports and action sheets, and chasing up progress on actions required by the committee.

Read the terms of reference for any committee for which you act as secretary.  The terms of reference for School Academic Committees of Academic Senate can be found in Part C of the Academic Senate Standing Committees Policy on the Policy DDS

Other relevant academic policies to be found on the Policy DDS include:

School Academic Committee Business

Examples of issues that may be on the agenda for School Academic Committees are:

  • Considering new and amended unit templates and course documents – the document titled “Courses and units approvals process” (opens in a new window) (PDF 33Kb), contains information about courses approvals timelines and sample recommendations to be placed on the agenda
  • Development of good teaching and learning, and research training, practices
  • Academic results processing
  • Monitoring review of grade decisions
  • Other academic issues relevant to the school.

There should be a good working relationship between the Chair and Secretary. The Secretary will need to act on behalf of the Chair regarding issues relating to the Committee or a particular meeting.

Check the requirements of the Chair

  • Will they accept late items, or only a limited type of item,  if they are not ready in time for the agenda circulation?
  • What are their expectations about the nature of  the minutes?
  • Provide advice to the Chair, and where appropriate, assist in preparation of papers and information to inform the Committee.

Agendas

  • A well prepared agenda provides the structure that underpins a meeting. Put as much detail as possible about the items to be considered. Say what needs to be decided, or indicate the ground to be covered. Put the most important items first if possible. Put items ‘for information’ at the end, and make it clear that they are for noting.
  • Include a recommendation in relation to each item to be considered to provide committee members with a guide as to what items need to be approved or recommended to the College Education, Assessment and Progression Committee.
  • Starring of items – this is a system to enable items to be agreed or noted without being discussed at the meeting, resulting in a more efficient meeting. Only items that the Chair considers need to be discussed are starred on the agenda. At the beginning of the meeting, members are asked whether they wish to star additional items for discussion. A resolution is passed to agree or note all items which are not starred.
  • Urgent business can be considered outside the normal meeting schedule if it is not feasible to assemble all members for a meeting. This can be done electronically and procedures (opens in a new window) (PDF 31Kb) are included in this information on how to do this.

Ensure that the meeting is valid

  • At the meeting, ensure there is a quorum for the meeting to proceed.
  • At any meeting of a School Academic Committee, a quorum is one-half (or if one-half is not a whole number, the whole number next higher than one-half) of the total number of current members of the Committee. If the meeting is inquorate, or becomes so during the course of a meeting, the decisions made can only be treated as ‘informal’ and need to be ratified when there is a quorum. This can be done by electronic circulation of the decisions to the full committee for confirmation afterwards, or at the next meeting.
  • Student representatives are excluded for consideration of results and are therefore not counted as part of the quorum for those items.

Minutes

  • The minutes of a meeting are official university records and can be used as evidence. They should be saved in TRIM. Minutes should not be a word for word record of what was said, but should reflect the key points of what occurred.  Briefly state what the committee considered, summarise the discussion, record what the committee decided, and allocate the action agreed to a person. The minutes do not have to say who said what.
  • Deal promptly with preparing minutes and action sheets, and monitor action required –communicating recommendations of the Committee to other relevant committees as soon as possible.
  • Promulgate decisions of the Committee to appropriate University units. Include the Course Data Management Team in Registrar's Office on the distribution list.
  • Preparation of agendas and minutes is covered in the course ‘Taking Good Minutes’ offered several times a year by ODU.

Filing of documents

A sample of the TRIM Thesaurus and titling conventions can be obtained from the Academic Secretariat or from the Records and Archives Management Services.

Appointment of members

Maintain the membership of the committee according to University By-Laws, Rules, Academic Governance Policy and Academic Senate Standing Committees Policy.

Meeting Checklist

Understand the role and terms of reference of the Committee, and the context in which it operates.

Ensure there is an up to date membership list, and a distribution list which includes any other staff who need to receive papers and attend meetings.

Arrange a schedule of meetings for the year and send reminders by email closer to the meeting.

Effective Meeting Procedures

Lead up to a meeting

  • Choose a time and a venue – (this should already have been confirmed by email to members and other attendees)
  • Confirm the meeting is going ahead and call for items and papers, usually 2 weeks prior to the meeting, by email to all interested people
  • Consult the Chair about agenda items
  • Draft an agenda for consideration by the Chair, checking the previous minutes for business arising, and adding new business
  • Compile the papers and circulate with a finalised agenda, by email, 1 week before the meeting (consider placing on the web)
  • Ensure that each document circulated is labelled with the School name, meeting number, and meeting date. Circulated documents should be in PDF.
  • Research for and brief the Chair, produce briefing notes
  • Arrange for availability of meeting aids, such as laptop, data projector, or teleconferencing facilities
  • Arrange for the provision of tea, coffee and water, or for catering if necessary.

Meeting follow-up

To ensure that any actions arising from the meeting are undertaken according to the committee's direction, and that relevant people are informed of the outcomes of particular items, an important part of meeting follow-up is to ensure that you record action and information from the meeting properly.

These should always be recorded as part of the outcome of an item, but there are several different ways you can go about this - much will be governed by local practice and the preference of the Committee and the Chair.

Methods might include:-

  • a rolling spreadsheet of action items, continuously updated throughout the year (a document additional to the Minutes and included in the agenda papers for each meeting);
  • noting action responsibilities in a margin contained in the Minutes;
  • or simply inserting an additional line under the conclusion to each item indicating who is responsible for what - using bolding or italics can be useful here.

Post meeting action in consultation with the Chair:

  • Prepare draft unconfirmed minutes, with action items, and a separate action sheet if necessary, and send to the Chair for approval
  • If required, prepare a summary report of the meeting for release to the School
  • Circulate the unconfirmed minutes and action sheet within 7 days if possible. Monitor action required – including communicating recommendations of the Committee to other relevant committees or officers
  • Promulgate decisions of the Committee to the appropriate areas.

ODU Training

A number of useful courses are offered by the Organisational Development Unit throughout the year.

Examples:

  • Taking Good Minutes at UWS
  • Running Effective Meetings
  • Business and Report Writing

Consult the ODU Course Calendar for information.

Useful contacts

Secretariat staff can provide assistance (by telephone or email) to committee secretaries.

Course Data Management Team

Prepared by:
Secretariat
Office of Governance Services
University of Western Sydney

Acknowledgement
The Monash University’s Executive Services website provided a useful model for the organisation of this resource package.

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