Procedure for committee reporting and policy making

The intent of our “strengthened and empowered” committee structure is to engage Department members in setting and implementing the policies that govern our workplace lives. As the saying goes, the price of democracy is participation. Accordingly, it is every Department member’s responsibility to review Committee minutes and to participate in the Unit and Joint meetings. If you cannot attend a meeting, please relay your opinions to the Committee chair and/or Department Heads.

The following process will surely be refined, but here is how things will work to begin with (2001).

1. Committee Chairs will circulate Committee minutes and recommendations to the faculty, and send them to Sara Griffith for posting at AdminWorld, at least one week prior to the meeting at which the recommendations will be addressed.
2. Committee Chairs will report, a necessary, and recommendations will be acted upon at the meeting (approved, modified, rejected, or returned to committee). Our policy will be to seek consensus. If this is not possible, the recommendation will be put too a vote. The issues of voting rights and veto power remain to be defined in future meetings,.
3. Committee Chairs will update the Committee minutes with actions taken at the meeting and forward the revised document to Sara Griffith.
4. The Department Head responsible for minutes of the meeting (Crops ADH for Crops Unit, Soils ADH for Soils Unit, DH for Joint, etc.) will write up a general set of minutes summarizing key actions taken, circulate the document to the Department, and forward to Sara.
5. Sara will link the updated Committee reports (step 3) to the meeting minutes and post.
6. Sara will archive the original committee minutes.