Committee Servicing

These webpages are mainly addressed to Committee Secretaries, but with a further specific page for authors of committee papers. However, parts of them may also be useful to others with an interest in the committee system, such as Chairs of Committees, or members of the administrative or clerical staff who undertake certain tasks on behalf of Committee Secretaries.

For central College committees, Committee Secretaries are the members of the administrative staff who are listed in the Composition Statement for the relevant Committee (on the Committee System Webpages) as having that role. The Secretary of a Departmental Board is normally the Departmental Administrator for the Department concerned.

Following consultation with the Senior Management Team, all Chairs and Secretaries of central College committees, and all Heads and Administrators of academic departments, the then Governance Committee approved formal Guidelines on the Role of the Committee Secretary on 1 March 2005. This is intended to be a generic benchmark for the role, with some flexibility according to the circumstances of particular Committees and their Secretaries. It is available as a background reference document for College processes such as the planning of administrative staffing arrangements, performance review and role analysis.

The guidance given here addresses in more detail the operational implications of the more formal policy document for Committee Secretaries themselves, as well as detailed practical matters which that document did not aim to cover.

The focus of the present guidance is on the role of the Committee Secretaries as coordinators and facilitators of decision-making processes, seeing their committees in the context of the wider committee system and managing the flow of business to help the system as a whole work effectively. Committee Secretaries also have key responsibilities as keepers of long-term written records, and the importance of this aspect of the role is increasing.