Committee Servicing

Committee Record-keeping and related matters

• Electronic records
• Paper files
• "Disaster recovery"
• Handing over a Committee to a new Secretary

As Goldsmiths moves towards an institution-wide system of electronic management of records, electronic material is fast displacing paper as the main means of storing information. As far as the central committee system is concerned, the advent of the Committee Archive in the Summer of 2007 has clearly established the primacy of electronic record-keeping in that context.

One of the most important duties of a Committee Secretary is to upload the agenda and all the papers of each meeting to the Committee Archive (including any tabled papers) within 36 hours of the meeting, and then to upload the minutes as soon as they have been approved by the Chair.  

This makes it more important than ever that committee papers are submitted to Committee Secretaries electronically. Where this does not happen, try to obtain an electronic copy after the meeting if possible. If you cannot do so, it is important that you arrange for the paper to be scanned, so that the Committee's electronic archive is complete.

Committee Secretaries should seek the advice of the Corporate Governance & Information Management Department on the file format for scanning, as this is currently under review. The Department has a scanner available for occasional use, by appointment, by Committee Secretaries who do not otherwise have access to one.

Electronic records

A separate folder should be kept for each meeting, containing the final version of each paper which the meeting received. Folders and files should be structured and named according to the Committee Archive protocols notified to you by the Corporate Governance & Information Management Department, to avoid the need to reorganise material prior to uploading to the Archive.

Any background papers, or followup correspondence, and any drafts which it is necessary to keep, should be separated from the main run – perhaps in one or more subfolders of the meeting folder. The main part of the meeting file should be a version cleared of all uncirculated versions and background information, as this will facilitate uploading to the Committee Archive after the meeting. Do not keep background and draft material any longer than necessary. Such material is in liable to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (subject to the operation of any relevant Exemptions), and even if the disclosure itself presents no problem in principle, the collation of it represents additional workload. In addition, if the information contains personal data, gratuitous retention could infringe the rights of the person concerned under the Data Protection Act.

As far as possible, try to keep your electronic records so that one electronic file corresponds to one paper number. For example, you can merge two Word documents, one in landscape and one in portrait, to a single file by using two different sections in the document, and you can paste simple spreadsheets into Word. You might have more difficulty with a more complicated spreadsheet: in this case, keep the spreadsheet and its wordprocessed commentary together in the meeting folder by using a subfolder.

Where a paper in Open Business has a Confidential appendix, there should be two separate electronic files (with associated filenames) for the two categories. Any Restricted Minutes should be kept in separate electronic files, with associated filenames. (See the College Policy on the Categorisation of Business for an explanation of the Categories, and of the term "Restricted Minutes".)

Please do not use tracked changes in committee papers (or minutes or agendas) to indicate such matters as proposed revisions to regulations: this is lost in some of the standard processing operations (eg importing and pasting documents to assemble them in a single file). Instead, format the fonts using bold, strikethrough and so on to produce the same visual effect in a less transient form.

There are no longer automatic footers on committee papers: these were abolished during the Spring of 2010 in response to an alteration in Microsoft Word software which meant the function of footers within the previous system was no longer viable.

Avoid automatic numbering in committee papers and minutes - primarily because it causes any extracts made later to lose their original numbers. You need to disable the default setting for this on your computer: in Microsoft Word, try "Tools - - Autocorrect Options - - Autoformat as you type, and then untick "Automatic Numbered lists".

You need to ensure that at least one colleague (and preferably two) has access to all your electronic committee records and current files, in case a query arises when you are unavailable - particularly in the case of sudden illness. Regular backup of these files is extremely important, and you may wish to take extra backups at critical periods, such as the last few days leading up to an agenda circulation. Shared network access drives can be useful in managing committee material.

Your line manager, and your personal Secretary if you have one, should know who has access to your Committee's records (if they are not these same people, which will often be the case).

Paper files

Keep a complete set of all the circulated papers, agendas and minutes, completely unmarked apart from a note of any significant errors, plus your working set from each meeting (including any background papers you used), organised in some consistent, logical and preferably fairly simple way.

You need to decide for how long you will keep the notes which you take at a meeting after its conclusion. Bear in mind that under the Freedom of Information Act you have no automatic right to any privacy in respect of these notes (as you took them as part of your employment with a public authority): they would be disclosable to anyone on request unless subject to an Exemption by virtue of their specific content. It is however normally advisable to keep notes at least until after the next meeting.

As the electronic Committee Archive reaches maturity, it will become possible to reduce the length of time for which official paper files are kept. This is in fact one of the purposes of the Committee Archive, as the space taken up by long-term paper storage represents a significant wastage of resources.

"Disaster recovery" questions

There are many satisfactory ways of maintaining efficiency and security of your filing systems. However, given the hectic pace of life, it is probably inevitable that most people will fall short of their own ideal for much of the time!

In reflecting on your own practice, it may be useful to imagine for a few moments the following events occurring about 24-48 hours before sending an agenda to print, and to ask yourself how difficult it would be for you (and/or your colleagues) to keep the show on the road:

• The College network suddenly crashes, and there is no recovery for 4 days.
• The hard drive on your pc crashes and all the files on it are irretrievably lost.
• You have a sudden illness or accident which makes you unable to come to the office or do normal work for 4 days, but you are well enough for fairly short telephone calls. You may be somewhere where you can access College network files over the internet briefly, but you have no access to any manual files.

......then you can think about how much easier things are most of the time!

Handing over a Committee to a new Secretary

What you need to hand over to your successor will be quite variable, depending on whether you know them (and how much relevant experience they have), the nature of the business, and exactly how you manage your records in detail. However, as a minimum you should always aim to leave them the following:

• A complete set of the final versions of circulated papers, agendas and minutes, in both electronic and paper form, for the period for which you have been Secretary, with any obsolete versions or superfluous duplicates deleted/discarded (or a clear explanation of their status if there is a reason for keeping them on file)
• A summary of where the electronic and paper files are located (and how they relate to each other, where this is not obvious).
• A list of contact details for members of the Committee.
• A file of pending business and business waiting to go to the next meeting, together with any necessary explanatory notes.

You also need to inform the members of the committee of the date of handover, and how they can contact the new person. The new Secretary should know how to contact you in case of important queries: this is especially helpful if you are leaving the College, although there is of course no obligation in this case.