The central coordination of the committee system: Timetable and memberships

• Timetable of Committee meetings
• Appointed membership of Committees

Overview

The Timetable of Committee Meetings, and the Membership and Terms of Reference of committees, are coordinated centrally by the Corporate Governance & Information Management Department, in consultation with the officers of all Goldsmiths committees. There is an annual process for planning these matters, which terminates with the publication of details for the following academic yearduring the Summer Vacation. The involvement of Committee Secretaries in the consultation process is explained below.

The timetable is somewhat variable from year to year. Where elements of the system are under review it is, for example, only after it has been established which committees will exist in the following year that the timetable of meetings can be finalised and all vacant places filled with new members.

This means that once the structure for the following academic year becomes clear, the process of consultation on detailed arrangements needs to be carried out as quickly as possible. The cooperation of Committee Secretaries in responding promptly to any circulars - usually sent from cgim@gold.ac.uk - is particularly important.

Unsolicited emails to the Corporate Governance & Information Management Department on membership and Committee Timetable issues should also be sent to cgim@gold.ac.uk, rather than to the personal email addresses of members of staff.

Although Departmental Boards are formally committees of Academic Board, their dates are not fixed by the Corporate Government & Information Management Department. These dates should take account of the need for reporting to Academic Board (the dates of which are normally known with a high degree of certainty by Easter in the previous year). The guidelines below about administrative procedures between Committee Secretaries and the Corporate Government & Information Management Department do not therefore apply to Secretaries of Departmental Boards.

Timetable of Committee Meetings

A first draft of the timetable for committee meetings for the following academic year will normally be sent to you by the Corporate Governance & Information Management Department in the Spring term or in the Easter Vacation. This will take into account any requests about the timing of meetings which you have made since the publication of the previous committee timetable: these should be sent in writing, preferably by email to cgim@gold.ac.uk.

Once you receive the timetable, please respond as quickly as possible, consistent with considering it thoroughly. It is essential that you send a positive acceptance of the proposed dates of your meetings. You are not asked to consult with Chairs or with members of the Senior Management Team, as this is undertaken separately, for all committees together, at the next stage. You may of course also have a specific issue to discuss with the Chair of your Committee, or with Secretaries of related committees about the timetable, and there is no problem about this provided that you still respond by the deadline. However, please do not circulate the dates to other members of your Committee at this stage.

If you will not be Secretary in the year to which the draft timetable relates, you should still respond on all but personal availability.

In confirming the dates on the first draft you need to consider:

• Your own availability both on the meeting date and in the period during which you would be preparing the agenda (in particular in the week leading up to the circulation date for papers (between 14 and 7 days before the meeting), when your workload will be heaviest). Try to consider, as far as you can foresee them, any personal circumstances which you know must significantly limit your availability at known times, as well as commitments at Goldsmiths. (If you will not be Secretary next year, try to foresee issues arising from other job-related commitments of the future Secretary that you know. If the new Secretary has already been appointed, CGIM will write to them directly as well as to you.)  

• The practicalities of passing any necessary recommendations or reports from the meeting to the parent body or elsewhere, taking into account the time needed by you or others to do any work involved between meetings. (If your Committee is a parent body it is advisable to consider also the equivalent issue in relation to reports to you - and discuss these with the Secretaries of the lower committees where necessary.)  If your Committee presents its minutes to its parent body (all Committees of Academic Board and a few other bodies do this), you must ensure that you can set aside time to meet the Academic Board papers deadline after the proposed date (taking into account that the Chair may take several days to approve your draft).

• The availability of any person with whom you may in practice share the task of servicing your committee, and their opinions on relevant aspects of the arrangements proposed. (This is because they are not necessarily known to CGIM and will not be consulted later in the process.)

• Any issues relating to the timing of meetings raised at meetings of your Committee. (You should normally pass these to the Corporate Governance & Information Management Department immediately after the meeting concerned, but this is an opportunity to check for any omissions.)

Dealing with further requests for changes after you have sent in your acceptance is a resource-intensive and difficult process. Please therefore try to avoid this as far as possible. If you do however regard a late change as essential, send it as soon as you can to the Corporate Governance & Information Management Department generic email address cgim@gold.ac.uk. (Please do not send it to an individual member of staff, as this may cause delay if the person involved is away.)

Another email will be sent to Committee Secretaries as soon as possible after the full consultation on the Timetable has been completed and any queries resolved. This will be in the first half of the Summer Vacation at the latest, and during the Summer Term if possible. (By this time room booking information is normally also available.) Please do not assume that any dates are finally confirmed until you receive this second message.

If, after the start of the academic year to which the timetable refers, circumstances occur which mean that you need to change the date of a meeting, or hold an extra one, please contact the Corporate Government & Information Management Department. You will normally be directly responsible for ensuring that there is appropriate consultation on the choice of date with those directly involved in the work of the Committee, and that any necessary adjustments to room bookings are made (including cancellation of bookings made centrally by the Secretariat at the beginning of the year).

Appointed Membership of Committees

Note: This section does not concern appointed student members, or ex officio members of Committees. (Terms used in connection with categories of membership are explained in the Terminology section.)

Most appointed members of Committees (other than student members) fall into one of the following three categories:

• Members appointed by Council: these are not normally members of the College
• Appointed academic members: these are appointed by Academic Board (The system of appointment is under review.)
• Members identified within the composition as appointed by the Warden.

Appointment is normally for three years starting in September. After the third year it is a fairly common practice to invite the member to continue for one further term of three years. This system is set out in detail in the Standing Orders. Where you know that members of your Committee are resigning – either from College as a whole or just from the Committee – please inform the Corporate Government & Information Management Department as soon as you are aware of this, as the process of filling vacancies is otherwise based on the membership expiry dates in the official Membership and Composition.

You are welcome to make suggestions about new members to fill anticipated vacancies. You should normally first discuss with your Chair before sending them to the Corporate Government & Information Management Department (normally before the end of the Spring term, although detailed arrangements will vary from year to year - as notified to you by annual email from the Corporate Government & Information Management Department). However, the matter should not be raised with the individual concerned at this stage. If, as a result of suggestions from you or your Chair, the person or body responsible for the appointment decides to invite a particular individual to become a member, this will be on the understanding that he or she has no previous knowledge of it, and that there is not necessarily an expectation of acceptance. The approval of the Chair of a Committee will normally be obtained before a potential new member is invited to join a committee (except for places occupied by independent members of Council, which are allocated by Nominations Committee (subject to Council approval)).

When making suggestions for new members (and before passing on any suggestions from the Chair or others), the Committee Secretary should check that the person is eligible under the exact terms given in the Composition for the vacant place, and in particular:

• that any member of the academic staff being nominated as representing a departmental Group is in fact a member of staff in one of the departments in the Group (listed in Ordinances);

• that any member of staff being nominated (whether for a Group place or a place which is not discipline-related) is in the appropriate staff category according to the definition of the place in the Composition, noting in particular that:

  academic staff means "the Warden and all persons holding full-time posts or part-time posts equivalent to half-time or more as Professor, Reader, Senior Lecturer and Lecturer"

  senior academic staff means "the Warden, Pro-Wardens, Professors, Readers and Senior Lecturers, and such other members of the Academic Staff of equivalent academic status as may be prescribed by the Ordinances". 

A range of sources of suggestions for committee memberships is used in addition to the officers of the Committee concerned. Heads of academic departments are particularly encouraged to bring forward suggestions, and from time to time there is a general invitation to all members of the College via "gcinfo" to those who may wish to volunteer their own services.

You can expect to receive a circular from the Corporate Governance & Information Management Department informing you of next year's Composition and Membership (as well as the Terms of Reference) early in the Summer Vacation. (During the academic year there will of course be more informal individual contact on any queries and issues relating to your committee in particular.)

Well before the start of the academic year you should contact all your members in all categories: please see Summer Vacation Tasks.