DUE AUG 30

1. Ensure all committee members have access to the committee’s official Senate Google drive folders.
2. Ensure meetings of your committee for the entire academic year are calendared and that all committee members have calendar invites. We recommend that links to the Google drive and important documents are included in calendar invites.
3. Review your committee membership using the online rosters spreadsheet hosted on the Senate website, and:

• Send any updates to your committee’s meeting schedule/details for the year (dates, times and locations/modality) to [email protected]. 
• Send a list of vacancies or term updates for your committee to [email protected].

DUE SEPT 30

1. Submit your Annual Agenda. Develop the committee’s Annual Agenda (list of priorities for the year) and save it in your committee’s official Senate Google drive folder before submitting it to the Senate SEC as an Information Item.

• Email [email protected] and [email protected] if you have or expect to have a vacancy on your committee.
• Senate and Senate Core Committee Chairs do not appoint members to their committee (this includes students and staff). Per the policy file, members are nominated by CCE or the Senate Chair and confirmed by the Senate. The Chair of CCE or Seante Chair will work with Staff Affairs to identify staff nominees, and with A.S. to identify student nominees. If there is a vacancy on your committee, and you have someone in mind who may want to serve on the committee, you can pass along when you notify CCE about the vacancy. 
• You shall respond to Committee Roster Audits (may be sent from CCE, Senate Officers, or the Senate Analyst).
• Develop your committee members to be future chairs! Committees that have disrupted leadership changes can falter, or experience setbacks in their work, which can be detrimental to shared governance. The more engaged and involved your committee members are, the more likely they will be willing to chair when you are ready to step down. Bring them to Senate meetings to co-present, have them do minutes or help with agendas or annual reports. 

• Unless otherwise stated in the committee charter, your committee must convene at least once per semester. However, you can set the schedule based on what is required for the work load (e.g. referrals, committee-initiated projects). Scheduling days/times, especially for larger committees, may require Doodle polls, etc. to establish a time that works for most.
• Quorum is required for your committee to take action (e.g. voting), and quorum for committees is 50% of all seats (vacant or filled) present at a meeting. If quorum is not met, discussion can occur, but voting would need to wait until there is quorum established.
• Ensure all members have calendar invites, Zoom links, meeting materials ahead of time to prepare, etc.
• For larger committee projects, you may establish permanent or ad hoc (temporary) sub committees. Keep in mind that permanent subcommittees require an updated Committee Charter (policy file update).

Action Item: initiates change to a policy or procedure, or requires action to follow up. EX: updating a policy beyond editorial changes (changes the intent), confirming a nomination of someone to committee.

Information Item: describes an update on a project or status, or informs Senate of editorial based change in policy, etc. EX: reporting results of an election that has already occured or items already enacted, providing an update on progress.

NOTE: Monthly submissions to the SEC/Senate are not mandatory. This process applies during any month where the committee does have items to communicate to the Senate (e.g., policy updates, annual reports).

1. Construct the Action or Information Item Memorandum (often called and "Action Memo" or "Information Memo") and submit it to the Senate Executive Committee (SEC):
   • Address your memorandum to SEC and/or Senate.
   • Do not combine your information and action items in the same document -- submit each item in a separate memo.
   • PDF Format is preferred.
   • Any policy file changes should be red-lined so the member of the Senate can easily discern what changes have been made to the policy. The sample Action Memo provided shows an example of red-lining textual changes.
   • Items should be named with the following naming conventions: date-type of memo-committee-brief description. Note: do not use spaces or capital letters in the names.
     

     Example Naming Conventions

     SEC	2023-08-22_action_sec_app_brief-description.pdf
     	2023-08-22_info_sec_app_brief-description.pdf
     Senate	2023-09-05_action_senate_app_brief-description.pdf
     	2023-09-05_info_senate_app_brief-description.pdf

     SAMPLE Action Memo

2. Submit the memo and related documents (PDF) no later than the submission deadline published in the Senate Calendar (typically the Monday of the week BEFORE an SEC meeting). Items must be submitted to the SEC and reviewed before they are placed on the Senate agenda (unless added from the Senate floor -- see item #4 below). 

3. Items received after the submission deadline will be included on the agenda for a subsequent meeting and may be delayed in reaching the Senate. If the item is urgent, and it is arriving late, in addition to uploading your memo(s) to the shared folder, please also send a PDF of your submission to the University Senate ([email protected]) with the subject "Late Submission."

NOTE: Any Senator may make a Motion to Amend the Agenda during any Senate meeting to add or remove items from the Senate agenda during a meeting in progress, which requires the approval of 2/3 of the voting members present.

Upon receipt of a Referral Letter from the Vice Chair of the Senate:

1. Bring the referral to your committee and organize/complete the work to address it. Be sure to include collaboration with any additional stakeholders, including other committees, prgorams, offices, etc., as appropriate.
2. Use Trello, the web hosted referral chart, to input notes on your referral progress as needed.
3. Submit a an Action or Information Item memo for an SEC meeting for inclusion in the Senate agenda (instructions above) as your official response to the referral.
4. Present on your item at Senate.

GUIDE: Managing Referrals in Trello

NOTE: It is the chairs responsibility to check Trello regularly and ensure all active referrals, even the ones that existed before you were chair, are addressed. If you have questions about the referrals in your committee's section of the Trello site, please email [email protected].  

In order to ensure information and documentation for each committee is preserved, all committees are assigned an official Senate Google Drive folder. These folders must be kept organized and are meant to store committee documents such as:

• Annual Agendas
• Rosters
• Meeting Agendas & Minutes
• Action and Information Items
• Annual Reports

Note: Senate Core Committees are required to publish each agenda/minutes within 30 days of a meeting.  Combining the agenda and minutes in one single document is the preferred method.

STORE: Committee Documents

Report as needed to [email protected] and [email protected]:

• Mid-year change to committee membership.
• A member of your committee has stopped attending without explanation or communication, and does not respond to your inquiries.

NOTE: Typically students are not identified for committee seats until September, so you can expect them to begin attending in Sept/Oct of eacxh year.

1. Review the committee's charter in the policy file for accuracy and assess if any updates to the charter are warranted. You can find your committee’s charter by downloading the most recent policy file and then using the CTRL+F function to search for the name of your committee. The charter is the section of the policy file that defines the committee’s background, membership, functions, subcommittees, etc. 
2. Review any and all sections of the policy file related to the committee’s work (e.g. CCE might review and/or update the policy governing how elections are run). If you aren’t sure which sections of the policy file apply to your committee’s work, brainstorm some key terms. For example, CCE might brianstorm terms like elections, substitutes, committees, etc. Once you have your list of terms, download the most recent policy file and complete a series of CTRL+F searches for each of the terms you came up with to find relevant sections. If there is not already a list of policy file sections related to the work of the committee saved in the committee’s official Senate Google drive folder, create one and revise it as appropriate.
3. If the committee feels updates to the charter or other sections of the policy file are warranted, they should develop revised policy file language and submit requested updates as an Action Item to SEC for inclusion on the SEC/Senate agendas.  

NOTE; It is recommended that each committee complete the annual poicy review as early as possible each year, so that any proposed updates have the opportunity to get through the Senate in that same year.

DUE MID-APRIL

1. Elect a chair for the next AY during your March meeting (ex officio chairs, or chairs named by position, need not complete this step). 
2. Create a draft committee roster for the next AY by surveying committee members about their plans for AY 25-26. Get confirmation from all committee members -- don't assume members will return because they have not yet completed their term (e.g. sabbatical). Your current roster is posted on the Senate website.
3. Email the draft committee roster for the next AY and the name of the person who will serve as chair to  [email protected] and [email protected].
4. Collate your committee’s Annual Report and submit it as an Information Item for the April SEC/Senate meeting of the year. An Annual Report should include: 

• Chair-elect for the next AY.
• Draft committee roster for next AY.
• Summary of committee work and accomplishments during the concluding AY, including: work related to all assigned Senate referrals and non-referral action taken by the committee. Be sure to note any work in progress, identifying work that will conclude by the end of May and work that will continue into the next AY. 
• Draft agenda/goals for the next AY.

NOTE: Committee Chairs may submit a revised Annual Report for the concluding AY at the first meeting of the next AY, if significant updates are made between April SEC and May 31.

NOTE: Campus Committees with Senate Appointed Membership are not required to submit an Annual Report (step 4), which includes the following committees: Bookstore Advisory, CFAC, Copyrights and Patents, Freedom of Expression, Honorary Degrees, Intercollegiate Athletic Council, PBAC, SDSU Press, Promotions & Tenure, Student Grievance, Student Health Advisory Board, Student Media, Teacher Prep, Transportation Advisory. 

SAMPLE Annual Report