Running Effective Meetings: Keeping It Real, Relevant,

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Running Effective Meetings Keeping It Real,
Relevant, Effective
Utilizing real life scenarios, this breakout will
explore the legal requirements for running senate
meetings, strategies for running effective
meetings that include two way discourse, and
methods for navigating challenging meetings.

• Dianna Chiabotti
• Janet Fulks
• Phillip Maynard
• David Morse
• Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein

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The Brown Act!!

• The Key
• Commitment to openness and transparency
• Commitment to public access to information (not
  mere compliance with the law)

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What does the Brown Act cover?

• The Brown Act applies to meetings of all
  legislative bodies (GC 54952), including
• The Board of Trustees
• Any subcommittee or task force created by the
  Board with a majority of Board members serving on
  the group
• Any subcommittee or task force created by the
  Board which has defined, ongoing charge (either
  decision-making or advisory) OR has a regular
  meeting schedule set by the Board, regardless of
  Board membership

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What does the Brown Act cover?

• A meeting of a legislative body (GC 54952.2)
  occurs whenever a majority of members gather to
  discuss business with their charge.
• A majority can meet at the following provided
  they do not discuss any business within their
  charge among themselves
• Attendance at a conference
• An open meeting of some other group to address
  local issues
• Social gatherings

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Does the Brown Act apply to local academic
senates?

• YES!!!!

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How does it apply to local senates (as well as
your local board)?

• Agendas
• Include time and place
• Mail agenda one week before meeting
• Post agenda 72 hours before meeting
• Special meetings require 24 hour notice and are
  limited to agenda items
• Senates do not call emergency meetings (which do
  not require 24 hour notice)
• Allow for public comments before or during
  discussion of agenda items
• Include all action items on the agenda, with a
  brief description

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Setting Agendas

• Who makes the final call?
• How does this become an inclusive process?
• What do you do with agenda-monopolizers?
• How do you remain within a timeframe?
• What criteria allow you to prioritize items?
• What do you do with items that are never
  addressed?

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Key Points to Remember about Meetings

• All meetings are open
• Closed sessions are for litigation (e.g., senate
  is or will be sued), personnel matters (e.g.
  evaluation of a senate employee), or negotiating
  with a bargaining agent (which senate does not
  do)
• All votes are open no secret ballots

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What to Include on an Agenda

• Welcome
• Public Comment
• Approval of Minutes from Previous meeting
• Approval of Agenda
• Action Items
• Discussion Items
• Committee Reports
• Announcements
• Adjournment

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Public Comment

• Members may respond to public comments but cannot
  take action

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Approval of Minutes

• This is an approval of generally the previous
  months menus. Minor edits are allowed but not
  substantive changes.
• What belongs in the minutes?
• Details?
• Names?
• Content?

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Approval of the Agenda

• A vote to approve the agenda. Requests can be
  made to change order of items but new items
  cannot be added.

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Action Items

• Action can only be taken on items on the agenda
• Exception Action may be taken on non-agenda
  item IF
• need for immediate action is found after the
  agenda is posted
• a vote of two-thirds of members present if more
  than two-thirds of the total membership are
  present, or a unanimous vote if less than
  two-thirds of the total membership is present

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Discussion Items

• These items are discussed but no action can be
  taken. The items can be placed on a future
  agenda for action.

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Yes, there is more to remember!

• All items distributed before or during meetings
  must be available to the public at the meeting
  (reasonable fees may be charged for duplication)
• Exception Items under Title 1 Sections 6253.5,
  6254, or 6254.7
• Be careful of what you distribute at meetings
  they are now public documents
• Set time limits for discussion, especially public
  comments
• Use public comments section of the agenda for
  items not on the agenda
• Keep discussion within the scope of the agenda
  item
• Bring extra copies of documents
• If others bring items to distribute, offer to
  send copies later to those requesting them in
  writing

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Did someone say Bagley-Keene?

• Brown Act governs meeting access for local public
  bodies
• Bagley-Keene codifies similar conditions for
  access to public meetings for state agencies
• Senates are not covered by Bagley-Keene (they are
  not state agencies)

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What about Roberts Rules of Order?

• http//www.robertsrules.com/
• Local senates adopt and incorporate those
  elements that help facilitate debate and the flow
  of meetings
• Important regarding motions and taking action
• Consider having a senate parliamentarian
• Check your local senate constitution and by-laws
  for established processes

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Importance to debates

• Understanding motions
• How to close debate
• How to limit or extend debate
• How to refer to committee
• How to modify wording of a motion
• How to suspend rules
• How to divide motion
• How to table and how to move from the table

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Finding Your Style

• Leading meetings as a new president

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Effective Meetings

• Inform
• Provide a two-way information opportunity
• Take advantage of many minds examining a topic
• Allow all participants to feel important and
  respected
• Create responses to agenda items that are
  relevant and inclusive

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Effective Meetings

• Include expert input on relevant topics.
• Provide adequate information, research, data and
  context to make knowledgeable decisions.
• Guarantee adequate time and input to make an
  inclusive decision.
• Communicate the conclusions and the relevant
  reasons for that conclusion.

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Scenarios

• Curriculum
• Brown Act
• Faculty Evaluation
• Program Review
• ????

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Using the Meeting Cards for Specific Topics
Faculty Evaluations

• Your District is in the process of revising the
  faculty evaluation process. Sticky issues have
  related to the desire of the union to make a
  meaningful evaluation process in order to garner
  a new salary schedule based upon a negotiated
  exchange for revising the process. The faculty
  senate is most concerned that the evaluation
  process consists of adequate emphasis on
  teaching, learning, curriculum development and
  program review. The union does not want to
  include any accountability for faculty fulfilling
  office hours, committee work and college service

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Using the Meeting Cards for Specific Topics
Faculty Evaluations

• Major Issues
• The union has currently taken the position that
  they will create the evaluation process and then
  simply forward the finished product to senate for
  consultation
• The senate feels that the task should be a
  collegial and collaborative process.

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Using the Meeting Cards for Specific Topics SLO
process

• Your college is implementing a policy to write
  SLOs for all your individual courses and programs
  within the next 6 months in order to satisfy
  accreditation requirements. The curriculum
  committee has been directed not to accept any new
  or reviewed curriculum until the SLOs are on the
  COR. There has been no discussion about the COR
  or SLOs in the senate meetings yet

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Using the Meeting Cards for Specific Topics SLO
process

• The curriculum committee has taken the position
  that they should evaluate all CORs which now
  includes SLOs.
• The senate is concerned about the leadership in
  the curriculum committee.
• The SLO coordinator and the SLOAC (Student
  Learning Outcomes and Assessment Committee) is
  concerned that the curriculum committee has not
  shared their SLO criteria nor spoken with them or
  the faculty about the standards they expect.

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Using the Meeting Cards for Specific Topics -
Budget

• Once again the budget year is portending
  disaster. Although you college budget of 82
  million dollars has a 15 million dollar reserve,
  the administration has sent out emails saying
  that this budget will require either a 20 cut to
  every department or an analysis and
  discontinuance of several entire programs. Your
  college has no program discontinuance policy and
  your program review process is not designed to
  identify programs that should be discontinued.
  The budget process has no methodology to deal
  with budget cuts. Every area has had budget cuts
  in the previous years and none can handle a 20
  without real damage to the educational quality.
  The college president has agreed to a budget
  summit to consider what programs should be
  discontinued but is unwilling to consider use of
  the reserves.

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Using the Meeting Cards for Specific Topics -
Budget

• The senate has been working on a program
  discontinuance policy but has not yet completed
  it.
• There are rumors that the administration is most
  interested in discontinuing some of the
  innovative and effective basic skills strategies
  that have been implemented within the last 2
  years.
• The senate has a budget committee with governance
  represented from all stakeholders but the
  committee has not met for the last 18 months.
• You have been informed by the administration that
  these decisions must be made in two days.

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Thank you

• Please fill out the evaluation
• Dianna Chiabotti
• Janet Fulks
• Phillip Maynard
• David Morse
• Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein