Julie's Inbox

May
2009
Executive Director

Dear Julie,

We just received great news-the local senate has finally been assigned a staff person to assist us with our work. Now what? What resources are available to help staff members do their job? What advice would you give us about tasks the staff should do to help establish the senate office? Are there any professional development activities that would provide our new staff with information unique to this job?


Hooray for Senate Staff!

Dear HSS

It's funny you should ask. At our 2009 Spring Plenary Session, we held a breakout session for local senate staff where we shared recommendations about setting up a senate office. Participants discussed a number of ideas about setting up a local senate office including:

Developing a master calendar for local senate activities. Some items to include on this calendar are senate meeting dates and agenda deadlines; key college dates that affect the local senate such as faculty flex days and other events; and state Academic Senate events, award deadlines, Area meetings, and other key dates.

Creating templates of regularly used documents such as meeting agendas, correspondence, committee reports, and minutes.

Developing a master filing system, both hard copy and electronic copy, of historical documents such as agendas, minutes, resolutions, and awards.

Creating a resource binder for the local senate president and senators. The binder would include such items as the bylaws and constitution, budget, master calendar, parliamentary procedures, resolutions, as well as deadlines and who to call for specific information.

As you can see, this breakout provided a unique professional development event for local senate staff. PowerPoint presentation materials and other resources discussed during the breakout session are posted on our website at: http://www.asccc.org/Events/sessions/spring2009/program.html. Next year the Academic Senate will again hold staff breakouts to discuss these issues as well as other topics such as Brown Act and communication techniques, and we invite you to bring your staff person(s) with you to session next year.

In the meantime, if you or your staff member have any questions or would like any more information about the above topics, please email Julie Adams at Julie [at] asccc.org. Our excellent office staff and executive director are more than willing to assist you.

The Executive Committee