Senior Staff

About this Committee

The group's agreement for working together includes the following statements of process:

Purpose:

The Senior Staff provides information and advice to the President, the Vice Presidents and other members of the group. The Senior Staff establishes and monitors the college's annual operating goals. The group reviews information related to the overall operations of the college and considers actions to improve college operations.

Role and scope:

The Senior Staff is established and chaired by the President, who determines the group's membership and has the final say on the group's agenda. The group meets to share information, discuss topics of general interest, and to make decisions.

Membership:

The group is composed of the president, vice presidents, executive associate to the president, executive director of operational planning and budget, an academic dean, director of governmental relations, director of college relations, associate vice president for enrollment management, associate vice president for human resources, administrative assistant to the president.

Meeting agendas

• The administrative assistant coordinates the agenda under the direction of the president.
• Each agenda includes time for information-sharing, including several recurring reports. The group should review the list of recurring reports occasionally to make sure that they continue to reflect our priorities.
• Each agenda should also include time to report on follow-up actions from previous meetings.

Decision-making

• The group decides questions put to it by the president or by other members of the group.
• As the group approaches a decision, we will strive to be clear about the method we are using to make the decision: unilateral, consultative, joint, or delegative. (See handout from Agreement Dynamics.)
• When the group makes decisions, we will strive to communicate both the decision and the method in a clear and timely fashion.

Communication and Record keeping

• The administrative assistant makes and distributes a written record of the group's meetings.
• The group will take a moment at the end of each meeting to ensure that plans for communicating the group's discussions and decisions are clear.