Conference Call Guidelines

Agenda

All agenda items will be submitted to the meeting facilitator by the last Monday of each month.  Anything submitted later than that date will be placed on the agenda the following month.  The meeting facilitator will email the final agenda for the Thursday conference call to committee members on Wednesday by 1:00 (pacific).  The agenda will also be posted on-line.  Anyone owning an agenda topic must send details regarding the discussion along with the expected output (i.e. if a decision needs to be made state in the agenda the specifics about the decision needed) to the meeting facilitator by the end of day on the last Monday of the month. 

Facilitation

All meetings will have a facilitator.  The Project Manager is responsible for facilitating the meeting.  The purpose of the facilitator is to keep the meeting on track by following the agenda, keeping the discussion on topic, getting agreement from the group when necessary, tracking action items, and starting and ending the meeting on time.

Action Items

As action items arise during a meeting, the meeting facilitator will identify the owner of the action item and assign a follow up date. 

Follow-up on the action items will be the first topic on the agenda each month.  No more than 5 minutes will be spent on all action item follow-ups.  If an action item requires more time, it will be added to the end of the meeting agenda.  If there is not enough time to discuss the action item in more detail two choices will be given to the committee.  Option 1) Add the action item as a discussion topic to the following weeks conference call, or 2) Schedule a separate meeting to discuss the topic.

Backup Plan

If the owner of a topic is not available when their topic is scheduled, please notify the meeting facilitator at least one week in advance.  The ideal resolution is for the owner of the topic to find someone to speak about the topic in his/her behalf.  If that is not possible the meeting facilitator will reschedule the topic for another meeting. 

Meeting Cancellation

Meetings will be cancelled if the topic owner cannot participate, a replacement speaker cannot be found, and no additional agenda items have been submitted.

The meeting facilitator will send out the cancellation notice by end of day on the last Monday of the month, announcing that the conference call is cancelled.