Scoot Over, It's My Turn

by Frankie Strong

Governance Office Coordinator

With every ending, comes a new beginning…

I’m not sure who said that but it is fitting for our topic today which is about terms. Not terms of endearment, we are talking about governance – committee - representative - terms.

It’s that time of year when we see the sunset of yet another academic year. Governance committee representatives (reps) may also experience such closure as their term of service comes to a close.

How does one know when her/his term ends?

The Blue List has information on governance committee members, and also lists a committee’s meeting time and mission statement. It is available on the governance webpage: http://glendale.edu/bluelist.

On the Blue List the numbers after a name indicates how long a rep, usually a voting member, will serve. For example, “Joe Java (13-14)”: the numbers indicate that Joe Java’s term on this particular committee will end at the close of the 2013-2014 academic year. So when the spring semester comes to a close, Joe Java will no longer be a voting member of the committee.

Faculty representatives are appointed to a 4-year term and CSEA classified representatives are appointed for a 2-year term. Student reps and resource members do not have terms of service. Most administration reps do not have terms as their seat on the committee is related to the job position.

Joe Java’s term is over, his seat is vacant! How can the committee continue without him?

When Joe exits the committee, another representative will have already been appointed. The trick here is that throughout the spring semester, the appointing agencies are hard at work making appointments to ensure that there is no gap in representation. Ideally incoming reps begin their term at the start of July. A short explanation of the appointing process includes these key ingredients: volunteers, appointments, acceptance of the appointment. We’ll get more into the appointment process in a future article.

Aha … now when you look at the Blue List you’ll know what those numbers in parentheses mean – but of course you, already knew it. Terms - it enables us to have broad participation from all segments of the campus.

For more information visit the governance webpage: http://www.glendale.edu/governance; and of course through your friendly neighborhood Governance person.

 [note: image above was created by Wordle, using words from our "Blue List"]

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