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Merit Advisory Council Guidelines
Revised December 2007
The Merit Board has established the Advisory Council in order to
advance Merit's relationship with K-12 schools, libraries, community
colleges, and other Member communities to better meet our common
objectives in advancing the use of networking for education in Michigan.
The Council's Charter is to:
- Provide advice and recommendations to Merit staff and the Merit
Board of Directors on matters related to Merit policies and services;
- Promote, through education and collaboration, the development
of advanced applications that meet the needs of constituencies
served by Merit Members;
- Facilitate opportunities to offer continuing education programs
of interest to Merit Members.
I. Representation
Representatives are elected by current Merit Members in each
of the categories listed below, with the representatives for a category
coming from that category.
- 3 from K-12 schools, one of which would be from a single organization
rather than a multi-site, group Member.
- 3 from libraries, one of which would be from a single organization
rather than a multi-site, group Member.
- 3 from community colleges.
- 2 from other colleges and non-governing Member universities, including
private institutions.
- 2 from health care.
- 2 from others, including government, not-for-profit agencies, research, and for-profit businesses.
In addition, an alternate may be selected for each category to
serve if elected representatives cannot. Each person is to be representative
of their whole community or category (i.e. K-12, or libraries, or....),
not just their home organization. They each should play a role in
gathering information from their communities and feeding information
back to their colleagues.
The "single organization" clause in the K-12 and library
descriptions is intended as a way of insuring input from individual
schools rather than just ISDs, REMCs, or regional Hubs, or from
individual libraries rather than just library cooperatives.
Those eligible would be organizations that are directly attached
Merit Members or Full-service, Second-site Members (those
who pay the additional Full Support Fee per year to have direct
contact with Merit even though they are Members of a group Member).
If a group Member, such as a regional Hub, contains organizations
that are in more than one of the categories above, that Member
must itself decide in which category it belongs. In general, throughout
the discussions of representation there is a desire to be somewhat
flexible about how the representation is handled, because the structure
of Members is both complex and changing.
II. Meetings
The Advisory Council will meet twice a year at times set by the
Council. The Council will also provide an opportunity for Member input at the Merit Member Conference.
III. Merit Board Relationship with the Advisory Council
The Board may select non-voting liaisons to attend Advisory Council
meetings. These are to be people from member institutions, but need
not be the Board representative. They would also be expected to
attend Merit Board meetings, in keeping with their role as liaisons.
The Chair of the Advisory Council, or designee, is to attend all
Merit Board meetings as a non-voting representative of the Advisory
Council. Topics arising from the Advisory Council are to be included
where appropriate on the Merit Board agenda. When the Merit Board
meets in Executive Session, the Advisory Council Chair is not included.
IV. Merit Staff Relationship with the Advisory Council
Merit's President may select two non-voting liaisons to the Advisory
Council from Merit staff. More are encouraged, with this to be decided
in collaboration with the Advisory Council Chair.
V. Election of Advisory Council Representatives
Council elections will be held annually in April. New Council members
will take their seats at the Spring Council meeting.
At the fall meeting the Council Chair will appoint a nominating
committee to develop the slate of candidates put forth to the membership
for election. The nominating committee shall include the vice-chair,
a Merit staff member and at least one additional Council member.
The slate must include at least two candidates per open seat.
If the nominee is not the Member administrative contact as defined
by the Merit database, then the nominee will need authorization
from the Member administrative contact stating that they can
run under their organization name.
The Nominating Committee will email the slate of candidates to
the full Council no later than the 15th of March. Council will vote
via email to accept or reject the ballot.
Merit will distribute the ballot by email and via the web to all qualified
Members. Members must vote by the deadline indicated on the ballot. Merit
staff will put in place the necessary controls to insure each Member votes
only once, and in the appropriate category.
The chair of the Nominating Committee, in conjunction with Merit
staff, will count the votes and announce the results of the election
to the Council chair.
In the event of a tie, both parties will be notified by the Election
Committee Chair and will be asked to attend the upcoming Advisory
Council meeting. A random process agreed upon by all three parties
at the meeting will determine the outcome. In the event that both
parties are not available to attend the meeting then the Election
Committee and the Election Committee Chair can use another random
process, which may include electronic means for determining the
winner.
The Council will review and modify these procedures on an as needed
basis.
VI. Term of Advisory Council Representatives
The Advisory Council representatives will serve a 3-yr term.
VII. Selection of Advisory Council Chair
The Advisory Council will elect a vice-chair/chair annually at its spring meeting.
The elected chair position, not the vice-chair, can be an Advisory Council Alternate Member.
VIII. Staff Support for the Advisory Council
Merit staff will provide support to the Advisory Council for setting
meeting dates, doing minutes, and other basic needs for its operation,
as determined in collaboration between the Advisory Council Chair
and Merit staff.
IX. Merit Board Re-Authorization of Charter
At its June 2002 meeting, The Merit Board of Directors re-authorized
the charter of the Merit Advisory Council for an indefinite period
of time. Previously, the Council had a charter which needed to be
reviewed every two years.
X. Commentary
The Advisory Council is encouraged to focus on substantive issues
rather than devoting major time to organizational structure, creation
of By-Laws, or various process-oriented issues.
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