October 12, 2007

Steering Committee Mission Statement

The Steering Committee is made up of volunteers from the ComETS membership and exists to support the ComETS mission. The Committee strives to represent diverse perspectives about supporting educational technology at UW-Madison. The committee acts proactively and reactively to:

• Provide opportunities and infrastructure for ComETS to congregate, collaborate, network and participate in professional development.
• Establish and foster lines of communication to connect ComETS with campus administration, units and organizations who share common goals.

Steering Committee Structure

In order to achieve the Steering Committee’s mission the Committee is structured as follows:

• 9-12 members to provide a diversity of perspectives
• Ideally, members would serve three-year terms, but terms are flexible
• Ideally, no more than 3 members rotate off each year to retain experienced members while allowing for new ideas and enthusiasm
• More than one consecutive 3 year term is acceptable when there are sufficient reasons

Steering Committee Membership

In order to provide a diversity of perspectives membership decisions will consider a candidate’s niches and the needs of the committee as a whole. An individual may occupy more than one niche. Membership of this committee is structured to maintain perspectives and the nomination and recruiting process attempts to involve members from the following niches:

• central IT
• schools and colleges
• support units in schools and colleges
• cost recovery production facilities
• libraries
• one-person or small support shops
• disciplinary divisions
• instructional support (IT and beyond)
• computer labs and classrooms
• academic and classified staff

Steering Committee Appointment Process

Nominations, including self-nominations, are always welcome. Send nominations to comets@mailplus.wisc.edu. The Steering Committee also issues calls for nominations as needed.

Decisions on appointments are made by consensus of the Steering Committee members and based upon the candidate’s niche(s) and the needs of the committee as a whole.

ComETS members have the opportunity to call for discussion of the Steering Committee appointment process at the annual membership meeting.

Operations and Format

Steering Committee chairs are elected by Steering Committee members. Chairs serve for six months as chair-elect, six months as chair, and six months as past chair. The Committee is supported by a project assistant from DoIT Academic Technology who takes minutes, schedules meetings, maintains listserv and membership databases, updates the Web site and keeps Committee archives. The Committee holds open meetings about every six weeks.

The Committee is divided into four subcommittees:

• Admin: Comprised of the current, past and future Steering Committee chairs. Coordinates steering committee activities; drafts and distributes meeting agendas.
• Events: Comprised of Steering Committee and ComETS members. Coordinates ComETS sponsored events.
• External Relations: Comprised of Steering Committee and ComETS members. Coordinates communications and activities with other campus groups including CIO, DoIT, Teaching Academy, and ITC.
• Membership and Community: Comprised of Steering Committee and ComETS members. Works with ComETS Steering Committee, SIG leaders, and most importantly, ComETS members to foster cross-campus collaboration, transparency, and information exchange.

Each subcommittee holds open meetings about every six weeks.

The Steering Committee makes decisions by consensus, guided by the ComETS mission. ComETS is a grassroots community of individuals; therefore, the Committee never speaks for ComETS as a whole. According to the Special Interest Groups (SIG) guidelines, the Steering Committee sponsors and supports SIGs which act independently and contribute information back to the membership.

The Steering Committee frequently seeks input from ComETS members (e.g.: at meetings, via surveys, and through informal discussions and meetings) and communicates with members via the Web site and listserv.

Expectations

Steering Committee members are expected to regularly attend Steering Committee meetings and participate in other ComETS meetings and activities.

• Attendance Expectation: Steering Committee members are expected to attend steering and assigned subcommittee meetings. To continue as a member of the Steering Committee you should have at least fifty percent attendance at steering and assigned subcommittee meetings over the previous year.
• Participation Expectation: Steering Committee members are expected to join at least one subcommittee. Members are also expected to support ComETS activities outside of meetings.

Testimonials from Steering Committee Members

Current and past members of the ComETS Steering Committee have found it to be a valuable experience for a number of reasons. Committee members have an opportunity to:

• Contribute input into important cross-campus projects that affect instructional technology support;
• Gain insights into ways for ComETS members to share instructional technology tools and implementation methods across campus;
• Discover a wide range of emerging technologies for instructional technology by working on ComETS events and with special interest groups;
• Learn effective leadership from experienced campus staff on the committee;
• Develop leadership, organizational, and public speaking skills;
• Gain working knowledge of how IT happens on our campus; and
• Interact with campus leaders