Charlestown Retirement Community Residents > Council > Residents’ Council 2023-2024 > Guidelines for Committee Meetings, Agendas, Minutes, Reports, and Other Communications

Last Updated on September 2, 2020

Residents’ Council 2020-2021

 

Reporting Timeline

 

One week before your Committee Meeting:

Email your agenda to committee members and Council Executive Committee (President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Assistant Secretary/Treasurer).  Follow agenda format listed in Policies & Procedures.

Three days after your Committee Meeting:
Email your minutes to your Committee and Executive Committee.

Friday before Council Meeting:
Email your report to the Executive Committee. The Secretary needs your reports by the Friday before the Council meeting to prepare the Draft Council minutes that are emailed to all Council members no later than the day before the Council meeting.  This practice allows Council members time to prepare their questions/comments for the meeting.

Committee Meeting Tips

  1. Make your objective clear. A meeting must have a specific and defined purpose.
  2. Stick to your schedule. Create an agenda that lays out everything you plan to cover in the meeting. Consider a timeline that allows a certain number of minutes to each item. Email the agenda to committee members in advance.
  3. If you notice one person monopolizing the conversation, say, “We appreciate your contributions, but now we need input from others before making a decision.”
  4. Make decisions. If discussion drags, your job is to interject – “We need to make a decision.”
  5. Start on time, end on time, or earlier.
  6. Note-taking. You are responsible for taking notes or appointing someone from the Committee to do so. Use a recorder if necessary; your smartphone can serve as a recorder.

Guidelines for Minutes and Reports

Committee Minutes: You or the committee secretary must complete monthly minutes and send them to the Council secretary, who stores your minutes electronically. You should maintain a copy of your minutes. These minutes are the way for you to pass your committee information to the new committee chair when the Council year ends. You do not need to follow Robert’s Rules; therefore, you can name all attendees, attribute comments by name, describe the discussions, plans, questions, and votes. There is no limit on length and should be as complete as desired since they represent the institutional memory of the Committee and are passed on to the next Committee Chair at the end of the Council year.

Please follow these typing conventions:

  • Use Calibri 12-point font with 1” margins all around.
  • Use only one space after a period.
  • Use Bold for emphasis, not bold and underlining.
  • Use flush left alignment [align the text along the left margin].
  • Spell Residents’ Council correctly.

Committee Reports for the Council Session: The reports are a summary of essential points from the committee minutes and are read at the monthly Council meeting. The Secretary consolidates the reports from all of the committees to form Draft Council minutes. They are emailed to the Council members the day before the meeting. The reports should be close to Robert’s Rules but try to convey enough detail to inform the other committees and the audience of your activities. Please use the following specific points for compactness, ease of assembly, retrieval, and uniform appearance:

  • Begin your report with “Our Committee met on [date] with [name staff members, and special guests outside Charlestown, if any.] Do not show names or numbers of committee members or non-staff Charlestown guests. Do not say how many people attended.
  • Limit your words to the essential outcomes of your committee meeting. Stress accomplishments over plans or discussions.
  • Use paragraph style with complete sentences (not bullets). Remember that you will be reading what you wrote in your report.
  • Keep your word count to no more than 100-200
  • End with “Our next meeting will be on [date] at [time] (on Zoom or in [room]).
  • Please use consistent file nam See the following guidelines.

 

File Name Guidelines:

Please use a consistent file name for your agendas, minutes, and reports AND use the same name for the subject line of the email when you send it in (see below for an example). Don’t call it “Legis & Polit” one month and then “Legislative & Political” the next month. For the date, use YYYYMMDD using the day of the meeting or the day you create the document. But be consistent, month to month.

  • Use file name such as Committee name_minutes_date

Examples:        Health_agenda_20200908

Health_minutes_20200908

Health_report_20200908

  • The subject line of the email should have that same file name (Example: Health_minutes_20200908)

Guidelines for September Reports: Since there are no August committee meetings, share the overall focus of your committees, or consider a mission moment related to your Committee. End with “Our next meeting will be on [date] at [time] (on Zoom or in [room]).

Guidelines for Other Communications

Sunburst Articles: Each Committee contributes an article for the Sunburst on their Committee’s role and activities during the Council year. The Communications Committee Chair will circulate a monthly calendar at the September Residents’ Council Work Session for Committee Chairs to sign up for the month they will write an article on behalf of their Committee. The word count limit for Sunburst articles is 400 words or less. Submit your article to the Communications Committee Chair, the Council President, and Vice President for review. The Communications Committee Chair will forward the approved article to Brittany with copies to the author, the Vice President, and President.  The Sunburst article deadline is the 15th of the month before the month of publication, and so your due date should be no later than the 12th to allow time for review.

Resident Council Website: The Council sponsors the residents’ website at https://ccicharlestown.org.  It is a resource to communicate information out to residents.  The website does not post resident phone numbers or email addresses to protect residents’ privacy.   Your Committee may make use of the Council website to share public information. For instance, the Legislative & Political Committee compiles Key Elected Officials each year and tracks Maryland State Legislation of Interest to Charlestown Residents.

Use of Bulletin Boards for Residents’ Council Announcements.  The campus bulletin boards allot four spaces for Resident Council use. Two are for the large size collage of Council members. One is for the Council Meeting Schedule Calendar. One is used to announce the Residents’ Council Monthly Meeting (if the Council is meeting in a public location, and that space is shared alternately with a summary version of the current Sunburst topic.

Channel 972 Announcements are also played on the digital screens and available on My Erickson. The summary version of the current Sunburst topic appears here. Any Council announcements can be sent to Resident Life for display on the bulletin boards and Channel 972.

For questions on the agendas, reports, minutes, or related issues, contact the Secretary.