Skip to main content
Indiana University
IULFC Secretary and Secretary-Elect Tasks

Secretary (relating to meetings, agendas, committee reporting, etc.)

Preparing for the Meeting

  1. Contact the Dean's Assistant and get some possible dates/times for the meeting.

  2. At least one month before the meeting date, send notices of date, time, and location to all IULFC members and committee chairs. Include in the notice a request for agenda items. Set a deadline of 2 weeks before the meeting for a response. This will give you time to ensure that a quorum plans to attend, and to add agenda items to your list. Quorum is defined in the Library Faculty Handbook.

    Helpful Hint: These deadlines are not always possible - do the best you can.

    Ask members to notify you of the names of their substitutes if they are not able to attend the meeting. IUPUI and RCL have elected alternates; any BLFC member may stand in for a Bloomington representative. It is the member's responsibility to arrange for the alternate to attend.

  3. At the same time, have notice of the meeting published in the IUL News.
  4. As soon as the deadline for agenda items has passed, prepare the agenda and send it to the Dean of Libraries for approval.
  5. Once the agenda is approved, copies should be sent to IULFC members and committee Chairs via e-mail.

When preparing the agenda, remember that items which are not self-explanatory should have some sort of supporting document - a memo from you or someone else, for instance - explaining the problem or issue under discussion. The agenda, the minutes of the previous meeting, and other supporting documents should be sent in hard copy to IULFC members. The agenda may be distributed electronically to contacts; attach a message that the agenda is for their information only.

First meeting:

Send the following materials to the Dean, Dean's Assistant, and IULFC members.

  1. Copies of the minutes from the last IULFC meeting of the previous year. They will need to be approved.
  2. All IULFC committee reports from previous year along with the standing charges for each committee (as found in the Operational Guidelines). These materials will be needed to form committee charges for the current year.

Be sure that the White Award Committee and Librarians' Day Committee are on the agenda. These committees must be nominated and appointed by the Dean by October 31.

The Meeting

You will take minutes at the meetings. If you wish to use a tape recorder, ask if anyone objects before the meeting begins. As part of the minutes, you must list names of those those present, including all guests.

Meeting Follow-up

  1. Prepare the minutes of the meeting. Send a draft to the Dean for approval.
  2. After the Dean has approved the minutes, send a copy to IULFC members. (Although it is not officially approved until the next meeting.)
  3. Distribute the minutes to the IU Librarians through the established majordomo distribution lists (the Dean's Assistant can post these for you.)

NOTE: The minutes should reflect the fact that they have not been approved by IULFC. (e.g. Draft or Not Yet Approved)

Voting

The Secretary is responsible for conducting any formal surveys or special votes of the library faculty requested by the IULFC. If the situation calls for an information opinion poll, however, ask the IULFC representatives to handle it for their own constituencies.

Librarian's Day

See the Librarian's Day Manual for details about Librarians' Day activities.

Traditionally, the IULFC Secretary has Chaired this committee and two other IULFC members have assisted. However, it is only required that ONE of the three be a member of the IULFC - it is not essential that the IULFC Secretary Chair the committee.

Helpful Hint: Don't put Librarian's Day planning off. Even though it is held during the spring, it requires a lot of planning. At a minimum, planning should be underway by January.

Committee Reports

The Secretary is responsible for disseminating the reports of the committees doing the work of the IULFC.

Although not required, it is a good idea to have each committee Chair submit a brief mid-year report. This insures that the work of the committee is not forgotten. Review these mid-year reports at the Winter IULFC meeting.

Secretary-Elect Duties (all related to committees and committee elections)

Helpful Hint: Don't simply leave these duties up to the Secretary Elect, assist them and make sure they know what they need to do.

General Observations

It is crucial that all distribution requirements are met in nominating for the IULFC and its committees. Read the Operational Guidelines for the requirements, check current committee lists for continuing members' campus, rank and tenure status; then outline what is needed.

This should be relatively easy with the committee document which shows time lines and summarizes the Library Faculty Handbook information.

Ask those who are giving you committee nominations to recommend more than one name for each position. Double-check nominees for appropriate academic rank and tenure status.

Committees

In the fall, verify lists of current members of all IULFC committees and the Faculty Review Board with the Libraries' Human Resource Officer (IUB).

Working with the current Secretary, contact the Libraries' Human Resource Director in January/February to obtain a list of all IUL system librarians, with ranks and tenure status indicated.

Read the requirements for distribution of rank, tenure status and campus representation on the Faculty Review Board, P&T and Sabbatical Leave Committees. Consult your lists of current members and outline positions needed for each committee. Also see the committee time line document.

Work with the Secretary to insure that the two RCL members are reminded that they are the nominating committee. Give them a list of vacancies and the distribution of rank and tenure if required, and names of RCL incumbents on the committees. It is the RCL representatives' responsibility to find candidates and nominees willing to serve.

Nominations should be held by early May.

Conduct the RCL Elections Via E-mail.

Prepare ballot for the RCL representative to IULFC and the Faculty Review Board. Set a deadline for the return of ballots about four weeks beyond the day they will be mailed.

Keep sealed ballots until the deadline has passed. Check names on the sealed envelopes against your list of library faculty to be sure that only faculty members have voted and that each votes only once. If a librarian votes more than once, all ballots returned with his/her signature should be discarded. Remove all the ballots from envelopes and count.

Notify winners and losers of the election results promptly.

Prepare an announcement of election results for the IUL News.

Contact BLFC and IUPUI

Contact the BLFC secretary for nominees to IUB vacancies on the committees. The BLFC Secretary may refer you to the chair of the Elections Committee for this information. Again, you must provide the names of IUB incumbents on the committees and information about the distribution of rank and tenure required. It is the BLFC secretary or Elections Committee chair who is responsible for finding nominees.

IUPUI Library Faculty elect their representative to the IULFC and Committees on which they participate in April. Contact the secretary of the IUPUI Library Faculty to make sure he or she knows the distribution of rank and tenure required. Ask the Secretary to notify you of the results of the elections.

Review lists of nominees and eliminate any who are ineligible due to distribution requirements. Double check to make sure you have met all the requirements. Send the list of nominees to the Personnel Librarian so she can check them also.

Notify the Dean of nominations to the committees. The Dean will choose from among the nominees and make appointments.

To aid yourself in the first months as IULFC secretary, make a rough draft of the IULFC and committee lists for next year, filling in as many names as you can. Make a copy of the Contacts lists, again filling in as many names as you can.