Records and Archives Office

Recordkeeping Manual - Committee Records

The Recordkeeping Manual is also available for download as a PDF document, click to download/open (1,739KB).

Part 6 - Contents

  1. What is a University Committee?
  2. University Committee Records
  3. Responsibilities for Committee Records
  4. Committee Document Recordkeeping
  5. Committee Document Files
  6. Agendas
  7. Documents and Attachments
  8. Minutes
  9. Resolutions and Decisions
  10. Committee Reports or Papers
  11. Action Lists
  12. Access and Security
  13. Contacts

1. What is a University Committee?

A university committee consists of either elected, appointed or nominated staff within or external to the University that are charged with the purpose of making decisions, providing governance, reporting on a subject matter or for some other purpose. The purpose of each committee of the university is defined in its Terms of Reference setting out the composition of the Committee, its purpose and rules.

The University Committees consist of:

Full details as to the University Committee structure is available from Policy and Committee Secretariat, see section 13 for contact details.

2. University Committee Records

The records of a committee are one of the most important records for the University as these records contain information about decisions, discussions, recommendations and other information that often set a precedent, or provide the authority for some action within the University.

Each committee, whether at department level or University level has a purpose of being a committee that is charged with the responsibility to deliberate or act on one or more matters that lead to further actions that can affect one or more areas of the university, as well as external bodies to the university. The records of a committee provide the accountability for decisions made and are often used as evidence to show authority or proof of a matter that may be under investigation or debate.

Committee records also hold significant value as historical records as they provide the decision making and governing process. Over the years many committees have come and gone, some have amalgamated with other committees and some still operate today. The minutes of these committees are the often the only records of the actions and/or decisions made by the university committee system and hence provide a valuable source of information and historical reference for the university.

This does not mean that every committee document of every committee within the university is vitally important, it simply means that these records retain and hold a lot of information that can provide answers to questions not usually found elsewhere. Researchers for example have used the committee minutes, agendas and documents to write about a particular subject, research an area or department, research a person or process and so on, so the value of the committee records cannot be underestimated, they are valuable and therefore need to be managed from the point of creation appropriately to ensure preservation of a very informative set of records for the university.

The style and format of the records created by each committee is dependant on the membership and authority of the Committee itself. However the University Policy A003 University Committees Policy must be consulted to ensure minimum University requirements are being met.

3. Responsibilities for Committee Records

Each Committee should have a nominated Chair and a minute secretary to ensure that records are appropriately created, verified and managed accordingly.

The Chair may nominate a committee secretary to be responsible for the collation and preparation of committee agendas, minutes and documents to be presented to all members of the committee. However it is the ultimate responsibility of the Committee Chair to ensure that these documents are in fact created appropriately and that the information contained within the committee documents accurately reflect any and all discussions at each committee meeting.

As good practice, the minutes of each meeting should be circulated to all members for verification of what has been recorded as being true and correct, any corrections that need to be made are to be completed. The Committee Chair should then confirm the minutes as true and accurate.

Once confirmed, the entire set of documents for that meeting, including any agenda, papers, presented late papers, minutes and anything else presented at that particular meeting are to be gathered together in correct order of sequence and placed on the appropriate committee file. Depending on the committee level, these may then need to be transferred to the Records and Archives Office for appropriate storage.

A list of which committees records that are required to be send to the Records and Archives Office is below.

All other committee records are to be retained by the Committee Secretary/Chair, secure from alteration and only accessible with permission of the Committee Chair, or, if available, recordkeeping staff within your Division/School/Faculty.

In addition to the responsibility of minute taking and document creation, the University Chair is also responsible for ensuring that the committee has a set of Terms of Reference and that there is diversity of representation on the committee membership. The University Policy A003 University Committees Policy states;

'The Chairs of all University committees, whether central, statutory or advisory to Executive Managers, shall ensure that their members are provided with documentation which facilitates informed decision-making; that the deliberations of meetings are permanently recorded; that current terms of reference are published on the Web; and diversity of representation among the committee's membership.'

Committee records often contain information that is confidential or are marked as restricted access. It is the responsibility of the Committee Chair to both set the confidential or restricted access provisions of any and all committee records and also to grant or deny access to any and all Committee records to anyone that requests access to those records. Where the Chair is unavailable to grant or deny access the University Secretary should be consulted and requested to decide as to whether access is to be provided or not.

The Records and Archives Office is responsible for the monitoring of access to all committee records it retains for the University. Where access is requested to a restricted item or confidential material within a committee record, the Records and Archives Office will seek authorisation for access from the Committee Chair or the University Secretary. All staff within the Records and Archives Office sign a confidentiality agreement annually.

Records retained by the Records and Archives Office are only accessible from the Records and Archives Office and will not be allowed to be taken from the premises. Suitable desk space and photocopiers are available on site if required.

4. Committee Document Recordkeeping

Committee records due to their nature are subject to the State Records Act 2000 and therefore must be retained in accordance to the University Recordkeeping Plan. In many cases committee records contain information that is confidential in nature that have restricted access provisions that must also be monitored and verified at all times when access to the records are requested.

Each set of committee records, incorporating agendas, documents, reports, action lists and minutes must be complete and must be placed on an official file to ensure they are managed and retained as required by law. Many committee records are retained permanently, others may require retention from between 2 and 100 years depending on the nature of the committee and the subject matter it is dealing with. Full details of the length of time particular committee records are required to be retained is contained within the approved Disposal Authority.

Restricted access records must be securely retained and safeguarded from unauthorised access at all times.

The confirmed complete set of documents for each committee meeting must be protected from alteration and also held securely to ensure they cannot be removed, replaced or damaged in any way.

The Records and Archives Office provides a facility for the storage and retention of many University committees listed as follows;

All original and complete records of the above committees are to be forwarded to the Records and Archives Office for appropriate attachment or an official file. Those committees not listed above still require appropriate filing and security and therefore must be retained by the Committee Chair or Secretary in a secure location.

5. Committee Document Files

Paper based committee documents are to be placed in appropriate official manila files with two hole easy clips used to fasten the documents to the file. File covers should be white in colour. Documents should be placed on the file in order of Agenda and Minutes as they occur per meeting. The use of lever arch, 2 ring A4 or other hard plastic or card file holders is not appropriate.

Files should have the title of the committee clearly written in full on the cover and spine of the file with a month and year code added to denote the time frame the file covers. To distinguish the file from other files the title should commence with the words "Committee File'. Therefore a title could look like Committee File - Information Plan Advisory Committee - March 2003 to Sept 2003.

At the time of writing this manual the University does not have any means to manage committee records officially in electronic format, however committees may create a shared directory for committee members to access all documents electronically in parallel to the paper based system, however that system cannot be used in place of the paper based system.

Access to several committee minutes is available online via a web interface (http://www.committees.curtin.edu.au/), this is currently being expanded to include full access to all committee documents in the near future, however this system will still not replace the paper based system of the official record.

6. Agendas

In developing agenda documents the University Policy A003 University Committees should be consulted along with the P1.4A Document Protocol Procedures.

All agendas should follow the standards as set for the University to ensure that the correct information is contained within the agenda at all times.

Typically the agenda should contain information about the coming meeting of the respective committee, this generally includes;

Members of the committee and others may submit items for agenda before a set document deadline which is to be made publicly available and published at the end of the minutes of all previous sets of minutes. This document deadline should be set with sufficient time for documents to be created and submitted for inclusion as part of the agenda and also to provide time for the Committee secretary to perform their duties in preparing the agenda to be sent out.

The agenda is prepared and collated with attachments and then provided to the Chair of the Committee to review and confirm. Once the agenda is confirmed they are circulated to all members of the committee prior to the meeting date giving sufficient time for all members to read through and examine all documents that are attached to the agenda.

7. Documents and Attachments

Documents, reports, recommendations or other documents that are required to be presented to a committee must be prepared in accordance to the standards as set by the Document Protocol Procedure P1.4A.

Typically the document may include;

Document deadlines exist for all committees of which must be complied with to ensure that the document(s) are included in the committee agenda and therefore circulated to committee members to read and prepare for deliberation at the next meeting.

In rare occasions late documents may be presented after the agenda has been circulated or at the meeting itself, however approval must be sought from the Committee Chair.

Creators/owners of the documents must ensure they retain drafts and working documents of the document being sent to the committee ensuring evidence of its development is available. Once a final version has been completed and submitted to the Committee secretary they will be annotated with a Committee document reference number and will become an official committee record. The draft and/or working documents must be retained and/or destroyed in accordance to the University Disposal Authority, in many cases these drafts will need to be attached to an official file as evidence.

If a document is being withdrawn and the process of notation has already been conducted they may be removed from the agenda but must still be placed on the Official Committee file with an added notation that the document has been withdrawn and the reason for withdrawal. The agenda will then be amended accordingly. The withdrawn document can be resubmitted to a later meeting if required, however if changes are made to the document from the date of withdrawal all versions must be retained.

8. Minutes

The minutes of a committee meeting should be concise, clear and describe the matters discussed at the meeting, any decisions made, any recommendations made, notation of resolutions made by the committee and any follow up action required.

Normally the items within the minutes will match those items listed within the related agenda paper unless a late item has been accepted for inclusion at the meeting. Where a late item has been allowed this must be recorded in the minutes as being a late document to show the difference between the agenda and minutes.

Minutes are usually circulated on their own without attachments as the attachments should already have been circulated with the agenda prior to the meeting relating to the minutes. The only exception is where a document was submitted late and therefore was not included in the agenda.

Some committees may also maintain an action list which provides a list of items that require action, the officer responsible for the action and the date the action is expected to be completed. These can also be attached to the minutes as confirmation of action items outstanding to ensure those responsible for specifications have a follow up list to refer to.

The purpose of the minutes are to provide members and others authorised to access the minutes with detail as to what has been discussed at the meetings and any decisions or resolutions that have been made by the committee. Often these decisions lead to further actions and therefore the minutes must accurately reflect those discussions within the meeting they relate to.

Typically the information recorded for each item discussed at the meeting will include;

Where an item on the agenda is deferred or not discussed, this needs to be recorded in the minutes, and where possible a notation as to when the item will be discussed.

When creating the minutes the minutes should;

The Committee Chair should confirm the minutes as true and accurate before they are circulated to all members of the committee, however all members should be given the opportunity to request amendments if any errors are noted in the minutes.

All amendments must be requested and the following meeting of the committee and those amendments must be recorded in the minutes of the next meeting. Minutes are never confirmed as complete until after the meeting following the meeting they are for, at which stage all members of the committee confirm that they are correct and accurate.

9. Resolutions and Decisions

Resolutions describe the action or decisions made by the committee about a subject they are deliberating on, these are critical to the committee process and must be clearly written so they are understood by anyone that reads them, not just the committee members or the secretary.

The resolution is to be contained within the minutes under the item it relates to, to denote the action or decision taken by the committee in regard to the matter that was discussed.

Resolutions should be provided a reference number related to the committee for reference purposes, such as an acronym of the Committee, a sequential number and a year code, e.g. IPAC 3/02, meaning Information Plan Advisory Committee, resolution number 3 of 2002.

Secretaries should maintain a resolution register that provides a list of all revolutions and their corresponding reference number, this will aid in assigning new resolution numbers at meeting or when creating the minutes of the meeting.

The resolution register should include a description about the item discussed, the resolution number, the actual resolution text, the meeting number and reference to any documents in regard to the resolution. This register may be electronic or paper based, however it is the responsibility of the Committee Chair to ensure that the register is maintained and that if electronic, a suitable backup process of the register is implemented in the event the file is corrupted.

All Committees are required to submit their resolution register to the Records and Archives Office for safe keeping no later than 14 days after the date of the last meeting of the committee for each year. The Records and Archives Office will maintain the resolutions in a database to enable access for users to search on the resolutions.

10. Committee Reports or Papers

Committee reports and papers typically contain information for the committee to deliberate or obtain knowledge about a subject that has been submitted to the committee for consideration. Other reports and papers may come from within the committee as a result of its deliberations on a specific task it has been required to complete.

Whether the report or paper is going to, or coming from the committee, these reports are a part of the committee documents and therefore must be managed as committee documents. All reports and papers must be provided reference numbers to enable easy identification and for referencing within the minutes of the committee, these document numbers are to be assigned by the Committee Secretary via the use of a Document Register.

The Document Register should provide the date, meeting number, description or title of the document and document reference number. The document is to be annotated with the document reference number, usually coded with the acronym of the committee, a sequential document number and a year code, however not to confuse this with the resolution number the reference number should include a unique reference, it is recommended a 'D' is placed in front of the number to denote it as a document, e.g. IPAC D03/03, this means Information Plan Advisory Committee document number 3 of 2003.

The document register also contains important information, therefore they should be, like the Resolution register, forwarded to the Records and Archives Office for safe keeping within 14 days of the date of the last meeting of each year of the committee.

11. Action Lists

Action lists provide a list of actions required to further discuss a matter being deliberated by the committee, actions may consist of creating reports, providing information, further investigation about a subject.

Action lists are not compulsory but are recommended to ensure that committee members have a quick reference to outstanding action required for the continued deliberation about an item that has been raised within the committee meeting. Each action is to be assigned at least one person as being responsible for meeting the required action and a date should be set for expected completion of the action.

Note actions required should also be contained within the minutes themselves under each item that is discussed; the action list is simply used as a summary of action items coming out of the meeting.

The Action list should be attached to the minutes of the meeting for circulation to all members of the committee.

The Action list is then used as part of the meeting process to follow up on any outstanding issues and ensure the work of the committee is competed in a timely manner.

12. Access and Security

Quite often committees will discuss matters that are of sensitive or confidential nature and therefore certain access restrictions must be placed on specific items of the committee meeting and/or the committee documents as a whole.

It is the responsibility of the committee Chair to set any access restrictions on the committee documents, however document owners may also set these restrictions on their submitted document to the committee.

The University Policy A003 University Committees must be consulted in regard to access restriction setting on committee documents.

All Committee documents are to be securely stored with access only provided by those that have the authority to do so. Others that require access must seek permission to access documents of the various committees and cannot assume full access will be given Secretaries and Record keepers must use discretion in regard to providing access to committee records, they must ensure the documents are publicly available (i.e. not restricted access) before access is provided. Where a document is identified as being restricted or confidential and the requesting person is not a member of the committee then access is not to be grated until the Committee Chair has provided approval to access the document in writing. Where the Committee Chair is unavailable the University Secretary must be consulted to seek approval of access.

The Records and Archives Office provides access to the University community to all major committee minutes via a web based interface, these minutes have been verified and have had restricted and confidential material removed form them so that they can be publicly available. All Records and Archives Staff have signed confidentiality agreements that are renewed annually. The Records and Archives Office is a secure environment with access only granted with permission by Records and Archives Staff. Staff requiring access to committee records may request access by contacting the Records and Archives Office, the documents will be checked for security level and if not restricted, access will be provided. No committee records may leave the records office, a photo copier and viewing area is available within the Records and Archives Office.

13. Contacts

Secretariat Office
Telephone: 9266 3737

The Records and Archives Office can be contacted during business hours in the following ways:

Telephone: 9266 7050
Facsimile: 9266 2255
Email: records@curtin.edu.au

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