Raritan Valley Community College
Forum Steering Committee Meeting
Minutes January 23, 2008

The Forum Steering Committee met at 3:30 p.m. in room C205 on January 23, 2008. 

Present:  Mike Fagan, Chairman,  Evelynne Blatt, Stephen Brower, Cyndee Geoffroy, Ellen Lindemann, Barbara Luby, Nan Moore, Aditi Patel, David Ross, Janice Saam, Mary Sullivan, John Wheeler, and Melanie Morris (Guest). 

The main purpose of this meeting was to follow up on the issue raised by Ellen Lindemann regarding the number of committees at RVCC.   Mike invited Melanie Morris to present data on the organization and committee structure of several colleges similar to ours.  She provided a handout summarizing her data and she will forward her power point presentation to Mike.  All eight colleges were quite different and no model had more than eight committees. 

The committee made the following observations:  1) We could combine several committees to avoid duplication, but we are not sure how to do this.  A way to start might be to gather a list of all committees and their responsibilities.  2)  Review all ad hoc committees at the start of each year and purge the ones that are no longer active.  3)  Where does the Education Policy Committee fit it?  This type of committee was not seen in any of the models. 

Mike will send Steering Committee members a committee list, but we will not yet present this possible committee reorganization proposal to the entire Forum. 

The Steering Committee then approved the agenda that Mike presented.  John Wheeler mentioned that the Education Policy item (underage student policy) is up for a second reading and a vote. 

The meeting was adjourned at 4:15 p.m. 

Respectfully submitted,

C. Geoffroy
Forum Secretary