BPRI Rules and Procedures for Committee Meetings

  1. Scheduling and time limits. Each meeting should be scheduled in well advance, ideally at least one week before the meeting. Each meeting should have a time limit. The default time limit should be one hour. In exceptional circumstances a meeting might need to be longer, in which case participants should be informed well in advance at the time of scheduling.As a member of the BPRI, I subscribe to the following principles.
  2. Agenda and timeline. Each meeting should have a formal agenda and an approximate timeline. The agenda should be drafted by the chair of the committee and sent in advance of the meeting to inform participants of the topics and allocated discussion time. Participants should be able to add topics to the agenda as needed.
  3. Attendance. Regular committee members should attend the meeting. Additional attendees should be invited by the committee chair, after consultation with the other committee members. The role of these occasional attendees should be defined among committee members in advance of the meeting.
  4. Meeting minutes. Notes should be taken by a scribe during the meeting and used to write minutes afterwards. Typically, the scribe will be one of the administrative personnel for the grant, either the Research or the Education Coordinator. The minutes should be circulated among committee members to offer an opportunity for corrections and additions. The agenda and associated minutes should then be posted and archived on the institute web site, ideally, accessible to all institute members.
  5. Meeting procedures. The committee chair should lead the discussion as efficiently as possible. If time is running short, an additional meeting should be scheduled to discuss the topics that could not be covered.
  6. Meeting “do(s) and don’t(s)”. These could be adapted from the following web link. Specifically,
    • Be on time
    • Follow the agenda
    • Listen and ask questions when things are unclear
    • Try to take decision by consensus, if not vote; postpone decisions if further information is needed