Committee Management Software
posted by Mister T on 11 September 2007 23:19 Go to forum
Problem context :
Most important decisions made by large organizations (e.g. government, big companies and universities) are made by obtaining advice and consent through multiple committees (e.g. workgroup, oversight committee, board). This process is complex, and many issues (e.g. budget, software modifications) come up multiple times.
Its difficult to centrally track where an idea is in the approval process, or what the decision history was over time, even in careful minutes are kept. Senior oversight or governance committees (and executives) have to track ideas coming to them across multiple committees with different political and time priorities, and provide histories of confidential deliberations to prep members for discussion. Frequently, organizations end up relying on the memories of a few key staff for their organizational history, because committee minutes stored by date are not very helpful. These approaches are time intensive and confusing.
Proposed Solution :
This management process can be easily simplified with a database, with one arm tracking committee charters and membership, and the other tracking topics to be discussed by topic and committee, discussions by topic and committee, and resolution or follow up issues by topic and committee. It could store written text, as well as accompanying files, like power point presentations. With that information it could automatically generate committee agendas, committee minutes, and single issue briefings. This is such a standard set of tasks that it should be an off the shelf solution. Instead, organizations flounder with ad hoc solutions or spend a lot of money developing custom systems.
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