Committee rules

NASPA has a large number of volunteer committees. For the sake of their smooth operation, we ask that committee members follow these committee rules.

Chair

Each committee should have a chair and an assistant chair. Committee members should choose people for these positions from amongst themselves. The chair’s duties are as follows:

• To communicate with the Executive Committee, keeping them abreast of the committee’s activities and receiving requests for additions to their agenda.
• To communicate with the public about the committee’s activities as necessary.
• To maintain the committee’s NASPAWiki page.
• To maintain the committee’s Yahoo! group.
• To cast a vote to break ties when the rest of the committee is deadlocked.

The chair’s duties may be shared among two or more cochairs, or specifically delegated to other members.

The assistant chair’s duty is to fulfill the duties of the chair when the chair is unable to do so.

Communications

To maintain an accurate record of a committee’s activities for the sake of future members:

All official business of a committee should be posted to the Yahoo! group set up for the committee by the Web Committee. Committee business should not be conducted by private email among committee members. When committee business takes place in person or by phone, minutes of such offline business should be posted to the Yahoo! group.

To avoid redundancy and maintain reasonable email volume:

Committee members should where possible communicate committee business to the Executive Committee through their committee chair.

To maintain the professional image of the association:

Major public announcements by committees should be discussed with the Executive Committee, who will release announcements through their announcement team.

Agenda

Each committee typically has one or more ongoing agenda items assigned by the Executive Committee, such as “maintain the rules” or “oversee tournaments”. In addition:

• All committees should respond promptly to inquiries from the public
• Committees with closed membership should determine and oversee the process by which their members are replaced.
• Committees should document their procedures.

Member Obligations

Members of NASPA committees (including the Advisory Board) must not:

• let their NASPA memberships lapse;
• disclose confidential committee business;
• be on the suspension list; or
• take on administrative or directorial roles in any competing SCRABBLE organizations.

Failure to meet these obligations will result in a committee member being suspended from their committee duties until they successfully appeal for reinstatement.