Our Staff Senate monthly general meetings are comprised of a guest speaker and a senate business meeting. Our meetings are open to all employees regardless of classification. Our meetings take place the first Wednesday of each month, except for January and July. Look for any amendments to this schedule in our Staff Senate newsletter sent on the second Wednesday of each month.
Join our monthly meetings on Zoom:
https://gmu.zoom.us/j/97615034925?pwd=dHhrSy9OeUxxMW1Ic2liV0F0czlmdz09
Passcode: SS123
Microphones remain muted/video is turned off: To make sure only one person is speaking at a time, and so everyone can hear, your microphones will remain muted during the session. In Zoom Webinar, attendee video is turned off. (See below for prompts to be unmuted during our Guest Speaker and Constituent Time where we welcome questions and comments from the floor).
Guest Speaker*:
Submitting Questions:
Please submit your questions in advance of the guest speaker for consideration by using the submission form in our meeting announcements (found in our Staff Senate Monthly Newsletters). You may select the option to be unmuted to ask your question, remain anonymous, or have a senator ask the question on your behalf if you do not select to ask your question live. Due to limited time, the Staff Senate may not be able to open the floor to questions during the live session. If time permits, Q&A will open and you may submit your questions (no anonymous submissions). If you wish to be unmuted, please request to ask your question live by saying, “ask live” or “please unmute”.
Q&A Upvoting
If constituents like a particular question that is submitted in the Q and A, they may choose to upvote the question to draw attention to the question. You can upvote a question by clicking the thumbs up icon.
*Our guest speaker portion may take place before or after our general meeting.
Constituent Time:
- During constituent time, Q&A will open for constituents to submit questions and comments visible to all participants
- No anonymous submissions accepted.
- Attendees can request to be unmuted to ask their question by indicating their question followed up “please unmute” or “ask live”. Otherwise, the chair will monitor submissions and address time permitting. Anything not addressed during constituent time may be addressed in the Staff Senate newsletter or directly with the constituent following the meeting. We discourage upvoting Q&A during “Constituent Time” since our goal is not to address the most popular concern but look at each question in the order it is received.
- At any point during, before, or after the meeting, you can submit comments, concerns, or questionsto be addressed outside of the meeting.
Sample Agenda:
Guest Speaker
Call to Order
Announcements: For any senate-related or general announcements from senators to the group
New Business: New action items or resolutions to be brought before the Staff Senate (i.e. creation of a working group or request for additional budget funds). All agenda item requests must be submitted to the Staff Senate at least a week before the date of our general meeting.
Old Business: Unfinished action items
Constituent time: The floor is open to all attendees for comments and questions.
Roundtable: Items from senators that should be considered for a future agenda
Adjournment
Voting Matters:
Based on our governance and bylaws, only senators can participate in making motions and voting during our meetings.
Recorded Sessions:
Only our guest speaker session is recorded. The link to the recording will be published with any related follow-up information in the same month’s Staff Senate newsletter. The newsletter is typically published seven days after our general meeting and will be sent via email to all classified staff and non-student wage employees. There will also be a link posted on staffsenate.gmu.edu.
Thank you!
Thank you for your continued engagement and support of the Staff Senate. Our work is accomplished through open and continuous communication with our constituents.