Your Duties as an Assembly Representative
Attend meetings
If you cannot attend a meeting, you are responsible for notifying your alternate, who has full voting privileges when you are not present. Voting is done by raising a pink card provided that has your Assembly district number on it. Encourage any of your district members to attend any Assembly meeting as an observer.
You are always invited to attend an ASEC meeting any time during the year. (Certain portions of the ASEC meeting will be in closed session, but that will be posted in advance.) If you want to receive the ASEC meeting agendas on a regular basis, contact the Secretary.
Report to your Assembly district
Representatives should keep their constituents informed about upcoming issues, solicit input, and report any Assembly votes, committee reports and ASEC actions. The provost's report and budget discussions are also often of interest to constituents. This is your opportunity to ask questions of a top campus administrator; take advantage of it.
Representatives should contact their constituents by email to inform their district members of actions and information after each meeting and invite their comments.
Report content should be succinct, stressing issues of greatest interest to your constituents (for instance, stressing policy issues over Assembly housekeeping decisions). It is important to emphasize that constituents can respond if they want more information or wish to share their comments on an issue. Some representatives have sent informal newsletters to constituents rather than use a report format. If you can't answer a question, the Secretary of the Academic Staff can help by providing either the answer or an appropriate referral. The academic staff website also serves as an excellent resource.
At various times during the year, you may wish to poll your constituents on important issues. A number of representatives have also held "brown bag lunches" with constituents to provide background and discuss important issues. A good technique is to offer to hold one if enough people respond with interest. ASEC representatives would be most happy to attend one of these at your request.
Find and prepare your alternate
Each Assembly representative is responsible for designating an alternate in his or her Assembly district who is willing to attend meetings when the representative cannot. The representative should then provide the name of the alternate to the Secretary of the Academic Staff. The representative should make certain that the alternate knows what to do. Preferably the alternate should attend at least one Assembly meeting with the representative. The alternate has the same rights and responsibilities as the representative at any meeting where s/he substitutes for the representative and receives the same material (without a ballot, if there is one). If for any reason the Assembly district seat becomes vacant, the alternate completes that representative's term.
Listserv
An email listserv for Assembly representative, alternates, and ASEC members
provides an opportunity for discussion outside the Assembly. You are automatically
part of this listserv group unless you ask the Secretary to remove your
name.
Your Assembly district list
The Districting and Representation Committee and the Secretary of the Academic Staff provide you with a complete list of Assembly district members on a monthly basis by email. Encourage those members who show up on your list without an email addresses to provide one to the campus database through a form available at their human resources office.
Email lists
Each month you will receive an updated list of your district members with their email addresses. This is an automated system that works well, thanks to the Districting and Representation Committee. If you are not receiving the lists, please contact the Secretary. [Warning: If you leave an "out of office" email message during the time this automated email list is delivered, it may cause an infinite loop resulting in hundreds of messages.] It should be easy to cut and paste each month's list into your email Address Book. Specific instructions are available if you need them.
New academic staff
New academic staff are assigned a district and notified by the Secretary's office. They are also informed that you are their district representative.
If you are a new district representative, you should send an email to your district members in August introducing yourself. A couple good examples of introductory emails are on the web under Other at http://wiscinfo.doit.wisc.edu/acstaff/doc.html.
Also, you should make an effort to identify new members throughout the year by comparing your email lists each month. You can use the compare feature of your word processor to do that. Then, contact new members to welcome them.
Mentor-mentee
Each Academic Staff Executive Committee member plus the chair of the Personnel Policies and Procedures Committee have been assigned a group of district representatives (and alternates) as mentees. Your particular mentor should be in contact with you in August to invite you to the annual Assembly orientation. Mentors may occasionally offer to meet with their group of mentees before Assembly meetings throughout the year to answer questions and discuss current issues in more detail.
Serve on a committee
This is the best way to learn how the university works and to get acquainted with other Assembly representatives. Committees are either academic staff only or joint governance community committees consisting of academic staff, faculty and students. An announcement calling for volunteers is generally made by the Nominating Committee at an Assembly meeting, with appointments to the committees made by ASEC, after consultation with the Nominating Committee.
A call for nominations for the Assembly standing committees is made at an early spring Assembly meeting by the chair of the Nominating Committee. Any member of the academic staff is eligible to serve. In late fall, the Nominating Committee and ASEC prepare slates for election to the Assembly standing committees that contain more nominees than the number of vacant slots (to assure a competitive election and broad representation of academic staff). Assembly members vote to choose the members of each Assembly standing committee. Committee members serve for three years and may be reelected.
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