COMMITTEE ON MERIT
GUIDELINES AND PROCEDURES
MEMBERSHIP
The Merit Committee will consist of five bargaining unit membersMembers will be appointed by the Steering Committee of the Academic Assembly of Librarians.
When the distribution of librarians makes it possible, there will be at least one member for each Librarian rank on the committee. The Steering Committee may use its discretion to appoint a committee with representatives from as many categories as possible, and may appoint more than one librarian from the same rank or category if needed.
The Chair of the previous year's Merit Committee shall serve as an ex-officio advisor for the current year's Committee and arrange/attend only the committee's first meeting. At this meeting the new Merit Committee will elect a chairperson. (It is recommended that the chair be a senior staff member) At this time the merit folder is passed on to the new chairperson. The folder contains documents useful to the committee, including copies of the forms, notes and advice, and a listing of previous merit committees. A diskette containing all of the merit documents is also passed along in this folder.
FUNCTIONS AND PROCEDURES
The Committee will solicit nomination forms and supporting documentation from all AAL members. The letter (to be sent out by the steering committee chair) is distributed on or before October 15th stating a deadline for submission by December 15th.The nomination form and supporting documentation should be explicit both as to the category under which merit is recommended and the reasons for it.
If the nomination form does not explicitly state the category of merit, the Merit Committee may categorize the nomination based on its evaluation of the accompanying documentation, if the Merit Committee agrees that said documentation shows meritorious accomplishments.
The nominator/nominee is responsible for submitting sufficient documentation to the Merit Committee. This is to assure that the committee will have sufficient information on which to base its decision. This is the only documentation the Merit Committee will consider (see committee checklist).
The Committee will review and discuss the documentation for each candidate. Following this review and discussion, the Committee will reach a consensus on whether to recommend the candidate for Merit.
The Committee then will rank the candidates according to the level of merit the Committee believes each candidate deserves (level A-highest, level B-outstanding, level C-deserving, or D-not recommended).
Once the Committee has reached decisions for all candidates, it will prepare a report for the University Librarian indicating:
- Whether merit is recommended for the candidate.
- If Merit is recommended, the Merit category for which the recommendation is made.
- Reasons, drawn from the submitted documentation, for recommending the candidate for Merit.
- The level of Merit recommended (e.g. A, B, C,)
Members of the Committee on Merit, if nominated for merit, will not participate in the discussions of their own nominations. Recommendations for nominated committee members will be added to the Committee's report by Committee members selected by the Committee for that purpose.
All nomination forms and supporting documentation will be forwarded to the University Librarian along with the Committee's recommendations by February 15th. The University Librarian will carry the process forward as defined in the TAUP contract, article 19 "Policy for Merit Awards for Librarians."
Updated 10/12/01