Committee Procedures

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CC:DA/Pro/14/2012 June 1
June 1, 2012

Association for Library Collections and Technical Services
(A division of the American Library Association)
Cataloging and Metadata Management Section

COMMITTEE ON CATALOGING: DESCRIPTION AND ACCESS
PROCEDURES

  1. Membership
    1. Nine members appointed by the CaMMS Vice-Chair: voting.
    2. One or more interns appointed by the CaMMS Vice-Chair: non-voting. The intern(s) shall serve as recording secretary/secretaries for the Committee.
    3. One webmaster appointed by the CC:DA chair for a three year term (may be reappointed): non-voting.
    4. Representatives of ALA units and non-ALA organizations who have been approved for membership by CaMMS: non-voting.
    5. The ALA representative on the Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA (JSC): ex-officio, non-voting.
    6. A representative from the Library of Congress (LC), Policy and Standards Division (PSD): ex-officio, non-voting.
    7. ALCTS Executive Director: staff liaison, non-voting.
    8. A representative from OCLC: ex-officio, non-voting.
    9. A liaison from the CaMMS Subject Analysis Committee (SAC), appointed by the CaMMS Vice-Chair: non-voting.
  2. Officers
    1. Chair:
      1. Appointed by the CaMMS Vice-Chair. The chair is one of the nine voting members.
      2. The Chair may designate another voting member to act as temporary Chair.
      3. If the Chair is unexpectedly absent, the voting members shall designate one of their members to serve as temporary Chair.
  3. Meetings
    The Chair shall schedule meetings to occur at Midwinter and Annual ALA conferences and shall notify members of times and places.
  4. Quorum
    Five voting members shall constitute a quorum.
  5. Agenda
    1. The agenda for each Midwinter Meeting and Annual Conference shall at a minimum include:
      1. Introduction of members.
      2. Correction and approval of minutes of previous meeting.
      3. Adoption of agenda.
      4. Confirmation of actions taken since the previous meeting.
      5. Report of the ALA JSC representative.
      6. Report of the LC representative.
    2. Parties wishing to place an item on the agenda should submit a written or e-mail request to the Chair at least one month before a meeting. Documentation pertinent to the proposed item should be presented with the request.
    3. A preliminary agenda with accompanying documentation shall be distributed or made available to members two weeks in advance of the meetings. Whenever possible, online agendas should provide links to pertinent documentation.
    4. During meetings of the Committee, items should be presented, if possible, by the person(s) making the proposal or by a designee. If a representative cannot attend, presentation of the item may be made in writing, to be read at the meeting by the Chair. If a representative is not present and no written statement has been received, the item may be postponed until a future meeting or may be discussed and decided upon between meetings via the Committee’s electronic discussion list, at the discretion of the Chair.
    5. An agenda item may be withdrawn at any time by the person suggesting it until such time as the agenda has been officially adopted at the meeting. Thereafter, an item may be withdrawn only upon a two-thirds affirmative vote of the voting members present.
    6. New agenda items may be proposed at the beginning of the meeting, before the adoption of the agenda. Thereafter, the agenda may be amended only with the concurrence of the Committee. No new agenda item may be proposed unless the person offering it is present to speak to it.
    7. Items newly incorporated in the agenda should be accompanied by supporting documentation as necessary.
  6. Task Forces of CC:DA
    1. The Chair may appoint a task force to work on an issue for a specific period of time. The task force shall then report back to the full Committee. In consultation with the full Committee, the Chair shall write a charge for each task force and shall set the time period and deadlines for each task force to conduct its work.
    2. Task force membership may consist of both voting and non-voting CC:DA members. Task force members may also be appointed from outside of CC:DA, provided they are current members of ALCTS. All members on a task force shall have equal voting rights.
    3. The Chair of CC:DA or the chair of a task force may, at her/his discretion, invite participation by consultants from outside the Committee/task force membership. Such consultants shall be non-voting members of the task force.
    4. The chair of a CC:DA task force must be a CC:DA member (voting or non-voting) at the time of her/his appointment as chair. Should her/his term on CC:DA expire before the work of the task force is complete, s/he may continue as chair until the task force is discharged.
  7. Discussions
    1. Both voting and non-voting members shall be accorded the same privilege of the floor, upon recognition of the Chair.
    2. Guests attending meetings may be accorded this same privilege, upon recognition of the Chair.
    3. Discussion on any agenda item may be limited only by a two-thirds affirmative vote of the voting members present.
    4. Discussion may be closed by a two-thirds affirmative vote of the voting members present.
    5. Discussions may be held electronically between meetings. Any documents to be discussed electronically shall be disseminated to the Committee by the Chair via mail, fax, the CC:DA Web site, or the CC:DA electronic discussion list. Between meetings, the CC:DA electronic discussion list shall be the venue for any motions, discussion, and votes. The Chair shall ensure that sufficient time is allowed to consider any motion made electronically before calling for a vote. Online discussion may be limited or closed by a two-thirds affirmative vote of the voting members (i.e., six affirmative votes from voting members).
  8. Voting
    1. Issues shall be decided by a majority vote of the voting members present. For electronic ballots to be valid, a minimum of five voting members must vote. Votes that are not taken in person must be confirmed at the next meeting (cf. ALCTS Bylaws, Article IX, Section 7).
    2. The Chair is not required to vote on any pending motion, and shall not vote until all voting members have voted. In the event of a tie, the Chair shall cast the deciding vote.
    3. Straw ballots of non-voting members may be taken on any issue. All non-voting members present may take part.
  9. Documentation
    1. The intern(s) shall take the minutes, and these shall be distributed to all members a minimum of one month prior to the next meeting.
    2. Documentation pertinent to the deliberations of the Committee shall be sent to the Chair early enough so that it can be distributed or made available before meetings. Documents received less than one month before a meeting shall not be guaranteed to be discussed at the next meeting. All distributed documents shall be dated and the source clearly indicated. Electronic versions of documents shall be preferred greatly over print copies.
    3. The ALCTS office will provide clerical services for the duplication and distribution of material, when required.
    4. CC:DA documents that have been distributed, including Committee and task force reports and minutes shall be made available electronically on the CC:DA Web site. Posted documents shall first have the approval of the Committee Chair. Documents originating with CC:DA and its task forces shall be eligible for mounting on the CC:DA Web site. Links to outside documents and sites may be included on the CC:DA Web site with approval of the Committee Chair and permission of the creator(s) of the documents/sites.
  10. Communication of Decisions, Etc.
    1. The Chair shall report to the CaMMS Executive Committee the decisions, recommendations, and other work of the Committee.
    2. The minutes shall include the substance of Committee discussions (both pro and con) on descriptive cataloging rule proposals and other decisions as well as the results of voting, including any straw ballots that may have been taken.
    3. The JSC representative, working with the Chair of CC:DA, shall communicate decisions and recommendations on RDA to the JSC. Decisions and recommendations on subject entities and relationships in RDA are informed by SAC and communicated to CC:DA and the JSC representative by the SAC liaison.
    4. Other decisions shall be communicated in writing to the appropriate body or person(s) by the Chair.
    5. At each meeting of the Committee, the Chair shall report on all decisions, recommendations, actions, etc. taken by the Committee and by the Chair in the period since the last meeting.
  11. Parliamentary Authority
    The rules contained in the current edition of Sturgis’ The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure shall govern in all cases to which they are applicable and in which they are not inconsistent with these procedures and the bylaws of the Cataloging and Metadata Management Section, the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services, and the American Library Association.
  12. Amendments
    1. These procedures may be amended by a two-thirds vote of the voting members present at any meeting or via electronic ballot. Text of any proposed amendment shall accompany either the notice of the meeting or the electronic ballot.
    2. Amendments shall become part of the operating procedures of the Committee following approval of the amendments by the Executive Committee of CaMMS.

Passed as amended by CC:DA: 1980 Jan 21 Revised by CC:DA: 1983 Jan 7 Revised by CC:DA: 1988 Jan 9 Revised to substitute ALCTS for RTSD: 1990 Mar 1 Revised by CC:DA: 1991 Jun 29 Revised by CC:DA: 1992 Jun 27 Revised by CC:DA, per CCS Executive Committee: 1993 Jun 18 Revised by CC:DA: 1997 Jun 28 Revised by CC:DA: 2002 Jun 17 Revised per CCS Executive Committee: 2003 May 30 Revised by CC:DA: 2008 Jan 12; approved by CCS Executive Committee: 2008 Mar 10

Addendum
Procedures for Handling Committee Correspondence

  1. The Chair of CC:DA dates correspondence and notifies the correspondent that the material has been received. Correspondence may be done via electronic mail.
  2. The correspondence is reviewed by the Chair, who makes a decision as to whether the issue warrants CC:DA discussion.
    1. If the matter can be resolved without CC:DA discussion, a reply is sent directly to the correspondent, together with a notation that the matter may be discussed by CC:DA if the reply is not fully satisfactory.
      If the question relates to a specialized type of material or area of concern, CC:DA members (voting or non-voting) will be consulted as deemed necessary by the Chair.
      A copy of the correspondence may be distributed with Committee documentation for informational purposes.
    2. If the matter is placed on the agenda for a succeeding CC:DA meeting, the correspondent is notified of this.
  3. Questions referred to non-voting members of CC:DA are placed on the agenda if the specialized organization determines that the issue warrants CC:DA discussion.
  4. Questions referred to LC but not to CC:DA are placed on the CC:DA agenda at the request of the Library of Congress representative.
  5. The Chair shall communicate decisions of the Committee to interested parties (cf. Section X, Communication of Decisions, Etc., subsections C and D).

Passed by CC:DA: 1980 Jan 22
Revised by CC:DA: 1981 Jan 30
Revised by CC:DA: 1988 Jan 9

CC:DA/Pro/14/2012 June 1 CC:DA Procedures 2012 [PDF]

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