Committees

Managing Committee Records

The committee functionality in ClearVantage allows you to easily track committees, subcommittees, working groups, and the work that they do. The committee notebook will help you manage:

• Purpose/Task

• Committee Start and End Dates

• Committee Hierarchies

• Current and Former Members of the Committee

• Documents Generated by the Committee

Creating New Committees

You should create a new committee each time a committee, task force, or working group is formed. It is not necessary to create new committees for each year of an existing committee.

From the ClearVantage main menu:

1. Navigate to “Membership”, and then click on “Committees.”

2. Select “Add Committee” from the Activities area on the right-hand side.

   

3. A blank committee notebook will appear. Enter the following committee information:

   • Committee CD: Enter a unique identifier for the committee. The Committee CD should be all capital letters and have no spaces or special characters.

   • Name: Enter the formal name for the committee.

   • Type: Select a committee type from the dropdown menu.

   • Start Date: Enter the date that the committee was formed.

   • End Date: Enter the date the committee was disbanded. Leave the field blank for active committees.

   • Chairperson: Enter the name of the committee leader. This does not link to the individual’s notebook.

   • Purpose: Enter the goals or purpose of the committee.

   • Company CD: Select the company code for the committee.

   • Employee CD: Select the staff member liaison for this committee.

   • Employee Name: The name of the staff liaison will automatically appear when the Employee CD is added.

   • Members Only?: This check box can be used to track whether an individual must be a member of the association to serve on the committee.

   • Display on Web?: This check box can be used to display the committee and committee roster on the web.

   • Budget: Enter the budget amount for the committee. This field is only for reference.

   • Status: Select the current status of the committee from the dropdown menu.

   • Parent Committee: If the committee is a subcommittee of another committee, select the parent committee from the dropdown menu.

   • Parent Committee CD: This field will automatically fill in when the parent committee is selected.

   • URL: Enter the address for the committee website.

   • List Serve URL: Enter the address for the committee listserv if you have one.

   • Subscribe URL: Enter the address for subscribing to the committee listserv if you have one.

   • Max Seats: Enter the maximum number of individuals that can serve on the committee at the same time.

   • Max Term (days): Enter the maximum number of days an individual can serve on the committee.

   • Forum Type: Select whether the forum type is None, Public, Members, or Private.

4. Once you fill out the fields as needed, click the blue “Add Committee” button in the bottom right-hand corner of the form.

   

5. Your new committee will now save and automatically open.

Filtering Committee Lists

1. You can quickly find a committee by using the “Search For” tool and selecting Committee Name, Committee Code, Chairperson, Type, or Status from the “Search by” dropdown.

   

2. You can also use the Quick Find tool to filter through committees. You can search by multiple categories at the same time. Enter the information you want to use to find the committee, and then click on the blue “Search” button.

   

3. You can also sort the committees by the tabs at the top. Clicking once will make the order ascending and clicking again will make the order descending.

   

Editing Committees

To edit an existing committee:

1. Navigate to Membership in the main menu, and then click on "Committees."

2. Find the committee you want to edit, and then click on the blue committee code to open the editing notebook for that committee.

   

3. Make the changes you want to make, and then click on the blue “Save” button in the bottom right-hand corner of the page.

   

Terminating Committees

To terminate a committee record:

1. Navigate to "Membership" in the main menu, and click on "Committees."

2. Find and highlight the committee you want to terminate and either click "Terminate Committee" on the activity panel from the committee list or open the committee record and select "Terminate Committee" on the activity panel on right.

   

3. This will open the Terminate Committee window. Check the appropriate checkboxes.

   

4. Click "Continue" to update the committee.

Managing Subcommittees

ClearVantage allows users to track the relationships between committees by assigning parent committees and subcommittees. A subcommittee can only have one parent committee but a parent committee can have many subcommittees.

1. Map a parent committee to a subcommittee in ClearVantage.

2. Navigate to the Summary tab of a committee notebook.

3. Assign a parent committee by selecting a committee from the Parent Committee drop-down.

4. The code for the committee will now appear in the grayed-out Parent Comm. CD field.

5. You can view the notebook of the parent committee you assigned by clicking the View Parent Committee button.

   

View Committee Reports

1. To view committee reports, open the committee page. Then, click the plus button next to reports in the bottom right-hand corner of the page.

   

2. Click “Committee Roster.”

   

3. This will open the committee roster. You can print and download the report.

Add Notes to a Committee Record

1. Click Edit Note on the Activity Panel on right. If the Edit Note button is not available, add the button from the Notebook editor by clicking Edit Layout. For more information on how to add fields and tabs to the notebook, locate the system admin user guide.

   

2. The Notes tab will now appear at the top of the Committee Record.

3. Enter a note and click the Save Note button to add the note. Click the Insert Timestamp button to insert a timestamp of when the note was added.

   

Viewing the Change Log Report in Committee Record

1. Click the "Change Log" button on the activity panel on the right. If the "Change Log" button is not available, add the button from the Notebook editor by clicking "Edit Layout." For more information on how to add fields and tabs to the notebook, locate the system admin user guide.

   

2. This will open the Change Log Report for the Committee.

   

Managing Committee Membership

Managing the members of a committee and each term on the committee is likely the most important part of committee management. ClearVantage allows you to create committee member records for various terms. You can also track concurrent positions on the same committee for each person.

Viewing Committee Membership

You can easily review the members of a committee from the Committee notebook.

1. Start by navigating to Membership > Committees.

2. Click on the committee code in the list of committees.

3. Once you’re in the committee notebook, navigate to the “Members” tab.

   

4. Click on the following radio buttons depending on the list of individuals you wish to view:

   

   • All: Select this radio button to view all committee members (regardless of membership status or status on the committee).

   • Active: Select this radio button to view all active committee participants (regardless of membership status or committee status).

   • Active Mem: Select this radio button to view all committee participants who are members of your organization, and who either have a committee status of active or a committee stop date (which is NULL or later than the current date).

   • Active Non: Select this radio button to view all committee participants who are not members of your organization, and who either have a committee status of active or a committee stop date (which is NULL or later than the current date).

   • Inactive: Select this radio button to view all inactive committee participants regardless of membership status. This includes individuals with either a status of Inactive on the committee or whose stop date has past.

   • Nominee: Select this radio button to view all individuals nominated for the committee (regardless of membership status).

You can export the member list by selecting the "Export" action under the "List Actions" menu. The action will export the records shown in the committee member list.

Add Individuals to a Committee

It is important to track members of a committee, whether current or past. Please note that you cannot create a new Committee Member Notebook for someone who has already served on the committee. You must instead move the Current Information to History and update the Current Information with the new position on the committee.

Search for the Individual Notebook of the individual that you want to add to the committee.

1. Create a new Individual Notebook if the individual does not exist.

2. Create a new Committee Member Notebook in one of the following two ways:

   1. From the Individual Notebook:

      1. Review the Committee history tab to make sure that this person does not already have a committee member notebook for this committee.

      2. Click on Add to Committee from the Activities dropdown.

         

      3. To select the relevant details for the individual, use the dropdown menus to choose the following:

         • Committee: Select the committee the individual is joining.

         • Position: Choose the individual's position within the committee.

         • Join Date: Specify the date the individual starts their role.

         • Termination Date: Indicate the date the individual's term ends, if applicable.

         

   2. From the Members tab in the Committee Notebook, click on the “Add Record” button in the top left corner.

      

      1. Review the Members tab to make sure that this person does not already have a Committee Member Notebook for this committee.

      2. Search for the individual by last name, first name.

      3. Click on the person you want to select, and a new committee member notebook will open.

3. From here, fill out the rest of the individual’s committee membership information, detailed below, and hit the blue Save button in the bottom right-hand corner of the page.

   

   • Position: Select the individual’s position on the committee from the dropdown menu.

   • Status: Select the individual’s status on the committee from the dropdown menu. This is independent from the individual’s member status.

   • Join Date: Enter the date the individual joined the committee in this position.

   • Stop Date: Enter the date the individual’s participation on the committee in this position ended or will end. This can be left blank if it’s unknown.

   • Representing: If applicable, enter the constituency or area that the individual represents on the committee.

   • Notes: Fill in this area with notes about the individual pertaining to the committee.

   • Eligible to Date: If applicable, enter the date until which the individual is eligible to participate in the committee.

   • No Email?, No List?, No Forum?, No Directory?: Check this if the individual wants to be excluded from committee emails, lists, forums and directories, respectively.

   • Nominated By: Use this section to choose who nominated the individual, whether it was another individual or organization. Either search for the individual or organization or fill out the section manually.

Entering Multiple Committee Positions

If your ClearVantage is configured to allow multiple committee positions you will see an additional tab, Additional Positions, in the Committee Member Notebook. This tab allows you to add additional concurrent positions to the record and independently move them to history.

1. Open or create the Committee Member Notebook for the primary position for the individual on the committee.

2. Click on the "Additional Positions" tab to view any additional positions that are concurrent with the primary position on the Profile tab.

3. Press the "Add Record" button within the Additional Positions tab to add a new position to the record and a blank line will appear.

   

4. Populate the following fields in the Committee Position Record pop-up and click the Save button:

   

   • Position: Select the appropriate committee position from the drop-down.

   • Join Date: Enter the start date of an individual’s position on the committee.

   • Stop Date: Enter the end date of an individual’s position on the committee.

   • Status: Enter the status of this position on the committee.

5. Press OK to save and close the Committee Member Notebook.

Updating Committee Member Terms

The Update Committee Member Terms feature can be used to bulk update the start and end dates for committee members. This is useful for annual committees. For example, instead of having multiple committees for Board of Directors 2022, Board of Directors 2023, etc., clients can have one Board of Directors committee and then update the term dates of the committee members each year.

1. From the committee record, select "Update Mem Terms" from the activity panel.

   

2. This will open the Update Member Terms window.

   

   • Current Term End Date: This date is used to determine which committee members to update. Only committee members with that date as their "End Date" and status of "Active" will be impacted.

   • Start Date & End Date: Enter the new start and end dates.

   • Move Existing to History: Optional field to determine if you want to move the existing term to history.

3. Click "Save".

Moving Committee Membership to History

An individual can only be listed on the Members tab of a Committee Notebook once, even if they hold concurrent positions. To maintain the history of an individual’s past committee terms or positions, these records must be moved to the “History” tab. You should not move a committee membership position/term to history unless there is a new position/term to add to the record.

1. From the “Members” tab in the committee notebook, click on the ID of the individual you want to work with. This will open the committee member’s notebook.

2. Confirm that the Position, Join Date, and Stop Date for the individual’s committee participation are correct.

3. Under “Activities” on the Activity Panel, click the “Move to History” button.

   

4. Click “Yes” in the confirmation pop-up.

5. You can access the individual’s past positions and terms on the committee by clicking on the "History" tab in the Committee Member Notebook.

   

Tracking Committee Work

Add a Document to a Committee

1. Navigate to the committee notebook, and then click on the “Documents” tab.

   

2. Click on the “Add Record” button to create a new document.

   

3. A new document notebook will open. The Document Information section will automatically be filled out once the document is made. Fill in the following fields:

   • Doc. Date: Fill in the document date.

   • Title: Give the document a title.

   • Subject: Add the subject of the document.

   • Description: Give the document a description.

   • Doc. Type: Select the type of document from the dropdown menu.

   • File Type: Select whether the file is text, an image, or other.

   • Upload new file: Select the file you want to upload.

4. Click on the blue Save button once you have finished. The document will now be added to the committee records.

Communicating with Committee Members

Sending Mass Emails to Committee Members

ClearVantage provides you with the capability to send merged letters to individuals on a committee. To send a letter to individuals on a committee, you must first create a list of individuals on a committee.

1. Navigate to Membership and click on “Committees.” From here, click on the committee code of the committee you want to send a mass email to.

2. In the committee notebook, navigate to the activity panel and click on “Email Committee.”

   

3. The Email Committee notebook will open. Fill out the following information:

   

   • Committee: This will automatically fill with the committee notebook you came from, but you can select another committee using the dropdown.

   • Com Status: Select whether the committee is active, inactive, or a nominee.

   • Subject: Add the subject line to your email.

   • From address: The email address the email will come from.

   • From name: The name that the email will come from.

   • Reply address: The email address that people will reply to.

   • Attachment: Press the “Select…” button to attach a file.

   • Load Template: Here you can select a template or upload a new template.

   • Insert merge: Using the merge data tool, you can personalize some of the information in the email, despite it being a mass email.

   • Preview Email: This button allows you to see the email before you send it.

   • Send Emails: This button sends out the email to the recipients.

   • Schedule Email: This pop-up allows you to schedule a time for the email to go out.