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I seek information and/or advice on Core Facility Advisory/Steering Committees' roles and responsibilities.  My facility has a steering committee assigned by our department chair without any clear direction or defined role for the members.   How involved is your steering/advisory committee?    

I have a member that has been problematic, acting unprofessional (yelling at other committee members), derailing meetings for their own agenda, preventing progress in developing a functional business model.  Without a clear definition of what their role is, there is a misconception that they can assign work to the facilities staff.   I am working to draft a statement to clearly define the mission of the committee to support the advancement of the facility.  Are there any drafts of statements that other directors would be willing to share?

Any advice or shared experiences would be greatly appreciated!

Colleen

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Colleen Ingram
Director, GTAC
San Francisco State University
San Francisco CA
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Hi Colleen,
At the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, our advisory committee are mainly to liaison with the research community at large. This includes providing a feedback on lack or inefficient services, equipment failures or unavailability, trainings, any issues with core staff, as well as providing guidance when purchasing new equipment. Because of the issues you mentioned with one of your members, we typically do not discuss financial aspects of the core operations with the committee. However, there are times when a core is not doing well financially. At those times, we do present data on usage and revenue generated by each equipment and service provided by that core. This helps the committee in providing appropriate feedback.
Unfortunately, we too do not have defined and documented role for the advisory committee members. This is more because these roles vary from core to core to a certain degree. That said, the issue at your facility appears more to be with one person's behavior. In my tenure as an administrative director of the core facilities, I did not have this experience. I have heard though that in the past, my chair asked the troublesome member to step down. This I think was a better approach. It let the rest of the committee function better by adjusting to certain situations without restricting their role to a certain definition.
Hope this helps. Eager to know how other institutes and facilities have their advisory committee function.
Regards,
Shekhar

Shekhar Patil, PhD
Senior Director, Shared Research Resources and Core Finances
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Email: Shekhar.Patil@mssm.edu
Phone: (212) 241-0704, Ext 4-0704

Hi Colleen,
   Here is the wording we use when we invite faculty to sit on our advisory committees. The core director's input is critical in choosing whom to invite, because they work with the researchers directly, and have greater insight into who will be engaged and provide good support, and which faculty might cause problems such as you describe.

Dear [FACULTY MEMBER],

On behalf of the Bindley Bioscience Center I would like to invite you to join the Faculty Advisory Committee for[CORE FACILITY]. Advisory Committee members serve a two year term and the committee meets twice a year in the fall and spring semesters. The purpose of the committee is several fold:

• advise the facility director and the Bindley Bioscience Director regarding the capabilities and performance of the facility
• review user satisfaction survey results
• review instrument rates
• provide guidance on new instrument purchases and services
• serve as an advocate for the facility with your peers and the university.

I sincerely hope you are able to accept our invitation. It is essential that faculty offer guidance and feedback to our facilities so that we can continue to provide the high level of services that enable the research enterprise at Purdue.

   Natasha

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Natasha Nikolaidis
Associate Director of Operations
Purdue University
West Lafayette IN
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Hi Colleen, This is an excellent topic for discussion. I am involved in 3 advisory committees at Drexel. They are all different but we are trying to normalize the role including creating a standard for core advisory committee charge. You can look at our Materials Characterization Core committee charge here:

https://drexel.edu/~/media/Files/core-facilities/MCC%20Advisory%20Committee%20Charge.ashx?la=en

However, as others have replied, it's tough to get around difficult or disruptive personalities. It sounds like the leadership that conceived of the committee could clarify with some guidance. One thing that I find very important that the core directors and committee chairs work together to develop the agenda for our meetings and they chair keeps the committee focused.

Good luck!

Craig Johnson
Operations Director of Research Core Facilities
Drexel University
Philadelphia, PA

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Craig Johnson
Core Facility Director
Drexel University
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Hi Colleen,

We don't have a said policy for the advisory and steering committees but all members of that group fall within our College of Medicine at our University. Our College has a Policy on Standards for Professional Code of Conduct. The policy would come into play for any member of the advisory or steering committee that was exhibiting actions and behaviors that you've outlined.

The policy for our college is likely more information than you need. Perhaps there is language or practice that might be helpful to you as you draft your mission statement that certainly could outline expectations around conduct. I'll try sending that to you direct via ABRF message. I hope this is helpful.

Amy

Amy Gilman (she/her)

CBSR Administrative Support

Center for Biomedical Shared Resources

149 Beaumont Ave, FMRB 150A

Burlington, VT 05405

https://www.med.uvm.edu/cbsr

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Amy Gilman
University of Vermont / Larner College of Medicine
Burlington VT
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Colleen,
We at MCW are beginning to develop advisory committees, with the emphasis on a role of advice to the Core Director who takes a lead in choosing members.  Members come from their user group or have a particular expertise in the area of research supported by the core.  We would give the committee a charge, very much along the lines of the roles outlined by Natasha at Purdue. 

– advice to the director regarding operations of the facility
– act as ambassadors for the facility
– review of satisfaction survey results and annual report
– review of rates
– advice on new technology

If someone was as disruptive to the committee operations as the person you describe their suitability for the role would be discussed with the person who appointed them to the group.  At that point I think the disruptive individual could be reminded of the charge and asked if they would like to continue in the role under those requirements by the person who appointed them/institutional cores director and the core director. I would hope that a course of action of this type would be supported by the leaders at our institution.

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Janette Lamb
Institutional Research Cores Program Director
Medical College of Wisconsin
Wisconsin WI
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Hi Colleen,
Here at UC Davis, we have a generic charge for most of the Facility Advisory Committees, but are moving toward outlining specific charges for each year so we address the current and high-priority goals.  Here is an example for [UC Davis Core Facility] that is early in its development:

·       Participate in ongoing review of [UC Davis Core Facility], considering researcher support, performance, development, staffing, and financial planning. 

·       Recommend strategic and operational steps to ensure success in achieving specific goals:

o   recruitment and retention of staff with relevant skills and experience

o   development of appropriate rates for services

o   design and implementation of additional hardware, software and environment to expand capacity and meet researcher needs

o   advancement of concerns regarding impending space, power and cooling constraints and development of strategic recommendations to the AVC, ACCD and Provost

·       Develop appropriate metrics and benchmarks to monitor performance and progress in key areas of research support, training, operations and financial planning, including progress in specific goals as above.

·       Monitor and report progress, at quarterly intervals, to [Research Core leadership].

·       Facilitate close communication with the [campus leadership] to represent [UC Davis Core Facility] perspective, challenges, needs and successes.

·       Provide recommendations to [Office of Research leadership] to guide the strategic development of the [UC Davis Core Facility] for the enhancement of the UC Davis research activities.

We also rely on our Principles of Community to guide respectful behavior.

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Isabelle Girard, PhD
Executive Director
Research Core Facilities Program
University of California, Davis
igirard@ucdavis.edu
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