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Committee’s Mandate
Ensure members, especially new members, are aware of the committee’s mandate and what
falls within it. It is important that a committee Chair is not only reactive to Council’s requests,
but proactive as well. For example, committee mandates can be somewhat limiting at times. A
Chair should not be afraid of reviewing the mandate and suggesting new ideas/issues that may
be outside the parameters of the committee’s mandate, and seeking Council’s
advice/feedback.

Committee Portal
A committee portal is accessible to you and your committee members to facilitate document-
sharing and communication. Your committee portal is located in the member-section of the
IPIC website under Committees & Portals, Your Committees. To access the member section,
enter your e-mail address and the password you chose during your member application. If you
do not remember your password, click “Forgot your password?” and follow the prompts to
create a new password.

In this portal, you have access to: conference call numbers and moderator code, a list of up-to-
date committee members (downloadable in both PDF and excel format), a discussion forum
and a document-sharing section where you can post minutes or background documents. You
can choose to communicate to your members via e-mail or through the committee portal.

Schedule Regular Meetings
Make it as easy as possible for people to participate – schedule regular conference calls as
opposed to face-to-face meetings. Nearly half of committee members surveyed feel
conference calls should be held 3-5 times a year, while 41% feel 6 or more calls a year would be
best; therefore, it is up to Chairs and Vice-Chairs to determine the most appropriate amount of
calls for their committees. The IPIC office has set up a permanent dial-in number and passcode
with Pragmatic for your committee. You may want to schedule the meeting on the same day
and at the same time, taking into consideration different time zones for members.