In your role on a governing council you might find that your school or preschool governing council needs a smaller, separate group of people to work together on specific tasks.

There are a couple of ways to make this kind of group official. One way is by creating a subcommittee, also known as a committee of council.

Setting up a subcommittee

Why set up a subcommittee

Subcommittees are often created to get the local community involved, similar to affiliated committee. They can help you manage specific services, projects or events, easing the governing council’s workload and allowing it to stay focused on site governance.

How to set up a subcommittee

Each subcommittee must have at least 3 members, including at least 1 governing council member.

Before a subcommittee can start meeting and working together, your council must approve the establishment of the subcommittee including the subcommittee’s terms of reference templates. You can use one of the suggested terms of reference templates.

For smaller tasks you might only need 4 or 5 people to help. Larger or longer term projects may need more people. The number of people and mix of skills can change over time to match a project’s need.

Winding down a subcommittee

Sometimes a subcommittee is no longer needed because:

• a service, like an OSHC, is no longer needed in the school community
• a project has been completed
• the terms of reference specify a closing date
• the subcommittee or governing council decide it’s no longer effective or needed.

A subcommittee needs to be wound down so that it’s officially closed.

How to wind down a subcommittee

• Record the closure of the subcommittee in the governing council’s and subcommittee’s meeting minutes (DOCX 27 KB) .
• Return all subcommittee documents to the council secretary.
• It’s also encouraged to:
  • include an announcement in the site’s newsletter
  • have the governing council’s chairperson write and thank members of the subcommittee.