Note: This email from William Davenport to the education committee gives a good outline of how MHA committees should be structured for good governance and transparency (Norbert Senf, MHA President):

From: William Davenport
To: Michael Gilmore ; rod ; 'Authentic Stone & Brickwork,Inc' ; 'Alex Chernov' ; 'Timothy Seaton' ; radiancemasonryheat@hotmail.com ; micasl@yahoo.com ; jon@creative-stonework.com ; jmc@ripnet.com ; ttjbhall@hotmail.com ; mwhcoinc@prexar.com
Cc: MHAEducationCert@yahoogroups.com ; info@turtlerockheat.com
Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2007 8:53 PM
Subject: Ed Committee Futures

Hello Ed Commitee folks-
 
I hope all is well and that everyone has had a good holiday.
 
I see there is some energy out there to begin working on some topics relevant to the educational potential of the MHA (occupational analysis, education philosophy and purpose, etc).  This is good.  However, I feel that first we must start by laying together the groundwork for a good committee, in terms of structure and governance.  I mentioned this before, and haven't yet had a response.  It just takes a few simple steps on our part.
 
Since I came to be Chair of the Committee by accident, and do not wish to remain as Chair, I would like the committee to find itself a Chair.  Mike Gilmour, would you be willing to re-assume this position?  I'm asking you because it was originally your position.  It is my opinion that a Chair assume this role before other works are taken on full force. 
 
We do have a Yahoo Chat list set up.  Hopefully all committee members have the address.  It is MHAEducationCert@yahoogroups.com . It would be great if we could switch all email conversations to that forum as it will help us keep all communications on the same record.   The MHA Board and other committees are also using yahoo groups.  Please check into it, set up a yahoo account if you need one, and use that forum for discussion.  
 
Also, it important to check in with the official MHA committee page, http://mha-net.org/html/committee.htm and make sure your are listed properly.  Tim Seaton, to make sure that you are officially on the member list, please contact either Marge or the webmaster (Norbert).  Marge will also be able to sign you into the Yahoo Group.  This goes for anyone else as well. 
 
The Board requests that Committees submit quarterly reports to the Board, which are then also posted on the MHA site and available to the entire membership.  The Committee page lists the reporting schedule, so whoever is the new Chair will have to check it there.  They are due 2 weeks prior to every meeting of the Executive Board.  The next Board meeting is January 20th, so we'll need to furnish a report for the Board and Membership due January 6th.  Since this Committee has recently become re-activated, it would be great to see us show a report to the Board and Membership highlighting what we have been up to and our general direction.  All the report needs to be is a one page summary. 
Whoever becomes Committee Chair will be responsible for this task, unless that duty is assummed by another member of the Committee.  The report can either be sent to Norbert or to Marge.  
 
Educational Committee recommendations, policy initiatives, workshops, mission statements, etc should be the result of a democratic process which is transparent in nature, so let's all do our best to work on that level.   A member makes a motion, there's discussion, it gets voted on, recommendations are made to the Board and so forth.  Official discussions should take place on the official record so that our members can see thru the process if they would like to do so. 
 
Let's get the Chair position established, set up good governance procedures, set up communications on the record of the yahoo group, and then start moving things forward.  We have a good group here, with varying levels of experience and insights into different aspects of education, so I think that positive development is afoot.
 
Best-
 
William