That’s a coincidence since we have just signed off our Health and Safety committee terms of reference! You need to have an effective committee the following things: 1. Clear terms of reference agreed by all people involved. 2. A clear scope what the committee is for- eg does it set policy or is it purely advisory 3. Who sits on it- what is import is the type of chair you have, the higher the better is my opinion- a director or the CEO 4. Others that could be invited- Occupational Health, HR, communications, FM etc 5. What is the union involvement? 6. At what level want the meeting pitched- do you want one that is strategic and deals with broad areas of policy and stuff or do you want it to deal with operational issues- why the guarding has not been fitted to this equipment or what sort of training is going to be provided- we keep our strategic and deal with the operational issues locally 7. How often do want it to meet. We do it quarterly. 8. Have a set agenda including accident stats and results of audits 9. How does it fit into your overall H&S system? What are its outputs- no point having a meeting just for the sake of it? 10. How long do you want the meetings for – we used to have day long sessions (with too much operational stuff) we now stick to 2 hours max. 11. Make sure papers are produced and distributed well before the meeting. It is important that whatever you do it contributes to the business in some way. Don’t just meet for the sake of meeting.

Us too. We have five UK sites, all of whom had their own safety committee and decided (two years ago!) to unify to one across teh whole organisation with representation from each site. Mostly, I agree with teh list by A Kurdziel, so I don't think I'm adding anything, but in support of his list, this is what works for us: Our terms of reference (which as well as scope, include defined reposnibilities and authorities) took a long time. They went to-and-fro with the board several times. As for his (hers?) we tackle strategic stuff at the whole-organisation meeting, operational stuff is decided locally and reported to the meeting. We meet on a schedule which meshes with the board meetings - two weeks before the board meeting, in order that a report from the committee goes to the board, and also so that if we need something approving (where something exceeds the committee's delegated authority) we can get that promptly. That schedule is slightly more frequently than quarterly, and is set at least a year in advance (so hopefully in everyone's diaries well before anything else is). We do the meeting with a conference call, rather than travel. This works only when the agenda and papers are distributed properly in advance, so we have deadlines set for discussion papers anyone wants to be discussed, deadlines for agenda and papers circulated, and obviously have a deadline very soon after the meeting to get stuff into the papers for the board meeting. We have AOB on the agenda, but I try and discourage anyone from using it! It's probably our most structured meeting (other than the board meeting itself). I also find conference call meetings are less prone to rambling on - we aim for no more than two hours, and normally succeed. Three board members are on the committee (I chair it, the MD and another board director attend) so we always have someone that can report first-hand in the board meeting (or at least, it would take a flukey combination of circmstances for no-one to make both meetings).

I disagree. 1: You appear to be assuming that all important decisions have to be made by the MD personally. I suggest that an organisation in which teh MD is teh only decision-maker is fundamentally broken. 2: You appear to be assuming that only the chairman of a meeting can make decisions. I suggest that a meeting where the chairman drives all decisions is fundamentally broken. If the board has delegated responsibility AND AUTHORITY to either another individual or a committee, then that individual or that committee has the power to make decisions. This is why it is important to establish the terms of reference and so on.