Terms of reference

You should neither preside over nor be the object of any review or inquiry where the terms of reference are important yet un or ill-considered. (Like a bird headed for plate glass: It's clear sailing until the sudden, unexpected halt.)

Terms of reference underpin every kind of inquiry, including 'committees of one.' Often, happily, some important terms are implicit by virtue of the issues raised. If, for example, a letter to staff asks, "does anyone know what happened to the staff-room coffee maker," it's clear what the inquiry is about.

But if a follow-up question is, "do you drink coffee or tea," then the inquiry has become a 'fishing expedition.' Such losses of focus are not merely unfortunate, they jeopardise natural justice and they undermine the likelihood of bringing any matter to a satisfactory and just close. Unfocused committees begin to look like Carroll's Mad Tea Party: "Why is a raven like a writing-desk?"

In 1992 the (now gone) Public Service Commission in Western Australia produced a useful document about setting terms of reference. It stayed on the WA website for "research purposes" for many years, but recently disappeared. (It has, happily, re-surfaced on a Trinidad and Tobago government site as a PDF.)

For want of a little preparation so much time and effort is wasted.▪

It pays to be obvious,

especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.
—Isaac Asimov (1920-1992)