Typical Guide Memo Changes
There are several types of changes that are typically made to Administrative Guide Memos:
Policy: Any change to policy content or a change that affects how the policy is administered or interpreted.
Organizational chart: A title change or a change to the reporting structure.
Housekeeping: Changes or corrections that do not change policy content, such as changes in contact information, phone numbers, URLs or addresses.
Those Authorized to Request Changes
A new Guide Memo or a change to an existing Guide Memo can only be requested by the person who has approval authority for the contents (also known as the “policy owner”), or that person’s designee.
Submitting Changes to the Administrative Guide
- The policy owner or designee notifies the Administrative Guide Editor that changes are planned by emailing guide-editor@lists.stanford.edu. The Administrative Guide Editor sends the soft copy (Word document) of the most recent version.
- The policy owner or designee uses Track Changes to make the needed changes/edits directly on the Word document. Typically, the policy owner or designee will have a group of employees in that school or unit to review the changes, and include anyone with responsibility for the policy discussed in the Memo, or someone who is charged with communicating or interpreting the Guide Memo to others. If there are other groups outside your department with joint responsibility for the policy, it is advised to include a representative from that group(s) in the review process.*
- Email the revised Guide Memo as an attachment to the Editor by the deadline in the Publication Schedule. Failure to return the Guide Memo to the Editor by the deadline may result in postponement to the next publication date. Confirmation will be sent.
Next Steps
The Editor may contact the policy owner or designeer to clarify any content questions. The Editor then takes these steps to finalize the changes:
- The Editor will send all Memos (except Housekeeping) to the Liaison Group for review and approval. This group consists of all Memo authorities/owners, members of the Stanford legal staff, and other senior staff.
- Once the Guide Memo has been reviewed by the Liaison Group*, the Editor makes a final, clean copy, reviews the content for consistent and easy to understand language, and then sends it to the Guide Memo’s authority/owner for written approval and authorization to post.
*Not required for Housekeeping changes.
