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; this type of change is considered a policy update.
Housekeeping: Changes or corrections that do not change policy content, such as correcting a typo or updating 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 Updates 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 policy owner or designee creates a Word document (see below) of the current policy and 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.*
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To create a Word version of any Admin Guide policy, navigate to that policy's web page and take these steps: Click the "Print this policy" link in the right hand column, Click "cancel" on the printer pop-up window, then "Select All," and then copy and paste to a new Word doc.
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- Email the revised Guide Memo as an attachment to the Guide Editor along with a copy of the approval from the policy owner. Once the changes have been made, an announcement will be sent to the subscribers of the guide-updates email list and a summary of the change will be added to the What's New page.
New Policies
- In addition to the steps above, for brand new policies, once the approved draft is received, the Editor will send the document 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.
- Once the policy has been published, an announcement will be sent to the subscribers of the guide-updates email list and a summary of the change will be added to the What's New page. Visit the Administrative Guide email subscription page in Mailman to subscribe to the update list: mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/guide-update.
*Not required for housekeeping changes.
