English term (edited): "in attendance y present"

People at a meeting: "present" and "in attendance"

People at committee meetings have formally-defined roles. It is common for the same individual to have different roles at meetings of different Committees.

Members are the people listed in the formal Composition. They are shown as "present" in the minutes. Only members and their substitutes (see below) can count towards the quorum, or vote. In general voting at committees is fairly rare in universities, so if a vote does happen it is therefore quite likely that the Committee Secretary will be required to provide clarification of who is eligible to participate.

A Substitute is a person whom the Chair has approved to attend the Committee in place of a specific member, normally on a specific occasion. A substitute contributes towards the quorum and has voting rights. In a few cases (for example Trades Union representatives) there may be a formally recorded semi-permanent substitute, which means that there is no need to make special arrangements for substitution at individual meetings. Substitutes are recorded in minutes as "present", and an annotation showing for whom they are a substitute is generally helpful.

Administrators (and sometimes other categories of staff) attending meetings as professional advisors to the Committee, or for training or information purposes, are recorded in the minutes as "in attendance" if they are not members. Their contributions to any discussion should normally relate directly to their current area of responsibility, rather than to their general opinions as members of the College. Before the beginning of the academic year, the Chair and Secretary should agree the list of people to be invited to be in attendance, either generally or at meetings where the business concerns them (as well as the list of those included in the circulation list but not normally expected to attend).

Observers do not, in principle, normally participate in discussions although they may be invited to do so by the Chair - either generally, or on a specific item. They normally either have an interest in the Committee's area of work, or a particular item under discussion, or need to be at the meeting for some other reason, but do not conveniently fit into any of the other attendance categories. They should be referred to in the minutes separately from those "present" or "in attendance": there is no particular wording convention for this.

No hay V.S. Es sólo un caso de sinonimia. Saludos y espero que sea de utilidad.

Diego.