Getting out of committee work

An e-mail exchange: Reminder to any new readers. SRU is the pseudonym of my Small Religious University (Not Slippery Rock U or somesuch...)

Colleague to me: Congratulations, you have been nominated to serve on the Faculty Senate.
This is a two-year term and is by faculty election. May I ask two things:

1. REPLY to me by Monday to consent or decline to run for
election.
2. If you decide to run, prepare a candidacy statement for the
election website and send it to blahblahYour statement should be 100 words or less, and can address either or both of the following:
a. What unique strengths and gifts do you feel you could bring to
the SRU Faculty Senate?
b. What particular challenges do you see SRU facing at this point in
time? How might you be of service in addressing these?

Thanks for your consideration, and your service to SRU

Me:

What an honor! Thanks to the faculty for considering me. But for happy
reasons I must decline, as I will be out most of Fall semester 2010 on
maternity leave. I don't feel as though I could serve the faculty
senate properly for the first year of my term. I hope the faculty will
reconsider me in the not-too distant future.

[the compliments are not a lie, but if I never get re-nominated, it would not hurt my feelings]

Colleague to me:

the lengths people will go to to avoid committee work..! Actually, it sounds like you have a rather more important constituency to attend to.
Blessings in the next few months!