The general procedure for the kinetic analysis of low‐frequency electrostatic and electromagnetic modes in toroidal geometry is now well known. In the collisionless limit the relevant dynamics (e.g., trapped particles, resonances, etc.) can be treated appropriately. However, with the introduction of collisional effects, it is customary for tractability to employ model collision operators that do not rigorously satisfy all conservation properties of more exact collision operators. Insight into the essential required features of such operators can be gained by studying models with increasing levels of completeness for a simpler, unsheared slab geometry. The results presented here for this simpler geometry can provide guidance in choosing model collision operators for toroidal‐geometry kinetic calculations.