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What are community boards?
Established in 1976 by Raymond Shonholtz in San Francisco, California, United States, Community Boards is a community-based mediation program. There are 59 local Community Boards and Community Districts across the five boroughs, with each consisting of 50 members that are nominated by the City Council. Community Districts has a maximum of 250,000 people. Several volunteers from the neighborhoods of the city participate in the program, working to help resolve disagreements and repair relationships, in addition to healing or preventing rifts in the community. When do they meet? Meetings happen once a month and are open to the public! Community members often join and participate by providing their feedback and opinions on specific issues the board deals with. Public hearings are required each month, except for July and August. From NYC.gov, most meetings follow a similar format of public sessions among the Community Board members, public hearings from community members, reports from leadership (eg: Chairperson, District Manager, elected officials, etc.), committee reports, and final actions items/voting. What’s their format? They are formatted as a parliamentary structure, where each has an executive committee that consists of a chair, vice chairs, a secretary, and a treasurer. Each Community Board is led by a District Manager, and each individual committee board creates their own format based on their specific needs of their district. Some committees are focused on specific Charter mandates or may relate to a particular agency. Committees may meet more or less frequently depending on their needs of responsibility. (Most members serve in 2-year terms). https://www.manhattanbp.nyc.gov/communityboards/ How do they enact change? Typically, board meetings follow a predictable pattern. Meetings called on a special basis are characterized by urgency and importance. Consent agenda items tend to be routine, standard, non-controversial, and self-explanatory. Examples include:
How to be involved in a community board? To join, you have to apply through your Borough President’s office and complete an interview and application. If you have further questions, check out your local community board’s website and contact them through email. You can also become a public member through becoming apart of the subcommittee!-- you do not need to be appointed by a council member or borough president for that specific committee. Official board members are selected by their respective Borough President’s Office. Young people (aged 16-17) are allowed to join a district’s Community Board as well, and people can join a specific district if they have a “significant interest” in that respective district – that includes you reside, work, go to school in that district, and other interests that are broad and open to interpretation. Applications for community boards are typically due in late February or early March How to search up your own community board: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/cau/community-boards/community-boards.page Official website to learn more about community boards: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/cau/community-boards/about-commmunity-boards.page Access to main voting page (from Youth Power Coalition website): Youth Voting Rights |