Working with Citizen Advisory Committees and Boards

One of the most common and substantive ways citizen participation in local government occurs is through service on appointed advisory committees (CACs) and boards (also sometimes called commissions or task forces). While some CACs are statutorily mandated, most are created at the discretion of governing boards in order to provide community input for various local government functions.

How can local governments get the most out of CACs? 

What practices yield positive results for the organization as well as a positive experience for citizen volunteers? 

This one-day workshop explores promising practices of non-mandated, local government citizen advisory committees and boards. Participants will learn about important nuts-and-bolts, including clarifying roles and expectations; recruiting, appointing, and training volunteers; staffing and managing committee work; and evaluating CAC effectiveness. Participants will also contribute to the learning by completing a pre-workshop survey and participating in a collaborative learning exercise to identify key issues and share promising practices from their experience. Program facilitators will prepare a workshop report that will be distributed to all participants soon afterward.

*Participants will be asked to complete a pre-workshop survey.  The survey will be sent out via email in April.