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Leadership debates shrinking committees, bimonthly meetings to address low attendance and text-message outreach
Summary
Members discussed reducing committee meeting frequency, combining committees, and changing outreach methods after chronic low attendance; staff will circulate examples and explore merging committees where membership is sparse.
Community Board 11 leadership discussed persistent low attendance at standing committees and options to address it, including meeting less frequently, combining related committees, and improving outreach.
Several members urged structural changes to reduce the total number of meetings members must attend. One board member said committees that struggle to attract participants could meet every two months rather than monthly; a proposal on the floor would make standing committees meet only when they have specific business, consistent with the board’s bylaws. Leadership asked staff to gather examples from other community boards that have consolidated committees and to circulate suggested committee combinations to members for review.
Members also reviewed an outreach tactic: the board’s text-messaging system. Some board members reported the text format and the originating phone number (a 716 area code) caused recipients to mistake messages for spam; leaders asked staff to change the message header to begin with “Community Board 11” so recipients recognize the sender. Jeremy (staff member) and Ryan (staff member) were assigned to draft a revised text template.
On committee merging, leadership discussed several specific pairings. For operational reasons and because public safety had too few members to meet consistently, members proposed combining Public Safety with Economic Development; other combinations discussed included Bylaws with Ethics and Economic Development with Community Development for some agendas. Multiple members noted that formal bylaw changes would still require committee review and full board votes before becoming permanent.
Why it matters: Board committees are the engine of review for land-use, licensing, safety and budget matters. Low committee attendance delays review and forces issues into full-board meetings. Leadership characterized the proposals as pragmatic efforts to preserve review capacity while reducing meeting burden on volunteers.
Next steps: Staff will prepare examples of consolidated committee structures used by other community boards, circulate suggested combinations to leadership, and draft a revised text-message template that identifies messages as coming from Community Board 11. Leadership asked chairs to consider which committees could combine on a trial basis and to report back at the next leadership meeting.
