Ep 9: Practical tips for building better committees and volunteerism in your town with Nate Bernitz

Welcome to a special episode of the RETHINK LOCAL podcast. In it, I talk with Nate Bernitz who is a community and economic development field specialist at the University of New Hampshire extension about ways to improve retention and recruitment on municipal boards and committees and help leverage the power of volunteers to improve local decision-making.

This topic has come up a lot in meetings and workshops with town officials, and some best practices have been highly requested, so Nate and I run through a bunch of best practices and practical tips that you can implement in your community to increase how effective these boards and committees are as well ensure they have full and representative membership from your community.

Nate and I recorded a long conversation here and I actually decided to break it into two shorter episodes. This episode is the practical tips that you can take right to your town and implement. The second conversation which I’ll post shortly, is a more conceptual conversation around the importance of effective community engagement and building your local civic ecosystem.

There is also a free four-page PDF linked below with a guide for your town on low-cost, high-impact ways to step up your board, committee, and volunteerism game. Check it out and let us know if you have any tips that you’ve found to work well in your community!

In this episode, we roughly cover the following topics:

1. Why public meetings are not always the best starting point for engagement

   1. Long meetings, formal public comment, and limited back-and-forth can make it hard for residents to participate meaningfullyDifferent types of boards and committees

2. Statutory boards

   1. Enabled or optional boards

   2. Standing advisory committees
      Ad hoc, task-focused committees

3. Why ad hoc committees are underused

4. They can be time-limited, goal-oriented, and easier for new volunteers to join.
   They can serve as an on-ramp for people who may not be ready for a permanent board role.

5. Retention comes before recruitment

6. Towns should ask why people are not staying before simply trying to recruit more people.
   Clear scopes, expectations, training, good meetings, and support matter.

7. Making boards visible and relevant

8. Residents are more likely to get involved when they understand what boards are actually doing and why the work matters.

9. Recruiting differently

10. Use broad volunteer invitations, community nominations, and “matchmaking” conversations instead of expecting residents to pick from a long list of boards.

11. Next steps for towns

12. Clarify committee purposes.
    Train chairs well.
    Recognize and retain volunteers.
    Run better community nominations.
    Track interested residents.
    Create more practical, accessible ways for people to contribute.
    Do everything part of a broader effort to build engagement and trust and decion-making capacity

I also prepared a handout/takeaways PDF that you can download for free online at Rethink Local, and that is an action plan for your town.

Additional resources:

• Ten best practices PDF with implementation tips: https://rethinklocal.us/build-engaged-volunteers-committees-and-boards-in-your-town/

• Authentic and Effective Public Engagement, in ICMA PM Magazine: https://rethinklocal.us/alex-featured-in-icma-magazine-on-public-engagement/

• Understanding Public Trust at the Local Level: https://extension.unh.edu/resource/understanding-public-trust-local-level

• Beyond Vacancies: Building Strong and Enduring Municipal Boards: https://extension.unh.edu/resource/beyond-vacancies-building-strong-enduring-municipal-boards

• Civic Health Report: https://carsey.unh.edu/new-hampshire-listens/civic-health

• https://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2232&context=extension

• https://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2214&context=extension

More about Nate Bernitz and UNH Extension:

Nate is a community & economic development field specialist for UNH Extension, providing educational outreach that builds community and regional leaders’ capacity to grow and sustain the economy. Nate’s areas of focus include economic development, business retention and engagement, and building partnerships that stimulate innovation and foster regional collaboration. Nate serves the New Hampshire Seacoast Region. Nate holds a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of New Hampshire.

UNH Extension works in five broad topic areas: Community and Economic Development, Education & 4-H Youth Development, Food & Agriculture, Health and Well-Being, and Natural Resources. By working in collaboration with county, state and federal governments, UNH Extension is at work in every New Hampshire county, making the state’s key industries stronger, developing vibrant communities and municipal leaders, fostering healthy families and an informed and engaged citizenry, and keeping the state’s natural resources healthy and productive.