Your Community - Create An Advisory Board

Achieving Buy-In | Create An Advisory Board | Community Master Planning
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What is an Advisory Board?
A typical advisory board is an officially-recognized citizen forum within local government that deals with issues of a particular nature. Most communities have a number of such bodies: parks boards, police advisory boards, historic preservation boards, and the like.

Some advisory boards may have decision-making power. For example, a local planning board may approve land use changes, although their decisions may still need to be ratified by council. But the majority of boards and committee serve to advise decision-makers such as mayors or city councils.

Advisory boards have a predetermined number of members who serve for limited terms. Members of the public often attend meetings to discuss individual concerns.

Boards are typically created through a resolution adopted by local government. This resolution may lay out the board's duties, number of members, and so on. Here's a sample resolution from Seattle, Washington. Some communities may publish a description separate from the resolution that forms the advisory board. Here's a description of an advisory board in Missoula, Montana.

Why Set Up An Advisory Board?
An advisory board gives citizens an official and on-going role in creating public policy. Those who take part:

- get to know the issues
- learn how government works (and, in particular, how government handles transportation issues)
- get a chance to affect bicycling and walking conditions in the community, if the board is taken seriously.

A board does not take the place of citizens speaking up at council meetings or public hearings. However, an advisory board that works well can help agencies avoid conflicts by providing common sense solutions to problems early in the process.

Separate or Combined Bicycle and Pedestrian Boards?
Some communities have separate bicycling and pedestrian advisory boards. This approach can work well IF each board includes enthusiastic and energetic members. It goes without saying that they should also have equal footing with decision-makers.

Most communities have combined bicycle and pedestrian advisory boards. This can work if your community has strong advocates from both the bicycle and pedestrian camps. Historically, bicycle advocacy groups have been more established than pedestrian advocacy groups. The former have often been very active in local government and their interests tend to be taken care of ahead of the pedestrian issues.

And, in fact, many local boards have started out as bicycle boards and have later acquired pedestrian duties. Unless handled carefully, the transition from a bicycle board to a bicycle-pedestrian board can lead to an imbalance, with bicycling issues commanding the majority of the board's time and attention.

The bottom line: a combined bicycle and pedestrian advisory board should give equal emphasis and representation to both areas.

Where in Government Ranks Should Advisory Boards Be Placed?
There is no one "best" place for a pedestrian and/or bicycle advisory board to sit. Some are committees attached to the mayor's office; others work with the planning office or the public works department.

However, having wide latitude to deal with issues that arise is important. This suggests that having your advisory board situated with the mayor's office or the city council may be best. A board that's under the parks department may have difficulty getting results out of public works, while one under public works may not be influential with the police department. Find out where the most powerful committees and boards are located in your community and look at that as a potential spot for your pedestrian-bicycle advisory board.

What Should Advisory Boards Do?
Boards should focus on improving the walking and bicycling conditions in your community. To fulfill this role they will need to work with public works departments, planning departments, parks departments, police departments, and transportation agencies, and others.

The major tasks of an advisory board include:

- working to get strong pedestrian and bicycle language in any relevant plans being developed (e.g., the transportation plan, the recreation plan, the open space plan, the trails plan, etc.);
- getting key pedestrian and bicycle projects into the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) and the Capital Improvement Program (CIP);
- making sure pedestrian and bicycle concerns are dealt with in community surveys and studies;
*working with the police to improve bicycle- and pedestrian-related enforcement (for example., by doing "crosswalk stings" to catch motorists who fail to yield to pedestrians).

The advisory board should assign specific people to take the lead on these tasks, and action items should be brought back to the board for consideration.

Who Should Sit on the Advisory Board?
As mentioned before, a combined pedestrian and bicycle board should have equal representation between the two areas. Boards should include people with different backgrounds, interests, and viewpoints, and should represent different constituencies within the community.

In choosing members for a new board, look for people who have a history of involvement in committees, charities, and other volunteer efforts. But don't be satisfied by a resume with lots of organization names. Look at what those efforts have produced and how people were involved. Choose people who take on — and complete — tasks.

How Big Should An Advisory Board Be?
A board should not be so small as to be unrepresentative, or too large to get anything done. A reasonable size would be around eight to fifteen members. Too large a board is a recipe for inaction. And, too small a board may be unable to tackle a variety of tasks.

Get Started and Stick With It
Finally, don't be too afraid of making a mistake when establishing an advisory board. While some errors can lead to long-term dysfunction, take a long view of the board's mission and remember that government is not a place where instant decisions are made. There is some truth in the adage, "Slow and steady wins the race."

Those who expect fast results will likely burn out long before results start to show up. Those who stick with it, however, will help influence the future of their communities.

CAUTION: Obey Open Meeting Laws
Bicycle and pedestrian advisory boards are public bodies. Board members should be aware of their state's open meeting laws, and fully comply with them. City and county governments will have copies of such laws. To learn more, do an Internet search on the term: "<your state> open meeting law"

- Sample Bike-Ped Advisory Board By-Laws (Gainesville, FL) | PDF File 31KB
- Build A Bicycle Advocacy Organization (Gandy) | PDF File 17KB
- Land Use Planning for Public Health: The Role of Local Boards of Health in
Community Design and Development | PDF File 900KB

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