I live in a town of 960 people, and four years ago I ran for an open seat on the Library Board; within three months I was chairing the board because the lady who was the chair had been doing it for 14 years and she wanted a break. Someone also threw my name in the ring to be on the school board; another candidate won the seat that time.
In my first three years on the library board, we
a) lost a librarian to a car accident,
b) hired an interim librarian,
c) hired a permanent librarian,
c) wrote an anti-censorship policy,
d) balanced the library budget three years running,
d) started a Friends of the Library group,
e) organized our social media campaign,
f) joined the statewide electronic catalog, and
g) quadrupled our library membership.
So when I ran for library board for my second term, I got voted in with 100% of the votes cast... and I also won an open seat on the school board as a write-in candidate with 19 votes; and I lost an election to the Select Board (our 'mayoral' system is a 3-person board) by just 38 votes out of 450 cast.
So now I'm solving library problems on the one hand, and solving school board problems on the other hand. It's an education in educational policy and finance — federal and state aid programs, local policy on athletics and sports and core education vs arts funding, union negotiations, and more. If I ever decide to run for select board again, I'm going to be much better informed and prepared to understand the issues.
Meanwhile...
Just yesterday, I drove through a town of 65,000 people. There was a group of people on a street corner holding up "pro labor" signs and "free Palestine" signs and "anti-war" signs, and "Jill Stein for President" (mind you, this is March 2025 -- there isn't a presidential election until 2028!) and "The Green Party wants your vote!" signs. There were maybe ten of these folks?
So when I got home, I went to their city's "Boards and Commissions" website. They have 19 vacant seats on various committees and boards and commissions, including two (the Wetlands Commission [wouldn't that be a Green Party issue??], and the Diversity Commission) that don't have enough members right now to hold meetings under state quorum rules. And there are 85 people on other commissions and boards that are up for re-election this year, and more than half of them don't want to keep running for these seats; they'd welcome a challenger.
In other words, the local community is STARVING for people to fill local government responsibilities.
Why are these people out here holding up signs for a woman to run for president in three years, when there are 104 seats in their own community government that are up election this year? Demonstrate to someone, somebody, anybody that you want to help solve community-level problems, and that you know what you're doing... and there's no holding you back.
kianamaiart
prguitarman
gummygunk
janainaart
blakekathryn
jbbartram-illu
theartofmadeline
jacobvanloon
areudirty
