(e) Selection.
(1) Public Officials:
(A) Elected public officials or appointed
public officials, selected to serve on the board, shall have either general
governmental responsibilities or responsibilities which require them to deal
with poverty-related issues.
(B)
Permanent Representatives and Alternates. The public officials selected to
serve on the board may each choose one permanent representative or designate an
alternate to serve on the board.
(i) Permanent
Representatives. The representative need not be a public official but shall
have full authority to act for the public official at meetings of the board.
Permanent representatives may hold an officer position on the board. If a
permanent representative is not chosen, then an alternate may be designated by
the public official selected to serve on the board. Alternates may not hold an
officer position on the board.
(ii)
Alternate Representatives. If the Private Nonprofit Entity or Public
Organization advisory board chooses to allow alternates, the alternates for
low-income representatives shall be elected at the same time and in the same
manner as the board representative is elected to serve on the board. Alternates
for representatives of private sector organizations may be designated to serve
on the board and should be selected at the same time the board representative
is selected. In the event that the board member or alternate ceases to be a
member of the organization represented, he/she shall no longer be eligible to
serve on the board. Alternates may not hold an officer position on the
board.
(2)
Low-Income Representatives:
(A) The CSBG Act
and its amendments require representation of low-income individuals on boards.
The CSBG statute requires that not fewer than one-third of the members shall be
representatives of low-income individuals and families and that they shall be
chosen in accordance with democratic selection procedures adequate to assure
that these members are representative of low-income individuals and families in
the neighborhoods served; and that each representative of low-income
individuals and families selected to represent a specific neighborhood within a
community resides in the neighborhood represented by the member.
(B) Board members representing low-income
individuals and families must be selected in accordance with a democratic
procedure. This procedure, as detailed in subparagraph (D) of this paragraph,
may be either directly through election, public forum, or, if not possible,
through a similar democratic process such as election to a position of
responsibility in another significant service or community organization such as
a school PTA, a faith-based organization leadership group; or an advisory
board/governing council to another low-income service provider; For a Private
Nonprofit Entity the democratic selection process must be detailed in the
agency's Certificate of Formation/Articles of Incorporation or bylaws, but the
method detailed in the bylaws (if so described) must not be inconsistent with
any method of selection of Board members outlined in the Certificate of
Formation/Articles of Incorporation; failure to comply could result in a
default procedure that does not meet the CSBG requirements and potentially
jeopardizes the Eligible Entity status of the organization as detailed in
§
RSA
6.213 of this subchapter (relating to Board
Responsibility). For a Public Organization the democratic procedure must be
written in the advisory board's procedures, and approved at a board
meeting.
(C) Every effort should be
made by the Private Nonprofit Entity or Public Organization to assure that
low-income representatives are truly representative of current residents of the
CSBG Service Area, including racial and ethnic composition, as determined by
periodic selection or reselection by the community. "Current" should be defined
by the recent or annual demographic changes as documented in the
needs/Community Assessment. This does not preclude extended service of
low-income community representatives on boards, but it does suggest that
continued board participation of longer term members be revalidated and kept
current through some form of democratic process.
(D) The procedure used to select the
low-income representative must be documented to demonstrate that a democratic
selection process was used. Among the selection processes that may be utilized,
either alone or in combination, are:
(i)
selection and elections, either within neighborhoods or within the community as
a whole; at a meeting or conference, to which all neighborhood residents, and
especially those who are poor, are openly invited;
(ii) selection of representatives to a
community-wide board by members of neighborhood or sub-area boards who are
themselves selected by neighborhood or area residents;
(iii) selection, on a small area basis (such
as a city block); or
(iv) selection
of representatives by existing organizations whose membership is predominately
composed of poor persons.
(E) A Public Organization must not adopt a
democratic selection process that requires all of the low-income
representatives to reside in the political boundaries of the Public
Organization, or that excludes all residents not in the political boundaries of
the Public Organization from all participation in the democratic selection of
all of the low-income representatives.
(3) Representatives of Private Groups and
Interests.
(A) The Private Nonprofit or Public
Organization shall select the remainder of persons to represent the private
sector on the board or it may select private sector organizations from which
representatives of the private sector organization would be chosen to serve on
the board.
(B) The individuals
and/or organizations representing the private sector should be selected in such
a manner as to assure that the board will benefit from broad community
involvement. The board composition for the private sector shall draw from
officials or members of business, industry, labor, religious, law enforcement,
education, school districts, representatives of education districts and other
major groups and interests in the community served.
