Building the CCC Board: Insights and Perspectives

We plan to publish the names of the Cambridge Citizens Coalition Board Members shortly  on our website but here is some information on what (or rather who) one can anticipate to find here. A key criteria has been  diversity in order that our Board convey the broad geographic spread of the city. We also were looking for people who have been active as leaders and participants in various domains as well as people who think broadly and deeply about issues and enjoy working as a community to achieve larger goals.  As we grow in the years ahead we hope to maintain and further expand on our diversity of back grounds, settings, and interests.
 
Demographics: CCC’s Board currently comprises circa 21 members (we are waiting to hear from several more).  All are local activists and leaders. Nine are women and  five are members of historically under-represented groups (African, African American, Asian, and Latin American) with a cross-section of ages. We were born on five continents (Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America).
 
Education: We have attended a broad array of local educational institutions – Babson College, Boston College, Boston University, Harvard University, MIT, Northeastern - as well as others both in the U.S. and abroad. We studied a wide variety of subjects –from economics to software design, from art history to biochemistry.
 
Our careers have included, among others: administrator, attorney, author, company founder, consultant, documentary filmmaker, economist, energy advisor, foundation director, graduate student, high school teacher, investor, landscape architect, psychologist, professor, realtor, rock musician, scientist, software designer, and talent consultant.
 
Our residences are throughout Cambridge and represent the diverse spectrum of our city’s neighborhoods, among these:  Cambridge Highlands, Cambridgeport, East Cambridge, Fresh Pond, Huron, Harvard Square, Mid-Cambridge, MIT/The Port, North Cambridge, Porter Square, Riverside, and West Cambridge. Our homes range from condos, to multiple family structures, to rental apartments, to single family residences.
 
Our local volunteer work and activism include, among other things, little league coaching, local and regional non-profit Boards, local and regional school boards, local zoning initiatives, neighborhood association leadership, publishing a kids’ newspaper, preservation and restoration efforts, recycling projects, and condo association activities.
 
We also have created two separate advisory groups comprising various specialists.
1) Our Research and Advisory Committee
2) Our Architectural and Design Review Committee
The names of these individuals will be published shortly when our Board of Directors is published.

We have a small group of officers - a President, Treasurer, Clerk and Vice President. We also have named a President-Elect and have in place a timely order of succession. In addition we  have in place a process by which new members are brought onto the Board as well as a line of succession within the leadership structure. We have decided that CCC will be a membership organization, with annual dues of $50.00, a cost can be readily decreased in cases of hardship. 

CCC is a young organization, and still growing, and we will work together on our key shared goals of accountability, good government, and transparency, as well as  a larger community engagement in the workings of the city. This is a primary issue of CCC as a whole, alongside other critical concerns, comprising six main areas of engagement: 

1.Accountability, Transparency & Good Government
2.Affordable Housing, Displacement, and Gentrification
2. Community, Equity & Neighborhood Engagement
4. Environment, Green Issues, Sustainability 
4. Planning, Infrastructure, Smart Growth, and Design
6. ​Public Programs, Arts, and Education