5 Myths & Misconceptions About Boards & Councils

Serving on a board or town council is a great way to get involved with your community. But there are some common myths and misconceptions about what boards and councils do — and being a member of one. Midwest Assistance Program staff identified five including:

Myth #1: All that board/council does is talk and drink coffee.
Mythbuster: The majority of boards/councils are hardworking groups, volunteering more time than they expected to help solve a problem for their community and contribute to its survival.

Read the rest of MAP’s myths about boards and councils by clicking here.

You also can learn how serving on a board or council benefits you and your community, tips for better board/council meetings and what makes a good board/council member in the Spring issue of MAP’s Source newsletter.

What We Do

Midwest Assistance Program (MAP) offers communities and tribal nations a wealth of skills and approaches to help them creatively solve their problems.

Areas of Expertise

Water and Wastewater

Faced with compliance, pollution, and management issues, communities turn to MAP, an established expert in water systems and wastewater treatment. Not only can MAP link them to sources for funding, they find creative solutions customized to each town's immediate infrastructure rehabilitation or replacement needs.

Solid Waste

Without a solid waste management plan and a commitment to implementing it, communities can be buried under a mountain of garbage and be out of compliance with local, state, and federal regulations. When communities and tribal nations want to dig out, MAP can help in a variety of ways from assessing needs to developing a recycling program.

Training

In all areas of our expertise, MAP provides training at a variety of levels, including but not limited to:

  • Developing capacity for town councils, rural water/sewer districts and tribal entities to operate their utilities more effectively
  • Preparing water and wastewater system operators for certification
  • Planning for emergency response and disaster prevention

Training is done one-on-one, as well as in groups. Annually, MAP conducts nearly 100 training sessions, reaching more than 2,000 participants from communities and tribal nations.

Finding Solutions

MAP is dedicated to working side-by-side with small, rural communities and tribal nations to find creative, innovative and local solutions to their problems. MAP helps communities find solutions in the areas of capacity building, compliance, disaster management, management and finance, operations and maintenance, planning and development, and much more.

To learn more about MAP and what it can do for you, download a .pdf of our brochure.