Board Member Information & Application
Thank you for your interest in supporting the Jersey City Reservoir Preservation Alliance as a dedicated volunteer and Board Member!  Doing so gives you a great opportunity to support one of Jersey City's few deeply green spaces and be a part of creating a new public park. Please read this first page for FAQ information regarding needs, expectations, and requirements. If you are interested in applying, please continue afterwards! 

If you did not get here via our website and wish to visit first, check us out at www.jcreservoir.org

If you have trouble using this application please contact us via our website (under Contact Us). Note, you do not need to enter your email to read the requirements/info, but will need to in order to move on to the application page. The application itself should take 3-5 minutes.
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What are the responsibilities of a board members?

  • Primary decision-maker regarding the direction of the Alliance and Reservoir #3

  • We are a working board- this means that since the Alliance does not have staff, we fill the roles of staff.

  • Represent the Alliance at relevant functions (we never require anyone to make anything specifically but we encourage people to make them when they can, especially our own functions)

  • It's really your choice whether you want to take on small one-off projects, a long term project, or to be a floater. 

  • Typically Board Members serve as chairs of the committees (teams).

  • Report issues and moderate appropriately in Slack, on-site, etc. if any arise.

What is expected of Board Members?

  • Attend our board meetings (if you can't make one please let us know preferably with enough time we can consider a reschedule) 

  • Be checking Slack regularly (Preferably at least 3 times a week, or keep the notifications functional during your preferred working hours) to respond to urgent matters or keep up to date with information -- note that the more we get done via Slack "in the moment" the shorter our board meetings can be.

  • Respond to emails in an appropriate amount of time-- you will get your own email address which will be linked to any public email addresses relevant to your position. You are not expected to check your email every day or even every other, but at least once per week please. 

  • Whatever duty you volunteer to take on should be upkept- be it a continuous thing such as social media or managing donations, or a one-off project you've asked to have done by the next meeting.

  • Track your time

  • Communicate with us when you can't get something done so we can reconfigure and cover your work. (So what we already ask of volunteers or anyone)

Are there participation requirements or fees to be a Board Member?
Board Members must be full active members of the Alliance. Meetings are roughly 2 hours once per month, with additional work varying based on your duties/the time of the year. One can expect to spend an average of 4-5 hours per month if serving as a Board Member and contributing with one specialty duty, but this may change based on your project and ability for involvement. 

You are as board member more exposed regarding legal responsibilities. For this we have Directors and Officers (D&O) Insurance. We divide this fee evenly between board members as a one-time contribution requirement each year.

There is no minimum fundraising requirement like there is with a Board of Trustees. We all consider time donated to be equivalent to donated funds. Our biggest moneymaker is our annual fundraiser #HudsonGives. It is not required but tremendously helpful if a Board Member is able to help advertise/participate in looking for donors and asking for help/donate themselves/etc.

Are there specific skills and qualifications you're looking for?
Anyone is welcome* but we especially need Board Members with the following expertise or experience:

  • Public outreach, social media management and digital newsletters

  • Fundraising, event planning

  • Graphic design, illustration, or photography

  • Historic preservation or curatorial

  • Membership management

  • Taxes and accounting

  • Volunteer Management

People with lived experiences as and connections to underrepresented groups and organizations in the community are especially encouraged to apply.

*We are a working board. This means that this organization does not have employees and we volunteers serve in the place of employees. If you have a skill not listed here that is helpful to run a business, we would love to have you!
What do Board Officers do and what are the positions?
Officers usually spend an average of 10 hours per month volunteering and the positions are as follows: 

    • President: Make final decisions especially in case of ties, manage Board and lead meetings, sign off on documents and represent organization

    • Vice President: Fill role of President when they are unavailable

    • Secretary: Take notes at all meetings, disseminate notes, assist in management of Google Drive

    • Treasurer: Track finances using Quickbooks (still moving data into this system), report on finances at meetings, pay bills, process reimbursements

Duties may change slightly as the organization evolves, and currently the roles are a bit fluid due to our size. We’re in general a bit less formal than many boards. These are typically filled by incumbents, but as our board members are rotating out of their officer positions, all officer positions are open to nomination.

What are the Board Committees?
Committees are effectively departments. Officers fill absent Committee Chair roles. The Finance Committee includes the President, Vice President, Treasurer, and any fundraisers.  The Communications Committee includes the Secretary and anyone else involved in public outreach. Other major projects (such as the Digital Archive) may have Committees as they are active. The current most active Committee is the Design and Infrastructure Committee working with the City of Jersey City on the design of the park space.
Are there important resources a Board Member should be familiar with? 
Overall Board Members should 
  • Be familiar with or able to learn how to use Google Drive, Gmail, and Slack. 

  • Read our JCRPA Bylaws: Access an OCR PDF of the Bylaws here.

  • Refer to BoardSource when having questions: This is a great resource for new and old Board members when there are organizational management questions. www.boardsource.org

 
When and where are Board Meetings?
Meetings are currently the 4th Monday of the month at 7pm and hosted online.
When in-person we typically meet at the Pershing Field Community Center.
This schedule is subject to change based on the availability of the new board, and will change when there are holidays/emergencies that call for it. Board members are also given their own @jcreservoir.org email addresses for outside communication and all volunteers are given access to the Alliance Slack workspace for communicating between meetings.
Will other workloads be placed upon me after I become a board member?

  • Only if you volunteer to take them on, or an emergency happens where we absolutely have to split the load to scramble in response.

  • We understand that everyone is a volunteer. We do our best not to spring surprises on one another, though. 

  • Officers historically take on those additional loads when other Board Members are unable as they have greater expectations and more institutional knowledge. 

How do I apply to be a Board Member?
You may be nominated by someone else or may nominate yourself via this application by continuing to the next page. Elections will occur at the Board Meeting on Monday, November 28, 2022 which begins at 7:00pm online via Google Meet joining info Video call click here for link or dial: ‪(US) +1 575-414-0349‬ PIN: ‪310 396 242‬#   More phone numbers via this link. 
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