Community Advisory boards – an engagement SUPERPOWER and an often underutilized asset

So you’ve got a community advisory board. Great! But are you tapping into its full potential? With a thoughtfully chosen group of people and coordinated intentionally, CABs become a treasure trove of connections and insights between your station and the community beyond your listening audience. It’s time to reimagine your CAB into one that plays an active role in your station strategy. Here’s how:

Recast your CAB from a must-do to a super-session
Sure, Community Advisory Boards are a point of compliance with CPB. But they also provide a fabulous opportunity to up your game, moving away from the “lunch/socialize/station update” template and reframe these meetings into a listening session to learn more about community needs and concerns. Have a real-talk conversation with station leadership about flipping the script from THEM listening to US listening. Use their insights to be part of what informs content development, including journalism. All of this is in compliance with CPB mandates!

Repopulate your CAB
Who’s on your CAB? Why? How might you begin to recast the CAB – over time – to reflect community demographics or station interest areas. See this as a built-in chance to deepen engagement and community relationships. Pay attention to the opportunity to strengthen inclusion, diversity and equity priorities. And, make sure that there’s community engagement staff in the room to listen in order to report insights and learnings, as well as the board member liaison.

Rethink meeting frequency
CAB members are volunteers who want their service, wisdom and connections honored. The best way to do that is to ask them to meet more often – quarterly or monthly. This gives the work of the group and their conversation rhythm, deepens the relationship among members and gives the station more opportunities for insight and feedback.

Reimagine the agenda
Consider shortening the meetings to an hour, choose two topics that are emerging concerns, require deeper context, or an exploration of complexity. One well-crafted question for each may take you down a path of revelation and meaning. The compressed time and the published questions will help ensure everyone contributes. Offer pre-reads, link to station work, or research summaries.

Re-engage
Consider sharing the meeting notes or recording with the CAB and also with content team members, and reach out between meetings for additional information from CAB members. They can clarify, connect you with others, and offer new insights. This honors their service, reinforces station sincerity, and helps a station be smarter.