A little over 100 volunteers are needed on committees and boards in Belmont, according to town officials.
Of that number, 77 openings are from committee members whose terms expire this year and who are eligible for reappointment; 28 are outright vacancies.
“That’s actually a huge number,” said Chair Taylor Yates at a recent Select Board meeting. “Professional recruiters recruit less people per year. We have a huge number of committees; we also have a lot of very large committees.”
The recent launch of a new portal for applications aims to streamline the recruiting and appointing process for recruitment and make it more efficient.
“Our committee pages were in deep need of reform and updating because it’s actually pretty hard for us as a Select Board to understand what committees we have, who is on them, and what they do,” Yates said. “If it’s hard for us, it’s hard for the public.”
Specifically, a new page on the town website lists each of the committees and whether there are vacancies, and provides a link to the form used to submit an application. Users can also find more information about each of the committees on this same webpage.
“Stuff like this, making it as frictionless as possible … so [interested volunteers] can be vetted and potentially appointed is super critical,” Yates said.
According to Jake Silva, who was recently hired in the Department of Information Technology, committee pages were “all over the place” and information on vacancies and how to apply was “confusing and a bit overwhelming.” By comparison, this website is a one-stop-shop.
“When [an application] form comes in, it’s received into the database,” Silva said. “It starts with our office then moves to either the moderator or the town clerk based on that committee and what approval flow is applicable.”
Town Administrator Patrice Garvin commended the work of the IT Department.
“The amount of efficiency it creates in my office is tremendous,” she said. “We’re using IT to create more efficiencies to do more with less. … This will definitely achieve that for us in our office.”
The webpage can be found on the town website at www.belmont-ma.gov/2336/Vacancies-Volunteer
