OUT ON THE FLY
person meetings, call for remote options
A community board meets virtually (above). A January 2020 meeting of
CB1 saw overfl ow crowds (below). File photos
COURIER LIFE, AUG. 27-SEPT. 2, 2021 5
tions for hybrid meetings,
trying to fi gure out what technology
will be needed to allow
in-person and remote attendees
to hear and see each other
to participate in discussions.
“We just received a proposal
to start hybrid meetings,”
she said. “It’s something
that has to be reviewed,
it’s costly. Let’s just say it’s a
chunk of change that I don’t
personally feel comfortable,
as the manager, just approving
on my own.”
In a letter to state lawmakers,
eight district managers
and 10 chairs of community
boards in Brooklyn called on
the state to allow for a remote
option once meetings resume
fully, citing concerns about
the Delta variant and the limited
resources available to
community boards.
“The Brooklyn Community
Boards need your assistance
in providing some
fl exibility in returning to
in-person meetings,” the letter
reads. “We request that
community boards have the
option to use virtual meetings
in lieu of in-person meetings
as we continue to work
to identify available meeting
spaces that appropriately support
social distancing and increase
our capacity to support
in-person meetings.”
The state government is
currently out of session, and
amending the OML would require
a special session be convened.
Dante Arnwine, District
Manager of Community Board
9 in Crown Heights and one
of the letter’s main authors,
said his board is equally unclear
on how to proceed. Committee
meetings are typically
held in the board’s cramped
Nostrand Avenue district offi
ce, with no space whatsoever
for social distancing.
A return to in-person
meetings would mean seeking
out alternative meeting
places for committee meetings,
many of which cost
money to rent out — something
Arnwine says is just
not in the board’s budget.
“It really kind of puts us in
a pickle in terms of how much
can we actually spend to host
meetings when some of these
places are rather expensive,”
he said. “It’s not just reserving
general board meetings,
we have 10 committees so
that’s like 100 rooms that
need to be reserved throughout
the year.”
Josephine Beckmann, the
District Manager of Community
Board 10 in Bay Ridge,
says the board hopes to host
hybrid meetings after the
break, but does not feel technologically
equipped yet, and
the city’s Department of Information
Technology is illequipped
to help every board
at once.
“We are trying to be compliant.
We have asked for a
little more time because we
have technology needs, real
technology needs,” Beckmann
said. “We have one Department
of Information and
Technology— who’s great, he
is a wonderful liaison that we
have— but he’s one person to
59 community boards.”
Community Board 4 is
preparing for a test drive
next week, when their parks
committee meets to review
fi eld permits for the fall.
Leon similarly said the city’s
information technology department
has been helpful,
but that they’re also trying to
balance the needs of dozens
of community boards trying
to fi gure out hybrid meetings
— leaving her feeling like the
boards aren’t being set up for
success.
“It just sometimes seems
like we are set up for failure,”
she said. “When we should be
supported in order to better
support our communities and
to ensure democracy, and all
the business that we have to
do is able to take place.”