MRDC Operations and Membership

Membership to the MRDC (the Council) is open. Any interested individual or organization is welcome to present a written application to the Council indicating the partner group in which the applicant intends to participate. Each member may belong to only one partner group. The Executive Committee shall be the sole determining body for the classification of new members.

The Council is organized around nine partner groups:

Private for profit entities and the associations representing them
Private non-profit entities organized for a public purpose
Federal governments
State governments
Tribal governments
Local and county governments
Regional development organizations
Higher educational institutions
Citizens

Committees may be formed to work on specific issues, and full Council meetings will be held at least annually.

Council Officers
The officers of the Council are a President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Clerk. They will be members of the MRDC and will be selected annually by the Executive Committee.

Executive Committee
The Executive Committee will have 27 members comprised of the 3 Council officers, 18 partner group representatives (2 from each partner group), 1 Governor's appointment, 2 at large menbers, and 1 representative from each of the three host agencies - U.S.Department of Agriculture's Rural Economic and Community Development Office (formerly Farmers Home Administration), Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Council Staff
At the present time, the Council is operating without the benefit of staff support.

Decision-Making
Working by consensus is the operational process of the Council, partner groups, and committees. Consensus is understood not as unanimous agreement, but as a process in which all viewpoints are reasonably heard and taken into account in determining whether the level off support expressed for a given action or policy is sufficient to proceed.

Restrictions
For the purpose of clarity in formulating Council proposals, the Council is not:

a competing service delivery organization
a channel for federal, state or local funding
empowered to give commands to its membership
a lobbying organization
a formal organization
another layer of bureaucracy.

If you have any comments please contact us!

Massachusetts Rural Development Council, Inc.
217 Draper Hall
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003

Phone: (413) 545-9595
Fax: (413) 545-1795

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Last updated March 07, 2004 by BC