FYI: Volunteer for a Board

The City of Framingham believes that volunteers are the backbone of a community. We encourage and promote involvement by residents in the decision making process through participation on Boards and Commissions.

Approximately one-third of board and commission seats expire annually. To ensure a fair equitable process, and enhance community participation, seats with terms expiring in 2019 will be open to all residents.

For more information, please contact Alaa Abusalah at ama@framinghamma.gov or 508-532-5510. Application to serve on the boards and commissions listed below is available at Framinghamma.gov/SERVE or by clicking HERE.


[Under Article II, Section 10 of the Charter, the mayor shall submit to the council the name of each person the mayor desires to appoint to any office as a division head, the citizen participation officer, or as a member of a multiple-member body. The council shall refer each name that is submitted to it to a standing committee of the council which may investigate each candidate for appointment and may make a report, with recommendations, to the full council not less than seven (7) nor more than twenty-one (21) days after the referral. The committee may require any person whose name has been referred to it to appear before the committee, or before the council, to give any information relevant to the appointment as such committee, or the council, may require.]


Available Opportunities:

Agricultural Advisory Committee: The Agricultural Advisory Committee serves as the primary advocate for farming and agriculture in Framingham. The committee is charged with administration of the City's Right-to-Farm bylaw.

Community Development Committee: The Community Development Committee works in cooperation with the Community and Economic Development Department to work to complete the following: hold public hearings to obtain views of citizens on community development and housing needs. Provide citizens with adequate opportunities to participate in the development, implementation and evaluation of the Community Development Program.

Cultural Council: The Cultural Council awards grants to support a broad range of cultural activities including. The funds are awarded to a school, a city department, an organization, or an individual. The Framingham Cultural Council is responsible for making the final decisions on how to best serve the cultural needs of Framingham in selecting grant recipients and the amount of each grant.

Council on Aging: The Council on Aging assists older adults to remain independent at home for as long as possible, while providing for choices and opportunities. This includes identifying unmet needs and developing and implementing programs and services that help to meet those needs.

Disability Commission: The Disability Commission is comprised of a majority of people with various disabilities. The Commission works with City Officials, in Particular the ADA Coordinator and the Access Compliance Inspector, to promote the inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of community life.

Economic Development Industrial Corporation: The Economic Development and Industrial Corporation works with the City to plan for and carry out economic development where it is most critically needed. The committee encourages investment that will in turn attract other investments and ultimately enhance long-term economic vitality and improve the quality of life for residents and the climate for businesses.

Elderly and Disabled Tax Fund Committee: The City of Framingham accepted the provisions of Acts 1998 C. 166 whereby taxpayers may voluntarily check off, donate and pledge an amount to aid in defraying real estate taxes of elderly and disabled persons of low income.

Fair Housing Committee: The Fair Housing Committee works to promote access to decent, safe and affordable housing for all segments of the community to the maximum extent feasible.

Framingham Housing Authority: Housing Authority Commissioners are responsible for hiring, evaluating, and if necessary discharging of Executive Director, making policy required by law, monitoring the performance of the agency, approving budget, five year and annual plan, seeking community support and partnerships for agency initiatives, approving modernization plans, contracts, grant applications, ethics and more.

Historical Commission: The Historical Commissions’ mission is to work alongside the Massachusetts Historical Commission to promote preservation, protection, and development of the City’s historically and archaeologically important assets.

Historic District Commission: The Historic District Commission preserves the character of designated historic districts in Framingham through a review/advisory process. The commission duties include review and approval/rejection or modification to external changes that are viewable from a public way in structures located in designated historic districts in Framingham.

Human Relations Commission: The purpose of the Commission shall be to deal with the causes of inter group disunity which underlie the urban crisis, including: the elimination of conditions of bias discrimination and prejudice against minority groups, and to establish affirmative action programs to insure equal enforcement of law, and equal protection of law, for all groups regardless of race, color, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender identity, age, disability, sexual orientation, genetics, status as an active member of the armed forces of the United States, or any other protected class recognized under state or federal law (“protected class status”).

Loring Arena Advisory Committee: The Loring Arena Advisory Committee is comprised of members of the skating community representing the various user groups in Framingham including youth through adult hockey, figure skating, hockey operations and municipal government.

Park and Recreation Commission: Parks and Recreation Commissioners generally represent the community and typically have expertise in the areas of parks (landscaping or athletic fields, recreation (activities, leagues, or cultural events), youth sports (organized and pick-up), natural resources, public health, and construction.

Police Advisory Committee: The Police Advisory Committee envisions Framingham having a safe environment for the community; made possible by a strong, positive and trusting relationship between the community-at-large and the Framingham Police Department. The effective delivery of public safety services requires the police partnering with its citizens to ensure the safety of residents and visitors in the community.

Registrar of Voters: Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 51 § 15 require that there shall be in every city or town, other than one having a board of election commissioners or an election commission, a Board of Registrars of Voters.

South Middlesex Regional Voke School (Keefe Tech): The Regional Vocational School Committee's primary responsibility is to establish those purposes, programs, policies and procedures that will best produce the educational achievement needed by students. The Committee is responsible for wise management of resources available to the school system, functions primarily as a legislative body to formulate and adopt policy.

Team Framingham Steering Committee: The Team Framingham Steering Committee plans and administers all aspects of the Team Framingham Boston Marathon program on behalf of the City of Framingham.

Veterans Council: The Veterans Council focuses on addressing current issues related to veteran memorials, the review and development of policies pertaining to City of Framingham veterans along with future projects and plans to promote Arlington and their veterans.

Zoning Board of Appeals: The Zoning Board of Appeals is a quasi-judicial board whose role is to interpret the Framingham Zoning Bylaw in appeals of denied building permits or other determinations of the Building Commissioner; and to hear petitions for Special Permits and Variances subject to the requirements of Mass. General Laws Chapter 40A.