Steering Committee Charter

Purpose of the Steering Committee

PRIMARY FUNCTIONS

The primary responsibility of the Steering Committee is to adopt a Master Plan for the construction of storm water abatement measures in the community gardens of Community Board 3. The Steering Committee will review and approve RFPs and the selection process for hiring consultants, engineering and design firms.

The Gardens Rising Steering Committee will monitor and review the project status, as well as provide oversight of the project deliverable rollout.

The Steering Committee provides insight on long-term strategies in support of project mandates. Members of the Steering Committee ensure project objectives are being adequately addressed and the project remains under control. In practice these responsibilities are carried out by performing the following functions:

  • Monitoring and review of the project at regular Steering Committee meetings;
  • Providing technical assistance to the project when required
  • Refining project scope as emergent issues force changes to be considered, ensuring that scope aligns with the agreed requirements of project sponsor and key stakeholder groups
  • Resolving project conflicts and disputes, reconciling differences of opinion and approach
  • Formal acceptance of project deliverables.

Approval Responsibilities

The Steering Committee is responsible for approving major project elements such as:

  • Prioritization of project objectives and outcomes as identified in the Gardens Rising project;
  • Deliverables as identified in the Gardens Rising project;
  • Project schedule;
  • Risk management strategies, ensuring that strategies to address potential threats to the project’s success have been identified, estimated and approved, and that the threats are regularly re-assessed;
  • Project management and quality assurance practices.

Steering Committee Membership
The Steering Committee of Gardens Rising shall consist of nine members, who will meet at minimum of once a month.

 Five members of the Steering Committee will be community gardeners elected from the five garden districts within the community gardens of CB3 (see below). The election process of these five members is as follows:

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Each garden group will meet separately to elect their representative on the Steering Committee.
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Each garden within the group will nominate one gardener to serve on the Steering Committee.

Those gardeners nominated will each address their respective meetings to explain their qualifications and reasons for serving on the Steering Committee.


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Each garden will have one vote. The gardener receiving the most votes will serve on the Steering Committee. In the event of a tie, all nominees will be eligible to take part in a runoff election. Each garden will have one vote in the runoff. There will successive votes until a clear winner is elected.


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After the Steering committee representative is elected, there will be a second round of voting to select an alternate to represent the garden group if the representative is unable to attend Steering Committee meetings. The group alternate will have all the voting powers of the group representative at the Steering Committee meetings.
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Members of steering committee will elect a chairperson and a vice chairperson from amongst themselves. The chairperson will preside over meetings. In absence of the chairperson, the vice chair will preside. In absence of both chairperson and vice chairperson the steering committee members present will elect a meeting facilitator from amongst themselves.




The other four members of the Steering Committee will have expertise in disciplines germane to the Gardens Rising Project such as: Green Infrastructure, Engineering, Design, Construction and Environmental Impact and Implementation. The Gardens Rising Staff and the Board of Directors of the NYC Community Garden Coalition will select these four members. They will serve at the pleasure of the Executive Director of the New York City Community Garden Coalition.

Role of a Steering Committee member



Steering Committee members are not directly responsible for managing project activities, but provide support and guidance for those who do. They should have a broad understanding of project management issues and approach being adopted.

Additionally, they:

  • Review the status of the project;
  • Ensure the project’s outputs meet the requirements of the grant and key stakeholders;
  • Help balance conflicting priorities and resources;
  • Provide guidance to the project team and users of the project’s outputs;
  • Consider ideas and issues raised;
  • Foster positive communication outside of the Team regarding the project’s progress and outcomes.

Steering Committee Meetings

Meeting Schedule and Process


The Team will meet monthly or as required to keep track of issues and the progress of the project’s implementation and on-going statewide support to its stakeholders.

The Steering Committee will follow Robert’s Rules of Order.

Read about our progress here.