“No Attendance, You Won’t Be on the Board”: CB5 Chair Alice Lowman Draws a Line on Non-Attendance and Borough Hall’s Reversal

Community Board 5’s last general board meeting of the session was supposed to be a celebration: new faces, refreshments, and a chance to thank members for another year of work. But as the June 24 meeting drew to a close, Chair Alice Lowman used her time at the microphone to deliver a different kind of message: a warning about attendance, authority, and the future shape of the board.

Early in the meeting, Lowman introduced herself as “the proud chair of CB Five” and spoke with pride about the board’s role. “I think Community Board Five is the best board, the best board citywide,” she said, adding that “we fight for our people” and that “there is transparency” because “all of our meetings are recorded” and can be seen on YouTube. She thanked her executive board, the district office, and partners who had made sure there were refreshments for the evening.

Later, after hours of community announcements and agency reports, Lowman returned to the mic with a more urgent tone. She reminded everyone this was “our last meeting of the session” and described what it meant for board members to be part of CB5. “We ask for your support, because we’re only as strong as the support we get from you,” she said. “So, please support us.”

Then she turned to attendance.

Lowman told the room that members had not simply been assigned to CB5; they had asked to be there. “You volunteered. You filled out applications. You did all that,” she said, emphasizing that being on the board is “doing your civic duty.” With that in mind, she laid out what she considers the basic obligations of membership.

She reminded everyone that the executive board meeting is held on the third Thursday of the month and the general board meeting on the fourth Wednesday. Beyond those, each member has committee meetings they are expected to attend. These are not optional. Lowman spoke plainly: “If I can do it with my schedule, you can do it with yours,” noting she works overnight shifts, sometimes from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., and still comes to CB5 meetings.

Her message grew sharper as she looked ahead to the fall. “This is our last meeting of the session,” she repeated, then added, “Come September, Community Board Five may look different.” The reason, she explained, would be attendance.

“In September, if things are different, please just continue coming to the meetings—you may not be the co-chairs, you may not be on a specific committee, but you’ll still be on the board, unless you don’t come to the meetings,” Lowman said. She followed with the line that anchored her entire warning: “No attendance, you won’t be on the board.”

Lowman tied this directly to leadership roles. She indicated that if people were holding positions and not fulfilling these responsibilities, they might need to step aside so “fresh blood” could come in. “We’re only as strong as the support we get from you,” she repeated, making clear that titles without participation were not enough.

In the same stretch of remarks, Lowman revealed that CB5 had already confronted non-attendance once before. She told the room that there were members who had not been coming to meetings and that the board had acted. “We voted them off the board,” she said. Those members, she noted, were “not here again,” indicating that the pattern of absence continued.

But Lowman’s description did not end there. She stated that after CB5 voted to remove these members, Brooklyn Borough Hall later put them back on the board. In her words, “we voted them off the board” and “Borough Hall put them on the board” again. She did not go into procedural detail, but she made sure everyone understood the basic sequence: a vote to remove non-attending members, followed by their return to the roster through action from Borough Hall, despite ongoing absence.

For Lowman, that episode appears to have been a turning point. Rather than wait for another outside decision, she told the room she would act herself. “So I am going to do the house cleaning,” she said. The phrase echoed her earlier talk about “fresh blood” and reinforced her commitment that non-attendance would not be ignored.

Throughout her comments, Lowman kept returning to the idea that CB5’s strength comes from members showing up. The board, she said, cannot function if people carry titles but do not attend executive meetings, general meetings, or committee sessions. The warning “No attendance, you won’t be on the board” was not delivered as a hypothetical; it was presented as an expectation for the new session starting in September.

At the same time, she acknowledged the effort it takes to participate. By mentioning her own overnight work schedule and the fact that she still comes to the board, Lowman framed attendance as a choice board members must make. “If I can do it with my schedule, you can do it with yours,” she said, leaving little room for excuses.

The June 24 meeting closed with thanks and summer well-wishes, but Lowman’s words set a clear tone for CB5’s next session. Community Board Five, which she proudly calls “the best board citywide,” is heading into the fall with a chair who has publicly committed to enforcing attendance and to “house cleaning” members who do not fulfill their civic duty. And she has put on the record that when CB5 tried to remove non-attending members before, Borough Hall put them back, a move she is now openly challenging by promising that this time, if there is “no attendance,” there will be no seat on the board.