Board of Trustees
In assembling a group of his friends and business associates, Edward Harriman recognized that a strong, focused and generous Board of Trustees would be essential to sustaining the organization’s mission. Since then, hundreds of the city’s most prominent philanthropists and civic leaders have served The Boys’ Club of New York with great distinction. In nominating individuals to the Board, the Committee on Trustees is charged with creating a professionally, socially, and culturally diverse body with the demonstrated capacity to contribute to all areas of the organization’s governance and development. The Board of Trustees is currently comprised of forty-eight members and includes a wide range of business and community leaders along with a number of BCNY alumni. Fourteen members of the Board are elected as Officers (President, Chair, ten Vice Presidents, Treasurer and Secretary) and serve on the Executive Committee.
BCNY Trustees lend their expertise to a wide range of areas impacting BCNY’s financial management, fundraising, program development, long-range planning and fiscal stability. In addition to the Committee on Trustees and Executive Committee, there are five Board committees: Audit & Risk, Development, Education, Investment, and Plant & Property. The full Board of Trustees meets four times a year with specific committees scheduled to report at each meeting. In addition to serving on up to three committees, Trustees volunteer in the clubhouses as coaches, tutors, group club leaders and mentors.
Honorary Trustees
In addition to the active members, fifteen Honorary Trustees currently serve on the BCNY Board. Those Trustees who reach honorary status do so after years of dedicated service. These appointments are made at the Board’s Annual Meeting at the recommendation of the Executive Committee. Honorary Trustees serve for the remainder of their lives and their appointment represents the highest honor bestowed on a Trustee.
Women’s Board
Founded in 1968, the Women’s Board raises support for and awareness of BCNY and provides volunteer services to BCNY members. Comprised of forty active members and twenty-three members of the Honorary Board, the Women’s Board holds fundraising events that are regularly on the calendars of New York’s social leaders and philanthropists. Events have included dinner dances, theater and film previews, fashion shows, lectures, antique show preview nights, and other exciting activities that attract donors and raise greater awareness of BCNY’s mission. The Women’s Board is governed by its own set of by-laws, committee structure, and a constitution that defines its stated purpose and general mandate. Several Women’s Board members are also members of BCNY’s Board of Trustees and a member of the Women’s Board serves on each Board of Trustee Committee as a non-voting liaison.
The Women’s Board works year-round to provide BCNY with valuable resources and dedicated service that help improve the lives of BCNY’s members. The Women’s Board was instrumental in creating the BCNY’s READ program. Women’s Board volunteers tutoring boys after school saw that many of them had trouble reading and that this jeopardized their academic achievement. Working with BCNY management, the Women’s Board helped to create an effective academic support program that increases literacy skills and fosters a love for reading.
