About Our Monthly Meetings

The Wilmette Board of Park Commissioners meets twice monthly.

  • The Board conducts its Regular Monthly Meeting on the second Monday of each month, in the Wilmette Village Hall council chambers, 1200 Wilmette Ave., 2nd floor.
  • On the fourth Monday of each month, the Board gathers for a Committee of the Whole (COW) Meeting at the Mallinckrodt Center, 1041A Ridge Road (side entrance), in Wilmette. Additional COW Meetings may be scheduled when needed. Any additional COW Meeting information will be available on our website here.
  • In addition, the Board gathers for an Annual Meeting in May each year, typically held immediately before the Regular Monthly Board meeting.

The Board of Park Commissioners invites the community to attend these meetings; they are open to the public. View meeting dates and locations here.

Regular Monthly Meetings and the Annual Meeting are televised live on Wilmette channel 6, and are rerun several times subsequently. Meeting video recordings are available to view on YouTube and can be accessed through a link on our website here. COW Meetings are not televised.

Agendas and Minutes from the Annual, Regular Monthly and COW Meetings are available for viewing on our website here.

NEW Committee of the Whole Meetings

NEW COMMITTEE MEETING STRUCTURE

History: Seven "Standing Committee" Meetings
Before June, five Board committees, led by three Board Commissioners each, met each month to discuss topics relative to their area of focus: Financial Planning and Policy; Facilities; Golf Operations; Parks and Recreation; and Lakefront. Intergovernmental and Real Estate committees met as needed.

All Standing Committee Meetings were open to the public, and minutes from each meeting were posted on our website here.

NEW Structure: Committee of the Whole (COW)
The Park Board has voted to change its committee meeting structure, from Standing Committee to Committee of the Whole, beginning in June.

In lieu of seven separate Standing Committee meetings attended by only three Commissioners each, the new COW structure includes the full Board, and will allow each Commissioner the opportunity to weigh in on all projects from conception. The COW Meeting provides a framework to help projects move from conception, to planning, to approval, to execution in a clear and organized manner, adding structure to the process and transparency to the community.

At the COW meetings, the Board of Park Commissioners and visitors from our community will receive departmental operational updates, as had been provided historically in the Standing Committees. Additionally, a more robust presentation providing updates on financial and operational results will be given to the full Board, and the community, quarterly. In COW Meetings, final votes are not taken (final votes take place in the regular monthly Board meetings), but votes to recommend a course of action are given.

Committee of the Whole Meeting Schedule
COW meetings are open to the public; however they are not televised. They are held at the Mallinkcrodt Center, 1041A Ridge Road in Wilmette. See our website for future meeting dates here. Look for future minutes from COW meetings here (note: meeting minutes will post online after approval at a subsequent COW meeting).