The effectiveness of the community board in the mental health system specifically and in human service systems generally depends, to a large extent, on how the board's role and scope are defined and how its organizational structure and staffing procedures are developed. The development of community boards should be based upon the premises that (1) human services are responsible to the communities being served and (2) boards must represent fairly the diverse interests of heterogeneous groups in the community. The role and scope of a community mental health board may include identifying community mental health needs based on relevant data, establishing goals and assigning priorities for resource distribution, and assessing the impact of programs and requiring staff accountability for program effectiveness. The board's organizational structure should be informal and task focused and should encourage board members' actual involvement in the community. Board members should be able to effectively represent diverse community groups. Training experiences should be provided to enhance board members' ability to plan programs relevant to needs. By operating along these principles, a community board can ensure that programs will deliver resources based on need and that processes/policies that perpetuate institutional racism will not survive. (Author/MJL)