To help educators and community members design and conduct community council elections, this book describes six successful election projects conducted in midwestern communities in response to federal Teacher Corps regulations. The projects exhibit a variety of approaches and were conducted in varied settings with limited resources. The first chapter reviews the development of community councils, their role in formalizing community involvement in decision-making, and the federal regulations mandating the inclusion of elected community councils in Teacher Corps projects. Chapters 2 through 7 present case studies of six projects, all of which involved collaboration among local districts, nearby institutions of higher education, and local community representatives. The school districts and their cooperating institutions were Akron, Ohio, and Kent State University; Berlin, Wisconsin, and the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh; Farmington, Michigan, and Oakland University; Lorain, Ohio, and Ashland College; South-Western City School District, Ohio, and Youngstown State University. The final chapter reviews the six projects to find and describe patterns and to establish the lessons learned. Constructive guidelines are proposed. Among the topics considered are the diversity of populations, planning needs, recruiting and nominating procedures, voting, selection of officers, publicity, and costs. (PGD)