List of All Draft Board Members in the U.S.
2024 Update from Resistance News #20, 1 March 1986 / Edward Hasbrouck / Resisters Info - With almost 2,000 local draft boards with almost 6,000 members now set up across the country, there’s a good chance that one is near you.
In the event of a draft, members of draft boards would function as, in effect, administrative law judges, making both factual and legal determinations with potentially life-or-death consequences in response to draftees’ claims for classification (including classification as conscientious objectors), exemption (including on medical and other grounds), or deferment.
The application form (SSS Form 404) gives some clues as to who is recruited or volunteers for these positions.
According to a press release recruiting board members, “The time commitment for board members is minimal during peacetime — approximately five hours in the first year and two hours annually thereafter.” The training for draft board members consists mainly of watching online videos. Draft boards don’t practice making decisions as a group. (The most recent SSS exercise of which we can find any public record that tested the ability of draft boards to make decisions in accordance with the Service Service law and regulations was in 1988.) Members of a draft board may never have met each other. We’ve heard from draft board members who only learned who the other members of their board were from the list on this Web site.
Most of the training is online. Some draft board training materials and instructions for the operation of draft boards are included in the publicly-available SSS training app for board members:
(Note that some information in this app is inconsistent with current SSS regulations. Presumably, this app reflects updates to those regulations that the SSS plans to issue. The SSS has said that it plans to propose a comprehensive revision of its regulations sometime in 2025.)
Local draft boards provide a ready-made opportunity to generate good publicity for anti-draft activism, and to stir up awareness of the draft within your local community.
Draft boards have been appointed and operate rather quietly, so it’s a good bet that your local media and most local activists don’t know that there’s a local draft board for your county.
This article is a guide to researching a local draft board. It also suggests ways that such research could be used to benefit a local anti-draft organization.
Finding Out Who’s on the Local Draft Board
The Selective Service System doesn’t publicize or make it easy to find out the names of draft board members, but we’ve done the work for you. The first time we asked for this information, in 2020, we had to file a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Selective Service headquarters, and then appeal when our initial request was completely denied, before we finally got most of the information we had requested. The whole process took more than three months, but that’s not bad, as FOIA requests go. The process was similar when we requested and received an updated list in 2025. The SSS has generally been more responsive to FOIA requests than many other agencies.
Draft board members serve 10-year terms, and usually are reappointed if they are willing to serve a second term. So turnover of draft board members — from death, resignation, or expiration of 20 years of service — is relatively slow. You can make your own request for an updated list for your county or state or the entire country. If you ask for and receive an updated complete national list, please send me a copy so I can update the list posted here. If three or more people a year request the entire national list, the FOIA law will require the SSS to post the entire list in the FOIA reading room on their Web site as a “frequently-requested record”.
Here are the most recent lists of local draft boards and members of local draft boards and state and national appeal boards” that we received from the SSS in February and March 2025 in response to our FOIA requests. This is the only place that these lists have ever been made available on the Internet.
From March 2021, when we first got a copy of the list of draft board members, to March 2025 when we got an updated list, the number of board members declined from from 9,596 to 5,802. When we asked the SSS about the decline in the number of draft board members, they send us the following official statement in March 2025:
The Selective Service reorganized its field offices into regional sites and restructured their lines of effort to ensure the Agency is meeting its mission. The board member program is now under the Operations Readiness Functions division in Aurora, CO (Previously designated as Region 3). As part of this reorganization, this new division purged its board member lists by reaching out to all of its board members to determine their status. We found that many board members had unfortunately passed away, while others had moved to another location in-state or out of state.
In other words, the SSS has so little contact with draft board members that “many” had died without the SSS knowing about it.
Many draft boards have only one or two members (even if those who have been appointed haven’t died or moved), and could not legally make decisions, in the event of a draft, without a quorum of three including a member from each county over which they have jurisdiction.
The SSS is considering asking Congress to change the law to allow the SSS to expand the territory of each board to an entire Congressional district, without regard for county boundaries. By reducing the number of boards in less-populous areas with many small counties, this would address the difficulty of recruiting enough draft board members. But this would leave the remaining boards overloaded and even less able to process the flood of claims for deferments and exemptions in the event of activation of a draft, or forced to operate with hurriedly appointed, minimally trained new members.
The spreadsheet of draft board members is sorted by Selective Service region (“Region Zero” is the National Appeal Board, nominally based at SSS headquarters in Arlington, VA), then by state or territory. For each state, the members of the state appeal board (“DAB”) are listed first, then the members of local boards (LB).
As of March 2025, there was only one members of the National Appeal Board (NAB), Jane H. Macon of San Antonio, TX. If anyone interviews her, please let me know. Without a quorum, the NAB would be unable to make decisions on any appeals of claims for deferment or exemption. It’s unclear what would happen to draftees who appealed to the NAB.
Selective Service Reserve Service Members are members of the military reserve forces assigned to provide logistical and other support to the Selective Service System, especially if a draft is activated. They do much of the work of the SSS, but aren’t officially considered SSS personnel. This makes it possible for the SSS to claim that it is an entirely “civilian” agency, even though much of its work is done by these military personnel. Their salaries are paid by the Department of Defense, not the SSS, which hides some of the operating cost of the SSS in the military budget. More military reservists would be assigned to work with the SSS in the event of a draft.)
Each state or territory is supposed to have a State Selective Service Director. Some states and territorial directorships were vacant at the time of our request.
(See this article for more about these terms and the structure and functions of the Selective Service System.)
(As recently as 2021, an additional 10,000 people throughout the U.S. — including high school counselors, prison and probation officials, and staff of employment offices and job training agencies — were officially deputized as “Selective Service registrars”. Authorization for that program quietly expired in 2023.)
Who’s on the Draft Board?
Start by searching the list of local draft boards to find which local board or boards are assigned jurisdiction to hear claims for deferments and exemptions by residents of your county.
Some populous counties have more than one local board, while in some lightly-populated areas, one local board board is assigned jurisdiction over as many as five counties. Each board can have up to five members.
It could be that a local draft board is authorized for your county, but has fewer than three members — or none at all! The SSS has a hard time recruiting people willing to serve in these useless placeholder roles — especially with ongoing controversy over whether to include young women as well as young men in registration and contingency planning for a draft.
The law requires each draft board to have at least three members, and requires a multi-county board to have at least one member from each county it covers. So if there is no local board member listed for your county, or less than three listed for the board that covers your county, there is no board that would be able to hear your claim for deferment or exemption in the event of a draft. Presumably, the SSS would rush to appoint and try to train new boards and board members after inductions were ordered, in the heat of whatever war fever had prompted activation of a draft. These new appointees would be unlikely to be well qualified, prepared, or impartial.
Draft board members are appointed for a maximum of two 10-year terms, so major waves of vacancies come every 20 years. The list we’ve posted includes the date each draft board member was appointed, so you can easily tell when terms will be expiring and vacancies might be opening up on your local board. The terms of those appointed in 1980-1981 when the present system was established expired, and those who had completed their terms were reappointed or replaced, in 2000-2001. Another wave of new or renewal appointments came in 2020-2021. Not all draft board members serve out their full terms, of course, and there is some turnover and a trickle of appointments all the time.
Why do people apply for appointment as a member of a draft board? That’s a good question you can ask them! Some draft board members support the military and the draft, and want to make sure that a draft, if it is activated, delivers inductees quickly and smoothly to the military. Other oppose the draft and see their role as “harm reduction” by protecting the rights of potential draftees.
Not many people apply for appointment to draft boards, and the Selective Service System often has difficulty filling vacancies. The workload of training is minimal as long as a draft isn’t activated. Many of those who apply do so as a relatively easy way to obtain an impressive-looking “Presidential appointment” to put on their résumé. It looks and sounds especially good if they are running for local political office. According to internal meeting notes we obtained in response to another FOIA request, Selective Service officials told the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service that “they assume a significant percentage [of local board members] would resign if the draft were activated”, presumably because they sought appointment for prestige, and aren’t really committed to doing as much work as would be required of them in the event of a draft.
Contacting Local Board Members
Once you have the names, you’ll need to find the telephone numbers or postal or e-mail addresses. Selective Service won’t give out postal or e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, ages, or any other “personally identifiable information” for board members.
Google the names of the board members and the cities or towns where they live. If you’re lucky, one or two members will have sufficiently unusual names that they can be found easily.
You might find a phone number, e-mail address, postal address, or social media account to which you send a direct message or friend request. A Web search may turn up a street address in an online record of a real estate transaction, building permit, application for a zoning variance, etc.
Many draft board members are small business owners or professionals. They may have their own business or professional Web site or be listed in a professional or chamber-of-commerce directory.
If you don’t find them on the Web, try searching Facebook, LinkedIn, or other social media sites.
Draft board members tend to be older, so they might still have landlines. Search 411.com by name and city or town for telephone numbers. Make like a reporter and call every “Ethel Jones” with a listed phone number in the right city or town until you find the one you want.
Similarly, if you find e-mail or postal addresses for more than one “Ethel Jones” in the right town, send them each a polite note explaining that you are interested in talking with members of the Selective Service local board for your area. There’s a good chance the right one will respond.
If you get in touch with some members of the local board, see if they will put you in touch with any of the the others, or tell you anything that might help you locate them.
If Web and social media searches aren’t enough, try voter registration lists. Voter registration lists are public records kept by the county, city, or town clerk or election office. These aren’t generally online, so you’ll probably have to make some phone calls to find the right government office, and then go there in person. Voter registration lists are public records that always include name and home address; they may also include age, occupation, and sometimes a phone number.
In a small community, you can probably find every member if you make a reasonable effort. In a large city, there may be several boards, and you may just want to get statistical information on most of the members. This is where voter registration information can really help you out.
Journalists do this sort of research every day to find people involved in news events. Even if you can’t find all the members of the local board, a good local reporter probably can if you give them the names and home towns from the lists above.
Now What?
You may want to make personal contact with some or all of the draft board members. Reasons for personal contact might include a desire to convince them of the wrongness of their ways, journalistic interviews, or simple curiosity. I was fascinated by the results of the interviews I did, and embarrassed by my own preconceived notions of what the board members would be like.
Draft counselors might want to meet the board and find out which members seem especially hostile or supportive toward conscientious objectors and others who will apply for deferments. Early personal contact, if it’s friendly, will make the board look more favorably on your counselees in the event of a draft. You may well find that a few peacenik types have infiltrated the board. Think carefully before you blow their cover! Pro-peace board members could be dismissed arbitrarily by Selective Service.
Interviews with draft board members might also turn up political or racial prejudices that will need to be confronted if the draft returns. Documenting these prejudices might help registrants with their appeals. It could also provide ammunition for future local protests against unfair decisions by the board.
Don’t assume, as I foolishly did, that all draft board members are going to be reactionary supporters of U.S. imperialism. Give them the benefit of the doubt. Making board members angry at you won’t help stop the draft. Be careful that you don’t prompt a board member to decide that, because you were abusive and hostile, everybody who claims to be a CO is therefore a liar.
Getting Publicity
I recently interviewed the draft board in my hometown of Santa Cruz, California, and from those interviews wrote an article that was published in a liberal local weekly newspaper. I think the subject could be made interesting to even a conservative newspaper or other news outlet, if the right approach was used.
There would be three ways to approach “exposing” the existence of the local draft board: writing an article for a local news outlet, getting a local journalist or someone else with a media platform (such as a prominent local blogger, columnist, etc.) to cover the story, or organizing an action.
My approach was to write a newspaper article. If you’re not a writer, you might prefer to do some research and give the results to a journalist. Someone who is sympathetic to draft resistance would be ideal, but I suspect that many journalists who don’t care about the draft one way or another would find the topic hot-and-juicy enough to merit investigation. In either case, the trick is to give a local newspaper or other news outlet a topic that is unusual and controversial.
The mere fact that a draft board was set up in town without any public notice (if in fact that is what happened in your town) may be enough to make the subject “newsworthy.” It worked in Santa Cruz. But there are other angles to take as well. Obviously, if the media is sympathetic, you could write (or get someone else to write) a straightforward political critique of the existence of draft boards, connecting the boards to resumption of the draft and U.S. intervention abroad. (Substitute whatever politics you prefer.) Most likely, however, the media outlets with the largest audiences won’t go for that approach.
Another way to approach the topic is to look at the socioeconomic, ethnic, gender, and age profile of the board members. These two approaches are not mutually exclusive. It turned out that four of the five board members were affluent over-30 white males, in a county that is not particularly wealthy and that has a large Hispanic population.
The idea is that if boards are unrepresentative they will probably discriminate against certain draftees, even if the board members have good intentions. Boards will make “judgmental” decisions that are invariably tainted by their own experiences. Older, affluent white men will tend not to understand a low income Chicano’s hardship situation or CO beliefs. And so forth.
Question [from Sen. Mark Hatfield]: What would you think of restricting membership on local draft boards to persons between the ages of 18 and 26, so that decisions concerning the lives and possible deaths of young people are made by their peers?
Answer [by John P. White, Deputy Director, Selective Service System]: Selective Service strongly believes that local draft boards must be representative of the community in terms of race, national origin, sex, and age. The difficult question[s] on of fact in the classification process will be answered most equitably by such a representative board. We believe thus principle is a tradition of American politics and Government.
We would anticipate that individuals aged 18 to 26 will be members of local draft boards, but we believe restricting membership to this age group would violate long standing principles of American Government.
[Military Draft Registration, Hearing before the Subcommittee on Independent Agencies of the Senate Appropriations Committee, 11 March 1980]
Yet another angle is the issue of secrecy. Was the board set up with ample public notice? Did the community as a whole get a chance to apply to be on the board? Did the military reservists who do most of the recruiting for the board select their friends, Rotarians, and members of the local “establishment”? Did Selective Service succeed in recruiting a representative board? What efforts did they make to recruit women, poor people, young people, and minority folks?
Many people will feel the secretive, selective way that the boards were recruited is improper, even though they might not be strongly opposed to draft boards per se.
Finally, some journalists may like the story idea, or may keep it on file for future use, as a “local angle” for the next time they are discussing national news about Selective Service and the possibility of a draft. Knowing about the existence of this local infrastructure for a draft may make everyone in the community take the reality of the threat of a draft more seriously. It’s not “just registration” when draft boards are being trained in how to classify and judge which registrants will get sent to war, and which ones will be deferred or exempted.
Actions
If your organization is robust enough, you may want to plan an action to publicize the board’s existence. A great target for an action would be the board’s annual training meeting, if they have one. Ask the members when and where they plan to meet and show up with a crowd.
Selective Service offices are another possible target for actions. In the past, there have been pickets and blockades at the Selective Service national headquarters and at some of its regional offices. Even a one-person picket by Fred Moore of the National Resistance Committee at the regional office in Denver got excellent local press coverage because it was so unusual.
As of 2019, Selective Service offices were located at:
- National Headquarters: 1501 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22209-2461; phone 703-605-4000
- Region I (Northeast and Midwest), Data Management Center, and U.S. Military Entrance Processing Command: 2834 Green Bay Road, Bldg. 3400, Ste. 276, Naval Station Great Lakes, North Chicago, IL 60064-9983; phone 847-688-7990
- Region II (South): Bldg. 922, Ste. 202, 1492 First St., Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Marietta, GA 30069-5010; phone 720-941-1670
- Region III (West): 84 N. Aspen St., MS 26, Bldg. 730, Rm. 140, Buckley Air Force Base, Aurora, CO 80011-9526; phone 770-590-6602
Final Thoughts
This article only suggests ways to publicize the existence of draft boards. Nothing here should be taken as a limitation on what people “ought” to be doing. What I hope this article has done is raise awareness of some good opportunities for the draft resistance movement to remind Washington, and the rest of the country, that draft registration is no joke, but is part of active planning and preparation for a draft, and that we will resist at every stage of a draft.
[Adapted and updated, with permission of the original author, from an article first published in Resistance News #20, 1 March 1986]
Source: https://hasbrouck.org/draft/advice/draft-board.html
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