How do you go about encouraging Cllrs to be "active"?

Question

Within our Town Council there are many ways of categorising councillors, but one way I have is splitting them into two: "Meeting Attenders" and "Active Councillors".
"Active Councillors" are people who initiate activities or debates, make suggestions, develop proposals, play an active role in running/supporting council events and activities outside of meetings etc. This tends to be the minority of councillors and inevitably these are the people who do the majority of the work.
Meeting attenders may (or may not) have read agenda packs, they may or may not contribute in meetings but if they do it can often be along the lines of why something shouldn't happen rather than suggesting how it could be made to work.
There's a moral obligation for people to come informed and prepared to a meeting, but there's no rules that prevent someone being in that second category. I guess some see being a Councillor as merely a prestigious title; for others who don't get out much perhaps it's a big part of their social life.
I suspect many councils have these types of councillors ... but how to you encourage them to move from the latter category to the former ?
Genuinely interested in any ways that you use or solutions your councillors have evolved!

Answer 1

I wish there was an easy answer to this, but there isn't. I refer to your meeting attenders as badge collectors, strutting around the village proclaiming their importance. Whilst it is sometimes possible to engage an individual by finding a pet project in which they have a vested interest, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. If you can persuade them to attend training it might open their eyes to the potential, but converting that into energy and enthusiasm is not guaranteed.

The root of this problem is the apathy of the electorate. We don't have contested elections, so anybody who wants to be on the Council can be, without having to demonstrate their value to the community. We all dream of a world in which there are more candidates than vacancies, but that feels a long way off right now. I have some historic records of one of my Councils and the very first meeting in December 1894 when the first Parish Councils were established saw twice as many candidates as seats on the Council, so they each took their turn to proclaim publically why they were the man for the job. Obviously, women weren't included in the process at that time. It's chicken and egg. Many Councils are ineffective because they lack the right people for the role, but the right people for the role don't get involved because the Councils are ineffective.