This survey, conducted by the Association of Community College Trustees, investigated the political aspects of community college trusteeship, focusing on elected and appointed trustees' political involvement, interactions, influences, and relationship to the political structure and parties in the states where they served as trustees. A total of 5,204 surveys were mailed to trustees on local governing boards--3,180 surveys were mailed to appointed trustees and 1,852 surveys to elected trustees. The response rate to the survey was 36% (1,901 respondents). The survey results revealed some small differences between elected and appointed trustees as well as among trustees with different demographic characteristics. Trustees who were more involved in political parties, younger, female, and had fewer years of service on the board tended to have a higher political activity or a more 'activist" approach. Elected trustees also reported being somewhat more interested than appointed trustees in future political offices. Despite these small differences, the study found that, overall, community college trustees were strongly motivated to provide service to their communities. They tended to have track records of prior community leadership and they felt most accountable to the citizens of the college region and to the current students at the colleges. (GC)