Photo by Tracy Clayton.

If you’re feeling like you’d like to get more involved in local affairs, but aren’t sure how, fear not — a mere 25 signatures stand between you and a campaign for elected office.

Today begins the month-long process during which District residents looking to be elected to Advisory Neighborhood Commissions (ANCs) gather the 25 signatures needed to get them on the ballot, and in many cases, straight into office.

ANCs, created in 1976, are the District’s grassroots elected officials. ANC comissioners are unpaid, but given broad authority to advise on matters ranging from crime to zoning variances to liquor licenses. Each of the District’s eight wards are divided into commission districts (1A or 4B, for example), which are further sub-divided into single-member districts covering only a few square blocks and representing roughly 2,000 residents. There are 37 ANCs and 286 single-member districts across the District.

ANCs don’t often make the news, and the folks that serve on them run the gamut from those truly dedicated to public service in its most local form to others who simply love wielding even a smidgen of authority over their small kingdoms. The positions are rarely contested, and many ANCs don’t even get candidates to fill open slots. In 2008, as We Love D.C.’s Tom Bridge found, the overwhelming proportion of ANC candidates ran unopposed, making the actual election something of a formality.

Of course, as fantastic as ANCs sound on paper, in practice, they’ve turned into something of an unwieldy and unpredictable beast.