Northwood News ♦ December 2009

President’s Message

By Carole A. Barth

It’s November as I write this, so Thanksgiving is on my mind.  As I start my sixth year as president, I am thankful that we have two neighbors who have volunteered to be new board members, and that Laura Hussey has volunteered to be Vice President.  As the saying goes, many hands make light work.  But that’s not the only reason I’m glad we have a full slate.

It takes a combination of experience and new talent to keep an association strong.  Experienced activists have extensive contacts and lots of background information.  They know how to get a hold of needed information quickly.  This can be critically important when a community has to respond rapidly to a major issue.  But it is equally important to have a diversity of skills and interests, plus enthusiasm.  We also need social-minded people to create fun events that bring us together.

For example, we clearly have lots of dog-lovers in Northwood/Four Corners/Forest Knolls.  Still, never having had a dog, I would never have thought of organizing “The Pitting of the Pooches.”  And if someone had suggested it to me, I would have had no clue how to go about it.  Because of Laura’s involvement, we had a really nice event last May.  So the more people who get involved, the richer our shared experience becomes.

This year, Montgomery County lost some dedicated activists.  I also lost a friend and colleague who originated the BayScapes concept.  These losses brought home how important it is to empower more people to carry the work on.  None of us will be here forever, but we will always need people willing to fight to protect what makes this a special place to live.

We are all busy with many responsibilities.  It’s hard to find balance.  You take on too much, and you burn out or can’t meet you commitments.  On the other hand, if you don’t step up and do what you can, the Association will cease to exist.  This happens in many communities.

This prompted me to wonder, what would our neighborhood be like if those who came before us had not kept the Association going?

There would be no point-of-contact for required notices of various proposed government actions.  You wouldn’t hear about it unless you read the legal notices in the paper or unless you were deemed an affected property owner.  If you did find out, and wanted the community to be involved, you would have to find a way to inform your neighbors and get a group organized, all while your window for affecting the decision was rapidly closing.

Similarly, if you were concerned about an issue (crime, street trees, or whatever), you would not have a ready-made place to bring your issues, get help, build consensus, and then speak with the power of almost 1,500 homes.

You would not have fun community-wide events like National Night Out, nor would there be a mechanism to preserve and share our community’s rich history from the co-op houses to the World’s Fair House.

You would not have the Association meetings, newsletter, or list serve bringing you valuable information like crime alerts and how to report burned out streetlights.

Finally, we’d be living in a vastly different environment.  There would be no pedestrian access to the shopping across Rt 29.  The closest Trader Joe’s would be in Rockville.  There would be no bridges on the Northwest Branch trail and our favorite frog pool would not exist.  In fact, the park itself would have a road or monorail occupying most of the land.  There would be no trees between University Boulevard and the North Four Corners Recreation Center.  There would be much more cut-through traffic, traveling at higher speeds.  Large commercial enterprises would extend further into residential blocks, causing even more traffic problems.

All in all, I’d say that’s well worth $10 dollars a year and a little volunteer time.  So, keep your membership current and ask your neighbors if they’ve re-upped.  Help distribute the newsletter, and contribute an article or a story idea.  Buy an ad for your business in the Northwood News.  Come to the Association meetings, and help find a speaker or topic you’d like to hear about.  Help out with an event.  Write letters to the Planning Board, Council, and press to support NFCCA positions.  Help cover an issue by lending your expertise.  Consider joining the Board next year.  After all, it’s a lot easier to keep this civic association going than it is to build one from scratch.   ■