Northwood News ♦ October 2018

President’s Message

By Sharon Canavan

Now that the summer monsoon season has ended, it is time to restart the NFCCA meeting cycle.  At the next NFCCA meeting in October, you will be selecting the 2018-2019 slate of Officers for the Board of Directors.  As I mentioned in the June newsletter, the NFCCA election offers an opportunity to get involved and help guide the direction of our neighborhood organization.  We have a great set of volunteers who guide NFCCA and work on the organization’s initiatives, but one of my priorities is to ensure that the Board represents the entire community.  In particular, we need someone from the Kinsman Farm neighborhood to step up to serve on the Board, because that area is not currently represented.  The diversity of the Board would also be enhanced by including one of our Hispanic neighbors.  This is your chance to nominate someone else or offer to run yourself; please contact me at president at nfcca dot org if you have any questions or suggestions.

What does it take to get involved?  There are five NFCCA meetings annually and a board planning meeting is scheduled between each general membership meeting.  Otherwise, individual board members or officers choose how much time to devote to volunteer activities, such as planning National Night Out, writing articles for the newsletter, or attending public hearings about issues affecting our community.

We are looking to the community to share your ideas and help guide us in setting our objectives for the upcoming year.  After we conduct the annual business meeting and election in October, there will be a “Listening Session” for the balance of the meeting.  This will start with a discussion of how best to use social media to communicate more effectively about time-sensitive matters that affect our neighborhood.  We also want to solicit your ideas and feedback on worthwhile projects.  Do members want more social activities, such as block parties, holiday parades, or group nature walks?  What about practical suggestions, such as organizing a multihousehold yard sale or a composting co-op (see story)?  Would people like to attend more detailed workshops or educational programs, such as a presentation from a master gardener or a consumer protection specialist?  Last, but not least, what types of speakers are you interested in hearing from at our NFCCA meetings?

We also want to hear from you about what steps the NFCCA leadership can take to improve. Over the last year I have certainly heard complaints and have tried to make adjustments to address the concerns raised.

Finally, here is a partial “report card” detailing the activities the NFCCA Board undertook this past year.  As a first step, we established specific goals to prioritize our work on a number of projects, including:

• Production of a Welcome Kit that contains handy references and information to hand out to newcomers to familiarize them with the area and our organization.
• Creation of a lookup tool on the NFCCA website, so members can check if dues are current.
• Implementation of a broader social media communications strategy for staying connected with neighborhood happenings on the Friends of North Four Corners Park Facebook page (www.facebook.com/NFCCAPark) and on Twitter @NFCCAMoCo.
• Hosting a District 19 Delegates Forum.
• Ensuring that the Parks Department renovated the soccer field in North Four Corners Park, which was improperly installed and needed to be regraded and reseeded.
• Development of a first draft of an Operating Manual to guide a future transition to the next generation of NFCCA leaders.

Your input will frame the efforts that NFCCA will undertake in the coming year.  Come to the meeting prepared with your thoughts and ideas!  I look forward to seeing you on October 10th at the NFCCA general meeting.    ■