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Stories from the NFCCA Newsletter, the “Northwood News” |
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Stories from the NFCCA Newsletter, the “Northwood News” |
Now that we are heading into the fall, the NFCCA General Meeting cycle revs up. Please note that the upcoming meeting on 16 October was shifted to the third Wednesday in October to accommodate the religious holiday during the previous week (when we would ordinarily hold our meeting). Otherwise, the meeting will be at the same 7:30 p.m. starting time and the usual place — Forest Knolls Elementary School at 10830 Eastwood Avenue.
Having served as NFCCA President for the past two years, I will be stepping down but will remain active as the Immediate Past President. The incoming 2019–2020 slate of Officers and the Board of Directors will be voted on at the next NFCCA meeting on 16 October. This election offers you an opportunity to get involved and help guide the direction of our neighborhood organization. We have a great set of active officers, board members, and volunteers who serve NFCCA and work on the organization’s initiatives.
NFCCA covers a pretty large area; the organization represents almost 1,500 households. So, naturally, our community’s residents are quite diverse — economically and ethnically. Our neighborhood is made up of newcomers and old-timers, and our residents range from young, to middle-aged, to seniors — all with varying needs and views. I strongly believe that it is important for the Officers and Board to both represent the full range of these differences and bring both new and historical perspectives to their participation as NFCCA Officers and Board members.
The current slate of Officers and Board live on streets that are geographically balanced across the neighborhood, except for the Kinsman Farm area that is not represented. We would love to have someone who lives there step up to serve. And without naming names or dates of birth, the current Officers and Board members skew toward the older set; nothing wrong with that, of course, but, as an organization, NFCCA would benefit from younger participants with new energy and novel ideas. This is your chance to nominate someone else or offer to run yourself; please contact me at president at nfcca.org with any questions or suggestions.
It does not take that much 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 newsletter articles, or attending public hearings about issues affecting our community.
We are always looking to the community to share your ideas and help guide NFCCA in setting our objectives for the upcoming year. At our meetings this past year, we invited a wide range of speakers, and many of the topics covered were suggested by community residents. We heard about:
At the October meeting, we will hear from Peggy Gervasi, the President of the Silver Spring Village, which recently voted to expand its activities to include our area (see article). Our other speaker will be local author Erin Miller, who will discuss her book Final Flight, Final Fight (see article).
Board members are also continuing our outreach to staff at Montgomery Parks and Planning. We hope your kids had fun riding the temporary skate board pump track installation that showed up in August, and we are continuing to work with the park agency to attract more events. A note was posted to the NFCCA listserv advertising the opportunity to comment on the agency’s Dog Park Site Study; they must have heard from the neighborhood, because one of the recommended dog park sites is in nearby South Four Corners. Since rolling out a “Welcome Kit” this past year, we have delivered almost 40 of these folders to new residents who recently moved to Northwood-Four Corners.
On the education front, the study for adjusting the local elementary school boundaries is not yet final. One of the options under consideration could divide our neighborhood into two zones, with some elementary students assigned to Forest Knolls and others to Pinecrest or Montgomery Knolls (see article).
Most importantly, I want to thank the current Officers and Board members for all of their work, and give special kudos to all of the community volunteers who hand-deliver the Northwood News, attend public meetings, bake cookies for our meetings, set up meeting notices, and pitch in when needed — their efforts make this the great community that we call home.
On a final note, I want to remind everyone that October is the beginning of the next NFCCA dues cycle. We keep costs low by relying on neighborhood volunteers — and it is convenient. A dues envelope is tucked into this newsletter, you can pay online via Paypal at www.nfcca.org, or you can pay at the upcoming meeting. NFCCA membership comes at the low, low price of $10 — half the cost of dues at a nearby community association!
So I urge you again to get involved and help guide the direction of our neighborhood organization. ■
© 2019 NFCCA [Source: https://nfcca.org/news/nn201910b.html]