Note from the President
THOUGHTS SHARED
FOLLOWING THE FIRST ELECTION OF THE HISTORIC GLENWOOD-BROOKLYN
NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION
HGBNA Meeting - November 6, 2002
By Chris Ernst
Listening to acceptance
speeches last night following the mid-term elections, I started
to think that each of the newly elected Committee Chairs should
stand up to say a few words. I quickly dropped the idea. But
in thinking about it some more, I came to the conclusion that
it is important to mark the occasion of our first official
election for the Historic Glenwood-Brooklyn Neighborhood Association.
We've come a long way in a year and a half.
As such, I've
have three thoughts I'd like to share with you. I say they
are thoughts, but they are really thoughts in the form of
questions. And to be honest, they are rhetorical questions,
because I've got an answer for each of them! I hope to challenge
this group to address each of these issues this year. This
is as close to a speech as you will ever see me make, I promise.
Please bear with me!
The three questions
are: How do we want to measure our success? Where does our
work take place? Where do we want to set our sights?
How do we want
to measure our success?
I would like for us to stop hitting ourselves over the head
with the notion that our success somehow equals attendance
figures! For instance, the number of people sitting in this
room right now does not provide a full picture of the extent
of support that exists in our neighborhood for this association.
We each know any number of people who are not here tonight,
but who very much support our efforts and who are willing
to make contributions in other ways.
Instead, I would
like to encourage us to begin viewing our success more broadly
in terms of progress. What progress have we made in the past
year and half since we merged the two associations? We need
to be looking for the impact we are making. Jeff's work on
the by-laws and getting us recognized as a legal North Carolina
organization. David's work on creating a neighborhood website.
Jan's efforts to get the block captains up and running. Jennifer's
efforts in pulling off not one, but two fun-filled Fall Flings.
Phil's capacity to bring a great group of City leaders together
to attend the 1st Annual Historic Glenwood-Brooklyn Open House.
These few examples, and there are many more, represent the
type of progress we need to be evaluating in determining our
success.
Someone told me
a wonderful story last week that addresses my point. This
person was studying alcoholism in Native American tribes as
part of her graduate research. There was one tribe in Montana
where alcoholism was just rampant. One day, a woman in the
tribe decided she had enough and that she was going to begin
holding Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. One day each month
she went to a community building. She organized the chairs
in a circle and she sat, by herself, for an hour. For two
years, there she sat completely alone. She said to herself
that she was "speaking with her elders". In years
three through five, a handful of people started to attend
the meetings. And by year ten, the meetings were full and
alcoholism was all but cured in the tribe.
I tell you this
story for the following reason - If we were to evaluate this
woman's success the first two years, we would say her efforts
failed miserably. No one showed up! But the truth of the matter
is that she made tremendous progress those first two years.
Those first two years were critical for setting the stage
in which positive change could transform the tribe.
Where does our
work take place?
We often think that where our work happens, however you want
to define "work" (with this group of neighbors work
more often feels like spirited play), is during the monthly
meetings. I want to encourage us to see our work happening
not so much in these meetings, but rather in our neighborhood,
in our interactions with one another, and within the City
of Raleigh. I would like for us to increasingly see these
meetings as a set time on our calendars to get together to
coordinate, to update one another, and to make neighborhood
decisions.
Where progress
really happens, though, is on our website, through our list
serve, at a neighborhood association party, in a conversation
between a block captain and a neighbor, or when someone in
the neighborhood represents Glenwood-Brooklyn at a CAC meeting.
In addition, I want to encourage us to build on this idea
this year through the creation of strong neighborhood committees.
Committees not only allow a small group of people to get organized
quickly and get things done, but they provide a clear means
in which people in our neighborhood can get involved and can
be brought into the fold.
I'm not suggesting
that joining these committees must represent a major undertaking
- we are all volunteers here and we are all very busy. I'm
suggesting that each committee identify a couple of goals
they would like to achieve and then work together to go after
them.
So, the second
point I'd like for us to keep in mind this year is that our
work does not take place primarily in our monthly meetings.
Our work takes place out there in the neighborhood.
Where do we want
to set our sights?
As many of you remember from last year, what we paid attention
to was the event or activity that was immediately in front
of us. It felt like we were always in scramble mood - holding
formation and organizing meetings in the summer, moving right
into the Fall Fling, and on to the Tour of Homes. Out of necessity,
we set our sights on the short-term, and the here and now.
This year, I want us to pay attention to immediate needs,
but I also want to encourage everyone to focus on the bigger
picture and our future as a neighborhood.
I truly believe
that Glenwood-Brooklyn is a wonderfully unique neighborhood.
There are very few neighborhoods in Raleigh, the Triangle,
the state, and beyond that have all the building blocks that
we do - a great location, beautiful historic homes, and most
importantly, an active and community-oriented bunch of neighbors.
Yet many people
throughout the City have no idea who we are. We lack an identity.
We are known as the neighborhood between Glenwood South and
Five Points! I think this is unfortunate for at least two
reasons. First, as the City's first planned sub-division,
Glenwood-Brooklyn is ideally situated in the heart of downtown
Raleigh's established neighborhoods. We sit at the very center,
moving clockwise, amongst Five Points, Mordecai, Oakwood,
Boylan Heights, Cameron Park, and Hayes Barton. It is important
that we understand how Glenwood-Brooklyn relates to (is similar
to and different from) these other neighborhoods. Second,
we all know that Raleigh is going to continue to grow by leaps
and bounds in the years ahead. I believe that Glenwood-Brooklyn
can serve as model to Raleigh about what a livable, vibrant,
and diverse neighborhood is all about.
I think it will
prove invaluable for us to spend time this year to clearly
articulate our shared identity - to reach a common understanding
as a neighborhood association of what is our mission, what
are our roles, and what is our vision for Glenwood-Brooklyn.
This is a task that we must all do together. As such, I would
like to suggest that we reserve some time, perhaps at each
of our upcoming meetings, to share our points of view and
discuss the important issues of mission, roles, and vision.
That's it! That's
my speech for the year. It can be summed up as follows. Success
does not equal attendance, but rather progress. Our work takes
place not primarily within these four walls, but rather out
there in the neighborhood. And finally, we must set our sights
not only on the here and now, but on where we are heading.
I look forward
to the year ahead - with further progress, throughout our
neighborhood, with an eye toward today and tomorrow.
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