--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>  
> The district councils share the same recruitment
> challenges as do site  
> councils and school-based parent groups... We  
> learned transportation, child care and interpreters
> were three key challenges to  
> becoming involved.  We also learned cultural
> awareness and communication  styles 
> were an issue.
>  
> We see strong opportunities for collaboration in
> working to strengthen  
> parent-school-community connections from the base
> (block clubs) through the  
> district council structure.  


We (I am also on the Board of my District Council) do
indeed face some of the same type of challenges. 
Jennifer, I encourage you to come to our District
Council(District Five) meeting and make the pitch. We
do provide some of those services.

Caty's point that may have been more relevant a couple
of years ago. As we know, there were lots of
inequities even among the district councils, not just
in membership. Some recent legislation has been passed
to address some of this (but now that the President
has cut the funding source for neighborhood councils
who knows), and the recruitment is tons better today
than it was just a few years ago. Which also is
reflected in the CIB reps from the District Councils. 
Chuck Repke can address this more as he's been around
longer and is more familiar with district councils and
their history.

I'm not white, I'm certainly not priviledged, I'm
appointed to the CIB, I'm a board member of my
District Council and I'm not the only one. While there
is a lot of room for improvement, and we'll keep
working on that, those two civic organizations have
come a long way from where they were just a few years
ago.

Eric Mitchell
Payne Phalen

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