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Amazingly, 35 people braved the dreary rain last
night to attend the spring Membership Mtg. at Rosenberger Hall in the South
Park.
Featured was a presentation on the Outreach
Committee, which was created by a vote of the membership at the spring 2003
meeting. One year later, it has begun to chart its course. Six of its nine
members were on hand hand to be introduced. Tony West, who is one of the
members, summed up its accomplishments thus far. It has created a "map" or
comprehensive guide to the different stakeholders or user groups that frequent
the park, with contact persons whenever possible. All these groups were
contacted in a standardized way. Some groups proved to be unorganized and hard
to reach in an orderly fashion; the committee has plans for reaching them. As
this map nears completion, specific outreach missions become possible. Top
priority outreach mission is to the basketballers, because there is a
possibility of a major change by Rec that would affect them and we want their
input.
For the members present, Ann DeForest ran an
interactive workshop to introduce the idea of "user groups." Using charts, maps
and crayons, she showed how people experience the park in different and complex
ways that both separate them from other people and create links to
still others. The same person can belong to many different user groups, sharing
different experiences with different sets of neighbors. Most popular activity in
the park by far, among the crowd that night -- the Farmer's Market!
The Dog Committee gave its first interim report.
This committee was formed after the winter meeting to explore the controversy
over unleashed dogs in the park. Chairman Jonathan Snyder and Linda Amsterdam
gave the report, which drew general admiration. The committee has summed up
seven alternatives, listing for each their plusses and minuses. They are: (1)
Fenced Dog Run; (2) Separate the Bowl from the Playground Area; (3) Create a
Linear Barrier between the Bowl and the TotLot; (4) Fence the Playground; (5)
Status Quo, but Add Education and Self-Policing; (6) Allow Dogs Only on Leash,
Enforcing the City Ordinance; (7) Allow Dogs Off Leash During Certain Hours of
the Day. Then the audience was invited to comment on these
alternatives.
The full Dog Committee report will be posted on the
FoCP website (http://www.clarkpark,info)
within a couple of days. Anybody who wants a printed copy should send me their
mailing address. The committee will continue deliberating after it has had ample
feedback from the public.
-- Tony West
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