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The Spruce Hill Community Association has explicitly violated Section IV-A of its bylaws by not mailing members a notice of the June 8 Annual Meeting and Election on or before May 25 2004. And... forget the fact that nothing whatsoever has been forthcoming to alert the 98% of the people who live in Spruce Hill but don't happen to be members of this groups that like to tell people it represents the community.
So I offer the following -- which, despite its being justifiably harshly critical of this group -- does the job for them and lets people know the when, where, and what of the meeting. Oh yes, for those who want to skip the long boring passages, it's 7:30 in Room 102 of Rosenberger hall at USP (43rd between Regent and Woodland).
Always at your service and ready for a dialog,
Al Krigman ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Reprinted from the June 2 University City Review)
Open Letter to the Spruce Hill Community Association
about lip service to interest in increasing membership For years, the Spruce Hill Community Association (SHCA) has been pretending its goal is to get more members than the 2 percent or less of the neighborhood who now belong. And even this figure is inflated because of members who don't live, work, or own property within the Spruce Hill boundaries.
This year, SHCA had a golden opportunity to increase membership among residents concerned with vital community issues. Yet, the clique which manipulates the strings of this organization has ignored the chance to do so. .
In particular, early in April, I handed the SHCA president a written copy of a motion I will make at as an item of "new business" the general meeting and election on June 8. The resolution is to withdraw SHCA's support of the nomination submitted to the City to have Spruce Hill designated as a historic district. This vote is particularly timely for two reasons. 1) The Historical Commission is planning to take up the nomination this summer. 2) Bill 040156, now before City Council, may provide for the creation of "Neighborhood Conservation Districts." Conservation districts would be much more appropriate and far less burdensome than historic districts as tools for residents to preserve or enhance the aesthetic character of their neighborhoods (for details, see www.iconworldwide.com/histodis/bill040156a.htm).
The motion in question is important to SHCA and the community at large. It provides a way for neighbors to engage in a dialog following parliamentary procedure, and to formally determine the sentiment of affected parties who are also members of the organization. Beyond this, it offers the potential to reach out to those in the community who aren't already SHCA members yet who will be concerned enough with this issue to attend the meeting. At least some of these attendees will join on the spot, if for no other reason than to be able to vote.
This meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, June 8, in room 102 of Rosenberger Hall at the University of the Sciences (43rd Street between regent and Woodland). SHCA's by-laws require that "Written notice stating the time and place ... be mailed to all members ... at least two weeks in advance." Two weeks would have been May 25th. The notice wasn't mailed until May 27th. It was not only late, but several items were conspicuously absent. These were a) the questionnaire which the Board of Directors approved for inclusion with this notice, to poll members by mail with respect to withdrawing support from the historic district proposal, b) an indication that the question would be raised in a motion at the meeting, and c) a list of the "official" candidates for 2004-2005 offices proposed by the Nominating Committee. The lateness of the notice, and the omission of the information about the historic designation issue suggest that SHCA, having originally promoted and paid big bucks for the historic district nomination, doesn't want to risk having rain fall on its parade. These, and the omission of the "official" slate of candidates, reveal SHCA as a club that wants to keep making believe it represents the sentiment of Spruce Hill, while ignoring the 98 percent or so of the folks who are the sum and substance of the community.
Alan Krigman
30-year Spruce Hill resident and rental housing provider |
