In early 2024, I shrugged, raised my hand and said a few words to become president of the Fair West Neighborhood Assoc. The interesting thing about being called president of a group, is that some people will look to you for direction and you will hear a lot of opinions and suggestions.
Being an active neighbor, NA president or not, is what you make of it.
As president, I operate as if I'm a service provider in the public health space and have a problematically strong interest in poverty, homelessness, mental health, drugs and community engagement and action. We all struggle in knowing how to respond to these issues when seen in public and I bring a lot of my interests into the Fair West Neighborhood Association space.
Compassion and social fatigue affects all of us.
Thanks to my involvement in the neighborhood and FWNA, I have, hear and investigate a lot of complaints. It requires skill and a dedication to patience when attempting to interact with complaints and the people involved.
I seem to have an anarchic style of organization and communication. IMNSHO, the NA can never represent the neighborhood as a whole in any particular opinion, meeting or online post. There are too many disparate groups, opinions and realities to permit such simplicity. "Connecting neighbors, strengthening community" FWNA increases in value as we become more interconnected. The neighborhood is far more complicated and interesting than the neighborhood association could ever hope to represent. I look forward to continue exploring, learning and experimenting in the neighborhood and seeing subsets of that expressed through FWNA.