Community Coordination

Southwest is blessed with many civic-minded residents.  Indeed Southwest's long-standing volunteer corps is undoubtedly one reason why Southwest has been one of the region's most diverse yet stable and successful communities over the past fifty--and arguably two-hundred years.  Buttressed with many well-intentioned and capable leaders, Southwest civic institutions have effectively responded to new threats and opportunities.  

Over the past several years however, many community leaders have become increasingly concerned at the splintering of organizations and initiatives; a splintering that is compromising our ability to successfully introduce, discuss and reconcile what are often competing opportunities.  In many cases, these conflicts arise simply because of inadequate coordination.

This coming week there are at least three major general "all hands" meetings which overlap with many more specific meetings like a monthly condo board meeting.   Next week's general meetings include:

• The Southwest Neighborhood's monthly community meeting, featuring Southwest's educational leaders (Monday)
• A Youth Violence Task Force community meeting, supported by Tommy Wells (Monday)
• PN Hoffman's unveiling of their Southwest Waterfront Proposal (Wednesday)

Southwest Waterfront Concept

While organizers of these general meetings are each targeting the same audience, none of the announcements were distributed more than a week in advance.  As a consequence, some of the 'specific' meetings are now being cancelled.  Attendance at the general meetings will be lighter despite the importance of the subject matter and the investment of the meeting organizers and speakers--many of which are volunteers.

Undoubtedly it is challenging to find ideal dates for events, but many of our major conflicts can be eliminated by better coordination.