The Garland Homeowners Coalition will meet Aug 16. If you care about your neighborhood and want to get involved, please read Lee Smith's notice below and the additional information I added.

 

To All,

 

Just a reminder about the GHC meeting on Thursday August 16th at the Garland Main Library at 7 PM.

 

We will elect officers and start our membership drive. We will also check to see how many would like attend the DHL boot camp at Dallas City hall on Aug 25th. Some great Workshops are being offerred. Pay your $25 dues and GHC will pay your way to the boot camp.

 

Hope to see you on Thursday.

 

Lee Smith

 

 

I wanted to add a few words to Lee’s about joining GHC and attending the Dallas Boot Camp.

 

GHC has been the driving force in some of the best things that have helped turn Garland into a city much more focused on Neighborhoods. I’ll be the first to say that we have a long way to go but we are on the forefront of efforts across the nation. The Garland Neighborhood Vitality Grant Program resulted from over four years of lobbying by GHC; the Fall Leadership Conference that the city now handles was started by GHC; and we have seen four GHC members go on to serve on the Council, not counting the ones that served and then turned to work with GHC. And that’s the short list of accomplishments.

 

I hope you were able to attend the City Manager’s Quarterly Meeting tonight. That is an important resource for neighborhoods but GHC is different. GHC is peer-to-peer and GHC links to neighborhoods across the state.

 

As neighborhood leaders, we can’t wait for the city or GHC to come to us. We have to all work to find the best practices that will strengthen our neighborhoods and enhance the quality of life in our city. I can’t express how important it is for the future health of our city. Our neighborhoods, all averaged together, are declining in value. The city has started some exciting, innovative programs to challenge that trend but, at the end of the day, the city can do nothing. It is up to us. The city can only be a catalyst.

 

An easy first step is riding the train to downtown Dallas to the DHL Boot Camp on August 25 at Dallas City Hall. DHL, the Dallas Homeowners League, is a sister organization to GHC, and one of the founders of Texas Neighborhoods Together, of which Lee and I are directors.

 

The keynote speaker for the Boot Camp is Dallas’ Mayor Tom Leppert. Another very special guest and speaker will be Jim Diers, past director of Seattle’s Department of Neighborhoods and author of Neighborhood Power, Building Community the Seattle Way. Jim will be in Garland in October for our annual Leadership Conference. Felisa Conner and I met Jim in Austin at the Austin Neighborhoods Council’s Neighborhood Planning Conference where Felisa led one of the workshops. ANC is also a TNT member.

 

Here is a quick list of the Workshops that will be presented, several by TNT directors:

• The Big Picture: Creating Visionary Grassroots Leaders; Susan Hill, TNT Leadership Academy
• The Art of the Meeting; Judge Martin Hoffman, past DHL president
• Neighborhood Matching Grant Program for Dallas Workshop; Jim Diers, Seattle
• Friendraising—the Fine Art of Finding and Recruiting Great Volunteers and Overcoming Apathy; Jude Wiggins, TNT Leadership Academy
• To Be or Not to Be? Organizing or Reorganizing a Neighborhood Group; Susan Hill, TNT Leadership Academy
• Strategy Session for Enacting Neighborhood Matching Grant Program in Dallas; Jim Diers, Seattle

I’ll be assisting with that last one. I’ve been asked to share a Councilman’s perspective on grant programs by a city that has done it. (See! Garland has been asked to give Dallas advice. Garland is a leader and we need to keep going.) More information on the Boot Camp is here: www.dallashomeownersleague.org, click the Boot Camp link.

 

Come to the GHC meeting Aug 16 and let’s get busy!

 

Warning: you might end up on the Council. It’s happened before.

 

Douglas Athas

 

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