Neighborhood Associations - How to Create a Successful One
By Ed Brooks

Creating a successful neighborhood association takes time, patience, and focus.

Rome wasn't built in a day and neither was any successful neighborhood association. Whether you're starting an association because you want to create a sense of community, reign in out of control traffic, or stop a new development it takes time. You will need to identify several other people to serve on your board of directors, draft a set of by-laws, identify your focus, setup a public meeting, get the word out, setup a checking account and that's just to get started.

Now you need patience. It takes time to identify others in your neighborhood that are willing to volunteer. But how do you locate them? A good place to look is at your community center, gatherings (if there is an issue that draws people together), pass out fliers, or you could contact your councilmen's office to see if they have been contacted by anyone else wanting to start an association.

Once you identify your fellow board members, it's time to draft your by-laws. You will need to state your purpose, your boundaries, your eligibility requirements, determine dues (if any), officers and duties, how often you plan to meet as a board, how often the regular meeting are held and any other specific items that are unique to your situation. Now that you have a board and by-laws it's time to hold your first public meeting. You will need to determine your agenda, find a kick-off speaker to energize your crowd, and find a suitable location to host your meeting. You need to contact your neighbors and let them know, but how? The answer may vary depending on where you live. In an ideal world you could mail a letter to each house. But in the real world that is a very expensive proposition. A low cost method is to purchase your own reams of paper and print them at a local community center or ask a local business to sponsor you in exchange for an advertisement on the flier. Real estate agents or local businesses within the association boundaries are good sources for advertizing in your flier. You can also create posters that you can post in local businesses or laundry rooms in high density housing areas.

Getting ready for your first meeting is very important. Your kickoff speaker should help your audience understand why they are there and how banding together can help everyone. After your kickoff speaker, you can introduce your board, give an overview of your by-laws and ask people to join. Make sure you have a sign-up sheet, including columns for those that can help deliver fliers or act in other capacities. Congratulations, you have now created a neighborhood association. It is now up to the board to direct the association to achieve the goals that you had when you started the association.

Ed Brooks is a founding officer of the Strawberry Park Neighborhood Association. He serves as a mentor for new neighborhood associations. He has written successful grant requests for his neighborhood and put together very successful neighborhood events.

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