ALLIANCE OF ROCKVILLE NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATIONS
building a stronger sense of Community in Rockville through its Neighborhood Associations
STEERING GROUP OPEN MEETING
TUESDAY, June 24, 2003
MINUTES
PRESENT
IN ATTENDANCE
CALL TO ORDER
Meeting was called to order by Chairman Art Casanova at 6:15 p.m.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
In the interest of expediency at this meeting, approval of the minutes for May is carried forward to the July meeting.
ARNA CONFEENCE; THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25th
Randy Alton updated the response to date for the Thursday, September 25th ARNA Conference to be held at the Rockville Glenview Mansion. ARNA has received positive responses from Senator Jennie Forehand, Delegate Kumar Barve, and Delegate Luiz R.S. Simmons. Randy will keep the Steering Committee updated regarding any additional responses.
Tentative Format of Conference:
| 7:00-7:30 | Social |
| 7:30-7:45 | Convene Meeting; Greetings and General ARNA Information |
| 7:45-8:15 | Introductions and Comments by our Distinguished District 17 Elected Officials |
| 8:15-8:45 | Panel Questions and Answers for the District 17 Team |
| 8:45-9:00 | Closing Remarks/Adjourn |
| 9:00-open | Post Conference Informal Time, one-on-one with ARNA Leaders |
Questions for the District 17 Team: ARNA members will be asked to contribute questions in advance to the September Conference for the question and answer segment of the conference and forward them to our Chairman, Art Casanova. In addition, during the conference, 3 x 5 cards will also be available for additional questions to be considered. ARNA members will also be asked if their question(s) is to be directed to a particular member of the District 17 team. It was generally agreed that ARNA members would also have an additional opportunity to meet and dialogue with our District 17 team during the social portion of the ARNA Conference and at the end of the evening.
Room Arrangement/Invitations: Careful consideration for the seating arrangement was discussed by the Steering Committee for the formal portion of the conference. The Steering Committee agreed to use a ´panel discussion´ type format with the District 17 Team being seated at a table across from three designated Steering Committee members that will pose the questions from the general ARNA membership to the District 17 team. Our current Mayor and Council and all candidates that are currently seeking office, as officially reported by the City Clerk, will be invited to the conference and will be seated among the ARNA delegates and requested to follow the same protocol of using a 3x5 card to forward a question to a Steering Committee member.
Press Coverage: Arthur Goldberg; ARNA Press Relations Liaison, from Fallsgrove will be addressing Press coverage for the event.
A formal letter will be forwarded from ARNA in July formally thanking the District 17 team for accepting the ARNA invitation and outlining the format of the conference. The Steering Committee will work collaboratively with City Staff in drafting a letter using our ARNA letterhead. Our current Mayor and Council, Candidates for City office, and the General ARNA membership will be forwarded in September.
Telly Whitfield; Neighborhood Resources will be consulted regarding the number of invitations and any remaining logistics for this event. Dwayne Jenkins will get back to the ARNA Steering Committee regarding the City Projects that may require input and/or support from our District 17 Legislative Team.
MISSION STATEMENT REVISIONS
David L´ Heuraux forwarded some suggestions for consideration for revision to the ARNA Mission Statement. The following amendments were made by consensus:
Why: changed "paths" to channels;
What: placed a period after Citizens and deleted the phrase "and to function as the seat of government for the County";
When: added or their designees after Community Association Leaders;
How: deleted "are by invitation only" and added; "with open attendance by Community Association Leaders or their designee"
VOTER INFORMATION FOR CITY ELECTION
This is an election year for Rockville. As a voter service by ARNA, Karen Voight has volunteered to gather and publish information on this years elections. She will gather information on the location of polls, voting procedures, candidates in the running, and other pertinent information with the intentions of getting to our citizens timely pertinent information to encourage voter turnout.
ARNA AWARDS PROGRAM
We are looking for a volunteer to develop the criteria for an ARNA awards program. We need to develop the basis for awards, such as, categories, scope of awards, encourage the aims of ARNA for Community development, methods for nomination, methods of judging, etc. The City has shared with ARNA information about municipalities in the U.S. that have awards programs. There was a consensus not to rush and do something hastily, and that it would be important to establish a solid foundation for criteria, nominations, selection of candidates and judging.
The following links were provided by Telly Whitfield; Neighborhood Resources Coordinator, that indicate what other groups are doing regarding this topic
LEADERSHIP TRAINING
The City is prepared to offer Leadership Training for our Association Leaders. Ruth Hanessian volunteered to check in their Neighborhood Association for somebody who may be willing to serve as Chairman for ARNA on this type of program. The City has suggested as one possibility a Saturday Seminar with lecture and discussion with a recognized leader in the industry. A Chairman could collect the issues faced by our ARNA leaders in managing their associations and develop with the City a program to satisfy Rockville leadership requirements.
ARNA LOGO
Three logos about ARNA were presented to the Steering Group by the City Graphics Department. Based on the response by email from Steering Group members and the review and discussion at last nights meeting, a selection was made. Karen Voight made a motion to choose the logo with the three house outlines serving as backdrop to the letters for ARNA in bold. Martin Heilman seconded the motion, and it was accepted by unanimous vote. Casanova asked Dwayne Jenkins if the logo can be made available to ARNA in a digital file. The mission statement will be printed with the logo as a watermark in light grey ink either as small logos repeated in the background or as one large emblem.
NEXT STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING
Tuesday, July 22, 2003
Time: 6:15
Location: Red Brick Courthouse
ADJOURNMENT
Meeting Adjourned at 7:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Randy Alton, Secretary
Attachments:
Mission Statement (.doc file)
ARNA logo (pdf file)
District 17 Team photos (.jpg file)
ARNA Confererence, Sept ’03 Seating Arrangement (.jpg file)