Summary of NPU M Retreat, February 1, 2014 — involvement, engagement, volunteering, committees

Thank you all for sharing your time, your passion, and your ideas! You made Saturday’s retreat a resounding success for Neighborhood Planning Unit M! About 50 neighbors came out from all over our NPU, several from surrounding NPUs (X, V, and Z), an at-large council member took part (Andre Dickens, Post 3), Jay Tribby came from our District 2 council member’s (Kwanza Hall) office, and our District 4 council member (Cleta Winslow) gave $200 to defray costs for the retreat. Several seniors came, several millennials, lots of us in between them in age, and one committee ended with hugs all round between some excited millennials and seniors.

Structure: Each committee discussed possible priorities for the coming year, and the flip charts from those conversations are attached here. Committees will always be open to your input, just like the General Body meetings. Each neighborhood will have one vote on each committee, but any resident, business owner, or organization representative within the NPU M boundary will be heard. The committees will be reporting to and advising the General Body and Executive Committee on issues brought to them by neighbors and the representatives appointed by each neighborhood association. They’ll also be following issues and legislation pending before their respective City Council committees and reporting back to us. Committees will choose their officers soon, and will have a chair, vice chair, and secretary. For more information on our committee structure and operation, our bylaws and rules can be downloaded here.  Scroll down for summaries of each committee’s work from the retreat.

How to get involved and stay informed: Contact vicechair@npumatlanta.org for more information on how you can get involved — it’s not all just meetings, there’s lots of ways to be part of making NPU M and our neighborhoods even better. We’ll continue to be in touch by email, our website (npumatlanta.org), on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/npumatlanta), and on Twitter (@NPU_M). And be sure to check back here and come to our monthly meetings for more information, too! The fourth Monday of each month, at 6:30 PM, we meet as a General Body of the entire membership — at Helene Mills Center, 515 John Wesley Dobbs Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30312.
Don’t hesitate to contact us! You can sign up to get our email updates using the tool on our webpage.

Sincerely,

Matthew Jones, Vice Chair
vicechair@npumatlanta.org

NEXT STEPS and committee discussion summaries:

Utilities
Next meeting: February 25, 5pm at Cosby Spear highrise – 4th Wednesday

Education
Next meeting: February 12, 7pm at Condesa Coffee

CD / HR (Community Development and Human Resources)
Next meeting: February 16, 3pm at TBD location

Transportation
Next meeting: February 25, 5pm at Cosby Spear highrise – 4th Wednesday

Committee on Council
Next Meeting: February 24, 5:30pm at Condessa Coffee Shop – 4th Monday

Land Use / Zoning
Next meeting: February 10, 6pm at Atlanta Medical Center Pavilion

Public Safety
Next meeting: February 6, 6:30pm at Helene Mills Senior Center