Dear ABMers:

As we cross the threshold into a new year, I want to share some of the challenges that the Association of Bellingham Neighborhoods might want to address during 2006. I will list them in what seems to me the order of their importance and/or timing, realizing that the task of finalizing them rests with the membership. Of course, additional challenges may be identified by the membership initially and/or may surface as the year progresses. While we will not be able to discuss more than a few of them at any one monthly meet-ing, I urge you to consider each one and then send me e-mails to convey your reactions.

ABN Meeting Day: We have already changed our regular, monthly meeting day from the third Monday to the second Tuesday, at the same time and place. This will give us the freedom to attend City Council meetings en mass when we feel the urgency to do so and to invite City Council members to participate in discussions at any of our regular, monthly meetings, beginning with Joan Beardsley in January. I regret that this change creates a conflict for at least two of our member associations: Samish Hill and Sehome. I hope that they will each be able to adjust their meeting dates to eliminate the conflict.

Meeting Place: For now we will continue meeting in the Whatcom Room of the Jones-Moles Funeral Home at Lakeway and Woburn. I will check out the availability of the Mayor’s Board Room, where the Mayor’s Neighborhood Advisory Commission meets on the second Wednesdays, and/or some other suitable space in the Municipal Building.

Web Site: As you know from Iain’s request for your help in updating the ABN contact list, he is at work expanding the ABN web site. Hopefully, it will ultimately include the basic information about the ABN, pages to post notices and links to appropriate neighbor-hood City, County and other community sites. It will also include meeting agendas and minutes so that we can reduce the volume of paper needed at our monthly meetings as well as the time consumed in passing copies of routine documents around. For example, I have asked Iain to create an attendance spreadsheet on his PC so he can check of the names of members as they arrive. If we can gain access to a projector, Iain can show the agendas and minutes on a wall and save more trees.

City Council and City Planning Commission Meetings: At our January meeting I will be proposing that our member associations each take the responsibility of sending a delegate or an alternate to represent the ABN at all City Council meetings (Monday evenings at 7:00) and all City Planning Commission meetings (Thursday evenings at 7:00) on a rotating monthly basis in alphabetical order for the Council and reverse alphabetical order for the Commission. Alabama Hill and York have agreed to start this process in January. Iain Davidson is currently enhancing the ABN web site to include links to the agendas and the minutes of both bodies and I will alert the delegates to items of special urgency.

City Council Contacts: Joan Beardsley recently told me of her intent to ask each neigh-borhood association within her ward (No. 5) to designate a person to act as the official contact person between her and the neighborhood. This struck me as an excellent idea, so I suggested that she share it with the other six council members. If all of you agree, we can support its implementation from our side as well. Joan has already proposed the idea to Alabama Hill, where she lives.

Forum ’06: Tris Shirley, Joan Beardsley and Ted Mischiakov will be coming to our meet-ing on Tuesday, January 10th to discuss the formation and activity of the ad hoc taskforce now preplanning Forum ’06 (or whatever the fourfold effort announced by Mayor Asmundson in early December will finally be called). This is the group that the ABN, at our December meeting, voted to disband in favor of the Mayor’s Neighborhood Advisory Committee. To save time on the 10^th, I will summarize the background of this effort.

It emerged from the City’s response to two neighborhood letters. The first was sent by the Coalition of Southside Neighborhoods last spring requesting a moratorium on major development projects pending completion of a southside transportation study and an urban village master plan for Fairhaven. The second, drafted by the ABN following our special meeting on August 29^th and never approved, fell into the hands of the City Administration by accident. As a result of these two letters, Barbara Ryan and Malcolm Fleming convened an October meeting of selected neighborhood representatives, include-ing several ABMers, and one or two business persons. The attendees unanimously agreed that Bellingham has a serious disconnect in its planning process. That meeting led to the creation of the taskforce, which we will discuss with the three initiators next week.

Following my election to be President of the ABN, Tris asked me to join the taskforce. So far, I have attended four taskforce meetings, with a fifth one scheduled for this Wednesday. I am pleased to report that the participants are developing a very satisfying level of trust and contemplating some exciting recommendations for the City Council, especially in the area of updating our neighborhood plans. I hope that all of you will come to the same conclusions during/following our discussion with Tris, Joan and Ted next Tuesday. My aim is that the City Council will appoint a permanent steering com-mittee to guide Forum ’06 and that the ABN and the MNAC will be asked to appoint at least one official member each. Please, be prepared to speak to this issue on the 10^th.

Platform: In November I circulated a list of items for a suggested platform on the basis of which anyone representing the ABN could speak to issues that might arise at City Coun-cil and Planning Commission meetings, or any other public gathering, without the need to initiate an endorsement process that could take two months or more and miss the window of opportunity for influencing a decision of great consequence to our neighborhoods. The finalized platform would be an expansion of the ABN’s fourth objective as stated in our bylaws: “Providing neighborhood advocacy to the City and County Councils.” I will circulate the list again. Please, share it with your respective associations, shape it to meet your comfort level and be prepared to vote on a final version at our February 7^th meeting.

Presidents’ Night: If and when we have approved a platform for the ABN, I would like to designate a monthly meeting (maybe as soon as March) as “Presidents’ Night” and invite the presidents of all of our neighborhood associations and Mayor Asmundson for a round table discussion of the platform. I would like to invite the media also to make the occa-sion a press conference. By that time we should be underway with detailing the process for updating of our neighborhood plans so we will have some exciting news to share with the entire community.

Neighborhood Visits: During 2006, I intend to make at least two visits to the meetings of each member neighborhood association and to arrange for a subsequent “guided tour” of each neighborhood. For January and February I have put the following visits on my calendar. Please, correct me if I have not listed the proper date, time and place:

January Edgemoor: 1^st Thursday, 7:00 PM, Fairhaven Park Pavilion

Lettered Streets: 3^rd Monday, 7:00 PM, Break Expresso

Cornwall Park: 3^rd Tuesday, 7:00 PM, Barbara Haddad’s

Puget: 3^rd Wednesday, 7:00 PM, Merrill Lynch

Sunnyland: 4^th Tuesday, 6:30 PM, Sunnyland Middle School

Birchwood: 4^th Thursday, 7:00 PM, Faith Lutheran Church

Happy Valley: 4^th Saturday, 9:00 AM, Firehouse PA Center

February Columbia: 1^st Wednesday, 7:00 PM, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

Alabama Hill, 1^st Tuesday, 7:00 PM, Barkley Haggen’s

Silver Beach: 2^nd Thursday, 7:00 PM, Bloedel Donovan Pavilion Roosevelt: 3^rd Wednesday, 7:00 PM, Boy’s and Girl’s Club

Adopt-a-Neighborhood: One of the ABN’s highest priorities should be to support exist-ing member associations needing specific assistance and to help organize neighborhood associations where they do not exist, i.e., Meridian, Mt. Baker, the UGA’s and the County. One of the best ways to approach this task would be for existing neighborhood associations to “adopt” one of these neighborhoods and share its enthusiasm and exper-tise. The opportunity to be involved in updating or creating neighborhood plans should provide a special incentive to resume regular meetings or to initiate the start-up process.

Alternate Reps: I recommend that each member association appoint an alternate repre-sentative to attend ABN meetings when the primary representative is not available.

Letters to the Editors: I will e-mail you the draft of a letter about implementing the Waterfront Futures Group’s recommendations for areas of the Bellingham shoreline beyond the Georgia Pacific site, where all of the Port’s and City’s efforts are currently being concentrated. I would like your endorsement to sign the letter as President of the ABN, rather than a private citizen. I expect other issues will arise for which I will request a similar action. In the meantime, I have some articles and/or letters on planning issues and on “Dirty Dan” Harris, whose life I am researching, which I hope to submit for publication as a private citizen without conflicting with my official position.

Motto: Pam Went, who is a member of the neighborhood associations in both Edgemoor and Fairhaven, recently sent me the follow Japanese Proverb, which I suggest we adopt as the ABN motto and display prominently on our web site:

A vision without action is a daydream.

Action without a vision is a nightmare.

Happy New Year to One and All!

Ralph January 1, 2006