September 7, 2006
 
To all Coalition of South Neighborhoods (CSN) supporters:
 
Based on voting-members' recommendations to incorporate more neighborhood association participation into our community outreach efforts, Mike & I will facilitate our final 2006 CSN educational forum as co-chairs on Wednesday, October 18. Bellingham Herald Publisher Glen Nardi and Executive Editor Julie Shirley are the featured speakers at this informal, round-table discussion, to be held from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Fireplace Room at Fairhaven Library, 1117 12th St. This forum is free and open to the public, as always.
 
The topic: community newsgathering and reporting practices relative to South Side issues and neighborhood perspectives. The purpose: to establish a more publicly representative, ongoing community dialogue with our city's daily newspaper regarding the unique issues and perspectives of South Side residents. We encourage all voting members and the five elected neighborhood presidents to attend and urge their friends and neighbors to do the same.
 
The first 30 minutes of the meeting time has been set aside by request for a presentation from a local group exploring the potential for establishing a dual-county Chuckanut Mountains Park District, aimed at better serving conservation, recreation, and eco-tourism land-use interests between Bellingham and Bow. 
 
Attendance at CSN meetings has dropped precipitously during this past year, and Mike and I have been disappointed at the low public turnout, considering the caliber of speakers who have volunteered their time to address topics and issues that all five neighborhood associations have outlined as high in priority. We understand the "meeting burnout syndrome" and hope that in looking ahead to 2007, CSN voting members will establish a more coordinated effort between the five organized CSN neighborhood associations to advance less frequent but better-attended community education forums that will improve the level of community dialogue and public representation between neighborhoods and with the city regarding our area's growth and natural resource management. We believe a new approach to CSN education and community outreach is necessary in order to revitalize the coalition and garner support for its efforts, such as on behalf of Fairhaven waterfront planning, the neighborhood plan update process, and administration of South Side (wards 5 and 6) Greenways III levy funding allocations.
 
On our departure, we suggest the following changes in CSN format: (1) Only 5-6 meetings, rather than monthly meetings, should be held each year. Each meeting should be chaired by the president of one of the five membership neighborhood associations on an alternating basis, rather than by an independent CSN coordinator; (2) Speakers of interest to the membership of several neighborhood associations should be invited to speak at a CSN meeting, rather than at individual local association meetings; (3) The sponsoring neighborhood association for a particular CSN meeting should pay the room rental fees for that meeting, rather than pass the hat at the meeting; (4) The meeting dates should be selected, scheduled, and communicated/advertised well in advance by the sponsoring neighborhood association, based on competing meeting schedules rather than on a set day each month, as was done in past years; (5) Community education and outreach should become a more visible, integral function of the CSN aimed at supporting internal work by voting members and volunteers to advance and expand our neighborhoods' common goals within the community. 
 
Mike and I are happy we could assist in keeping CSN's educational role functioning for another year (2006), and are hopeful that if our suggestions are followed for 2007, CSN will continue to have a vital, educational, more community-based, citizen-participatory influence on the future of our unique South Side neighborhoods.
 
Feel free to contact us with any questions. As always, please forward this to your neighborhood association e-mail lists, and anyone you believe can help make a difference. Our apologies to anyone on multiple list serves. Looking forward to seeing you at the table October 18 and beyond. ...
 
With best wishes,
 
Cathy McKenzie and Mike Botwin
Outgoing CSN co-coordinators
Cathy: 360-752-1995, mcseal@comcast.net
Mike: 360-733-5353, mbotwin@cdaacpin.org