JPNA Board Meeting

Early today on May 9, 2009 I went to my first JPNA meeting of any sort and finished my fifteen service learning hours. I didn't know what to expect from the meeting because I had been meaning and wanting to go to a meeting for a while just to fill hours and learn more about JPNA. I felt that going to interviews and meeting long time residents is just one aspect of this experience. I arrived at the Joy Center at 8:50 and Tony was the only one there. He asked me about the class and if I any more students were coming and if everyone had finished their service learning hours. As other members came the meeting started, I saw that the idea I had in my head for the meeting and the actual meeting were completely different. The meeting seemed very casual, like a bunch of friends getting together. Before the meeting began Tony asked me how many hours I had left and I told him two and he started laughing but I didn't know why. Basically he wanted the meeting to go by fast because it's an early meeting on a Saturday and the weather was not that great. As the meeting started, agendas were passed out and the names of everyone at the meeting were recorded including mine. There were four topics to get through: Update on Zilber Initiative, Block Cleanup, Pre-Summer Concerns, and Johnsons Park Health Alliance. Within a few minutes there was a spider sited hanging from the table and it took about two minutes to deal with even though it was already dead. This incident actually started a little debate on whether having centipedes or millipedes and caterpillars around a house were good because they get rid of spiders. Eventually the meeting resumed and things became serious.

Some of the things they discussed went over my head because they are incharge of taking care of these events and I'm not really apart of this, I just helped with the interviews. From what I could understand they needed someone to go represent Johnsons Park in another meeting because if there was no one there representing them and their needs they would be forgotten. After the first issue was settled they moved onto the Block Cleanup which is scheduled for May 16th. First thing they talked about was the weather to make sure it was nice so that they could actually go outside to cleanup. Next they talked about the dumpsters, because this year they had two dumpsters available to for this event but in recent years they have had four and they originally started out with eight but it all seemed to work out because they have people from the city coming over to throw away the trash. After that they talked about what time the cleanup would start. Some said 11am others said 9am and they talked about when they started the event in the past. Eventually they all agreed the cleanup would start at nine so there would be enough time for people to come over and the food would come at eleven.

The next item they talked about was Pre-Summer Concerns. One thing they talked about was a barbecue and what would be served and who would be bringing the food along with what they've done in the past. The board members also talked about some positive feedback they are getting for what is happening in the neighborhood because of what they are doing and the radio and the class blogsite being so positive. The final topic covered was Johnsons Park Health Alliance and who was taking care of that and a recent name change and why that took place which again was kind of over my head since I'm not involved in that part of the project. In the end I found the whole experience to be educational and interesting. The most important thing that I think I took away from the meeting is that people can sit around talking and planning on how to bring their neighborhood up but all that means nothing unless action is taken and everyone apart of the Johnsons Park Neighborhood Association is taking action.