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We’ve just learned the local organization Tree Folks is checking our neighborhood and putting flags in the yards of homes that qualify for one of their free trees. This has nothing to do with NSCNA’s tree planting grant; it’s just a happy coincidence. Here’s what we know about the Tree Folks program:
- they’re giving away 5-gallon size trees
- you have to plant the tree yourself
- they’re offering a choice of live oak, Mexican white oak, or cedar elm
If you’ve signed up for one of NSCNA’s grant trees and you get a Tree Folks flag in your yard, the flag has nothing to do with the tree you’ll be getting through our grant and it has nothing to do with flagging the location of your utility lines. If you’ve got room in your yard for both the NSCNA grant tree and a Tree Folk‘s tree, feel free to go ahead and ask for a Tree Folks tree.
Our grant is providing enough money to buy trees only for the Priority 1 & 2 folks who signed up for a grant tree. If your yard was assigned Priority 3-5 by the arborist who surveyed our neighborhood and you qualify for a Tree Folks tree, please take the tree. This is an excellent opportunity to get trees into every yard in our neighborhood that is listed on the report prepared by our arborist.
If you have any questions, you can contact the Beautification Committee at beautification@nscna.org
You can find more information about the Tree Folks program here: http://treefolks.org/
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The NSCNA Nominating Committee is soliciting people to serve on the 2012 NSCNA Board of Directors. The committee was elected by the membership at the November general meeting. The members of the committee are Alice Kubacek (chair), Mary Jane Wier, and Tomas Rodriguez.
The NSCNA Board of Directors is comprised of four officers (President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer) and seven directors at large. As a member of the Board of Directors, you would have an opportunity to direct the programs and activities of our association, and work to help keep our neighborhood strong.
The time commitment can vary, depending largely on the decisions of the board members. Typically the board meetings have been held about once a month. Board members are encouraged — but not required — to take a leadership role in an NSCNA committee, where a lot of the program work is done.
The Nominating Committee invites neighbors who can help bring a diversity of demographics, areas of expertise, occupations, and geographic residence to our board.
Candidates must have an interest in the goals and policies of our association. Candidates must also be a member of the association in 2011, which can be done online now.
If you are interested, can offfer any recommendations, or have any questions, please contact nominating@nscna.org by Monday, December 26.
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Dear Neighbors,
Just over a year ago (October 19, 2010), our association passed a resolution to submit an application to the City of Austin Neighborhood Partner Program for sidewalk repair in our neighborhood, and to allocate up to $20,000 of our funds for this project.
Over the past year, the NSCNA Board of Directors has followed that directive. We’ve asked our Traffic Committee to prepare a prioritized list of locations and obtain cost estimates from the city. At our general meetings, we’ve given updates to our members about the status of that effort.
During our September general meeting, we shared the list of locations that we’d sent to the city for cost estimates. At that time, I said we expected to have a response from the city before our November meeting.
Over the past year, the most common concern we’ve heard from members is whether we’d get a “good deal” for our money, especially in light of all the repairs the city made around the neighborhood last December/January. The board discussed this issue and wanted to make sure our membership was still in support before committing the funds to this project.
Therefore, at the September general meeting, I announced that we would have a vote during the November general meeting to reconsider authorization of the project. A “vote to reconsider” is the way for a parliamentary body to review a decision it has previously made. That is how we could determine, once we had a more specific idea of what would be feasible with our funds, whether the neighborhood still supported this project.
As expected, the City of Austin has responded, and we will report that information at our November meeting. Members will have an opportunity to discuss and ask questions. Then we will have a vote to reconsider authorization. This will give members a chance to say whether they want to proceed with this program, or stop and save the association’s funds for something else.
The Board of Directors discussed this information during our meeting last Wednesday. After consulting with city staff, we do not believe we would get good value for our funds. We unanimously passed a resolution recommending that members reconsider authorization for this project.
I hope everybody who has an interest in this topic will be able to attend our meeting Tuesday evening (November 1), at 6:30 pm at Pillow Elementary. I’m confident that if everybody concerned has an opportunity to participate, we’ll reach an outcome that is positive and widely supported.
You will need to be a registered NSCNA member to participate in the vote. Dues are just $15 per household. You can join right now at https://www.nscna.org/join or in person at the Tuesday meeting.
Chip Rosenthal
President, NSCNA
