Kicking
Off A New Year, 2003
Below are minutes for the January 14, 2003, meeting of the
Atlanta Downtown Neighborhood Association. Notes were written
by Wendy Darling.
Introduction
First off, the highlight of tonight's meeting was having such
a great turn out, especially from new faces in our neighborhood.
"Old Timers" were so pleased to have new blood now
that our neighborhood is really "pumping." You asked
excellent questions, brought up great points and we hope you
will continue to stay on and help bring this neighborhood up
to its full potential.
Due to the level of detail and amount of information involved,
many of the issues covered in the meeting will be summarized
in these minutes but in *future* covered in depth by further
emails, postings to the web site (www.atlantadna.org) and
of course further meetings, both *monthly* and our *committee*
meetings.
Also: See
President Dorthey Hurst's presentation on the Web
or view the PowerPoint
presentation.
Formalities
These actions were taken from 6:30-7 among the attending Board.
- Majority vote of the Board (same as the Officers) was
to officially ratify and affirm existing officers: Dorthey
Hurst (President), Patrick Busko (Vice-President), Wendy
Darling (Secretary/Webmaster), and John Mount (Treasurer).
- Major vote of the Board (same as the Officers) was to
adopt official association Bylaws.
From this point forward, any changes to bylaws will have
to be made as amendments.
- We are now a truly official organization.
Welcome & Thanks
ADNA President Dorthey Hurst welcomed the gathering and introduced
herself as well as the full Board: Patrick Busko (Vice-President),
Wendy Darling (Secretary/Webmaster), and John Mount (Treasurer).
Further information on
the Board.
ADNA's former president, Erich Starrett, was presented a
token of appreciation for his past work for our neighborhood.
Old Business
Dorthey went over three items of business that had come up
during December / the holiday season:
1 - King & Spalding, the largest law firm in Atlanta
and based in 191 Peachtree, is weighing the idea of relocating
outside Downtown. Working with Central Atlanta Progress (CAP),
Dorthey crafted a letter on behalf of ADNA encouraging the
law firm to keep on adding its strength to Downtown. The letter
was sent to the chairman of the board in December.
2 - A developer has come forward with a viable plan to restore
and redevelop the famous Winecoff Hotel, across from the Ritz-Carlton,
turning it into a boutique hotel after years as an eyesore
and source of trouble. The developer was seeking a special
form of financing and support. Again working with CAP and
Dorthey wrote a letter to the mayor encouraging the City to
do what it cans to make sure the developer is able to move
forward.
3 - Working with Mayor Franklin's new Task Force for the
Homeless, Dorthey has worked to collect neighborhood feedback
on the impact of the homeless. A survey was distributed by
email and a compilation of the results (thanks everyone!)
will be delivered to the Task Force so the hear from the people
who are in Downtown 24/7.
Marietta Street Artery /
Georgia Aquarium
Breaking away from the original agenda, we invited Marietta
Street Artery president Curt Flaherty to introduce himself,
his neighoborhood and the work his group has been doing to
connect with Coca-Cola. Curt's message can be summed up by
a recent email he sent to ADNA:
"Since its establishment five years ago, the Marietta
Street Artery Association (MSAA) has unsuccessfully attempted
to establish a communication channel with the Coca-Cola Company,
whose North Avenue campus falls within the Artery boundaries.
Most recently, and with the assistance of Mike Koblentz and
the Northwest Community Alliance, the MSAA has attempted to
express our concerns (and guarded enthusiasm) over the development
of the Georgia Aquarium and World of Coke attractions on the
Coke property north of Centennial Olympic Park. We have asked
that the Marcus Foundation and Coca-Cola commission independent
traffic and environmental impact studies for the development
and share their findings with the impacted neighborhoods.
Today I had a meeting with Larry Dingle, an attorney whose
firm represents the Coca-Cola Company. Mr. Dingle expressed
his sympathy with the neighborhood concerns and assured me
that, when there was information or an opportunity for community
input, he would contact me and other concerned parties so
that we could be a part of the design process. He also anticipates
the completion of an independent traffic study within the
next 60-90 days.
I want to assure the ADNA that the Marietta Street Artery
Association and the Northwest Community Alliance will continue
to urge Coca-Cola and the Marcus Foundation to keep the neighborhoods
"in the loop" as they move forward with their plans."
To contact Curt, email curt.flaherty@zennergroup.com.
More on the Marietta Street Artery Association: http://www.artery.org.
New Business- Organization
The meeting then took off into a "New Business"
segment originally intended to cover a variety of issues but
which largely focused on the nature of "memberships,"
what ADNA committee should be/do, and just generally disussing
what ADNA is/does and what we want to be/do in the future.
Due to the lengthy nature of the discussion, I am going to
follow the outline and mention some of the most major discussions,
rather than cover each point in detail. As stated in the introduction
to these minutes, follow-up to many discussions will come
via email, web site and further meetings.
Organization
ADNA is a non-profit organization currently working to finalize
its offical 501(c)3 non-profit status. ADNA has newly adopted
Bylaws. ADNA's Board is made up of its Officers (see above,
under Formalities). For a *full* look at our organization, please
visit our web site's "About ADNA"
section.
Organization Meetings
The Board meets the first Monday of each month; meetings
will be open to members. ADNA general meetings are every month,
the second Tuesday of the month.
Committees & Discussion
This section of discussion got very involved and went in a lot
of directions. To sort things out, I am dividing notes into
Committees and then various points of Discussion.
Committees
Committees were are starting with initialy are:
- Membership Committee (including Resident Welcome Committee)
- Community Advocacy Committee (including Communication
Committee)
- Planning/Land Use/Zoning
Committee
- Special Events Committee (including Social Committee)
- Festival Committee
Committee will report to various Board Members:
- President - Festival
- Vice-President - Community Advocacy, Communication, Planning/Land
Use/Zoning
- Treasurer - Membership, Resident Welcome
- Secretary - Special Events, Social
The Board has
come up an outline of what each committee might be doing.
Also, ***What do *you* think they should be doing?***
Also, ***Any volunteers?***
Discussion
Membership
Discussion of "membership" was a long one. Some points:
- Memberships started in 2002 will be good through Dec.
2003. Individual memberships are $25 for individuals and
$40 for households.
- Membership sign-up forms will be available on the ADNA
web site, http://www.atlantadna.org. Distiction between
being a "member" and being a "contributing
member" who has paid dues. Some people, including newcomers,
were saying how everybody who lives in the neighborhood
should be a "member" so we should distinguish
that. Tony Stewart pointed out that although thousands of
people live in our official area, they are more "neigbhors"
than "members," although they are *potential*
members -- and ones that could be paying dues.
- 2003 will include a lot of members recruitment.
- Discussion of benefits of becoming a member -- why join?
Various answers, hope is that we come to build that idea
this year, as we coalesce as an organization. We come up
with benefits, reasons to join.
- Membership money is going to administrative and overhead
expenses -- getting our officialn non-profit status, making
copies, paying for web site expenses, etc.
Getting ADNA "Across"
A few people attending their first ADNA meeting said they would
have liked some short intro to ADNA right at the beginning of
the meeting, so they knew what we are about up front. The welcome
packets being developed will help greatly, as would some kind
of "fact sheet." Future meetings should start out
with basic information, just a couple minutes, since that's
will help welcome and orient new people. Wendy recommended checking
out the "About ADNA" section
of the web site
Community Advocacy
Dorthey noted that our February or March meeting will include
a presentation by Odessa M. Archibald, VP of Economic Development
at Central Atlanta Progress (CAP). This year CAP wants to do
a thorough survey of Downtown residents for the purposes of
having some meaningful demographic information and feedback
to give to businesses looking to locate Downtown -- as opposed
to giving them survey info collected 5 years ago or having to
rely on the U.S. Census results, which don't seem to reflect
reality in terms of numbers of income.
Details to go on Web Site
All the details
printed on the handout, showing Dorthey's presentation, will
be sent out via email and/or posted to the ADNA web site, http://www.atlantadna.org.
Meeting Format
Dorthey announced that from now on, meetings will start "business"
earlier, at 6:30, to be sure that the socializing / free announcement
part of the meeting can happen before 8 p.m.
Promoting Meeting
Feedback was that the flyers advertising the meeting in individual
buildings was successful and helped bring new people, get large
turnout.
NEXT MEETING
Next meeting with will on Tuesday, Feb. 11., 6:30 (sharp!) to
8 p.m., in a conference room on the 3rd floor of the Central
Library.
ADJOURNMENT
Meeting let out at 8:30 p.m.
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