An Open Letter to the CHCC Officers

Dear Justin, Charlette, Hong and Saunatina:

Our community gathered in a well-attended forum to elect you as the voice and face of the Capitol Hill Community Council -- that includes all of us who live and work on Capitol Hill.

I was lucky to participate in just about every meeting of the new Council and sit on its steering committee. A fascinating, and at times frustrating, process. One with a great result. I applaud you guys and thank each of you for the time and energy you'll contribute.

I want to mention one thing that stuck with me following the election. During candidate speeches someone mentioned "twisting the arm" of the editor of a local paper (Doug Schwartz of the Capitol Hill Times, no?) A former officer of the CHCC pointed out that the editor happened to be sitting in the audience, 10 feet away from the candidate who proposed the arm twisting. Everyone chuckled.

It was clear this former officer knew the editor. On election day I don't expect the same of our new officers, but I encourage you to do the same in the coming months. Sit down with your local news reporters and ask them what stories they see emerging in the community. Have coffee with local business owners. Attend meetings of other Capitol Hill community groups. I'm glad to hear you'll regularly attend the farmer's market -- find more of these venues.

Please make it a priority to get out in the community -- the council itself. The first year will entail lots of formalities, structures and frameworks. Bylaws, board, government filings, oh my! But structure yourself in and around the people you represent. For instance, if you want to speculate on conflicts of interest, take time to get to know the person who you believe represents the conflict over and above vague understandings of "IRS codes."

This council is about people. Relate to them, represent them, rally them!

Thanks again for representing us.

James

Cigarette butts

There sure are a lot of them on the hill. Judging by my Saturday morning, tobacco companies aren't going out of business anytime soon.

I spent Saturday morning with about 75 motivated neighbors cleaning up 14th and 15th Avenues. The day kicked off with words from the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce (no, not that CHCC), a local SPD officer, and Ed Murray, one of our state senators and neighbor on the hill. The SPD east precinct captain even picked up a broom and mixed it up.

Pizza by Piecora's and a jazz band afterwards wrapped up a morning of do-goodedness. So next time you flick your butt, your karma loss is my gain!

Learning what we don't know

We had the first meeting of the steering committee for the revived Capitol Hill Community Council [outdated page].

The 10 folks gathered actually got more done than I expected. You may want to chalk that up to low expectations...

In my mind we discussed two phases of work: developing/updating the framework for the Council (i.e. charter, positions, relationship to city and peer organizations), and creating a good system that will allow the Council to build on that framework (i.e. meetings, online/offline communications, funding).

At this stage I believe we don't really know what we don't know. And that's fair -- we are a new organization and I'd bet most of us have not been involved on Day-1 in a committee with a mandate to steer a larger organization. I know I haven't!

Each step of the way I believe we will uncover the right questions to ask. Tonight they swirled around the status of the existing charter and Council positions. Next meeting, armed with the charter and more information about the existing structure, I believe we will uncover more of the right questions to ask. So on and so forth until we can't help but have some answers!

Revival at the Library

About 30 people met tonight and agreed to bring The Capitol Hill Community Council out of hibernation.

I'm sure others took better notes [update: here too] and will cover it in depth. It was a good first gathering, nice to see diverse viewpoints.

One of the points I walked away with is people tend to think big. Some folks want a venue to rant about high-rise developments. Others wanted to create umbrella orgs that will interface with other city groups.

I see a ton of value in grassroots initiatives that will give a core group of people projects to rally around. Especially early in the life of this group. Those projects will contribute to the quality and character of the neighborhood and give the group an identity.

No matter if we're reviving the previous CHCC or building a new one, this will be a different group of folks with different priorities working in a different environment. It seems to me like we will have to build momentum from a stand-still and a good way to do that is from the ground up.