Elliot Gold shares this report (which we cleaned up a bit) from the Sept. 22 meeting:
The Altadena Coalition of Neighborhood Associations (ACONA) held its second meeting on Wednesday, and it couldn’t have been better. Speakers who had experience and wisdom from years of running neighborhood associations presented to Altadenans who were looking to make their block a “neighborhood.”
Jeff Sedlik of Brae Watch (http://braewatch.org/) presented an incredible neighborhood mapping tool that allows neighbors in their enormous Watch area to find others immediately by simply clicking on their house, getting contact information that neighbors have agreed to
share. The area is enormous as you can see from the map (http://braewatch.org/images/braemap_wblg.gif), yet with their mapping tool, neighbors can immediately reach out and help others.
Jeff has offered to train any Neighborhood Association how to implement the mapping tool, and will host a meeting either before or during the next ACONA meeting, which is scheduled for Mon., Nov. 8 at 7 PM.
In answering questions from the audience, Jeff made it quite clear that neighbors’ privacy comes first, and that nothing is shared by their mapping tool or on their blog that has not been approved.
People who post on their blog must 1) stay on topic, 2) show respect for others in neighborhood, and 3) always sign their blog posts.
Ken Chow of McNally Neighborhood Association then addressed the subject of listserves, which allow neighbors to share information about their neighborhood, not just crime watch information, but “neighborly” information such as “anyone know a good fix-it man?”
Photo: Ken Chow
Ken uses a Yahoo Group for McNally’s listserve, and while addressing that in his presentation, he talked about how to set up a listserve regardless of the provider. Ken, like Jeff, spent quite a bit of time on how critical it is to retain privacy in neighborhood listserves, and that rules have to be set
and abided by, so that your listserve doesn’t become your next source of spam.
Between Jeff’s and Ken’s presentations, Sgt. Michael Randenberg of the Altadena Sheriff’s station got up and offered to bring all Block Captains into a secure, closed listserve that would allow the Sheriff’s Department to reach out to them with critical information, which the Block
Captains could then forward, privately, to their entire neighborhood. Jeff and I are now working on an e-mail that will go out to all ACONA members offering that service, a service that will be closely monitored by ACONA and the Sheriff’s Department.
To learn about how to set up a listserve using Yahoo Groups, just click on the link (http://
help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/original/members/index.html) Jeff gave at the ACONA meeting.
Natalie Salazar, Director of the Community/Law Enforcement Partnership Programs for the
Sheriff's Department, and Deputy Wilson Lee, a Community Specialist who works for Natalie,
announced the upcoming Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training, beginning October 16. Registration can be found on their Website (http://www.rcpi-ca.org/).
April Kelcy, a local expert and consultant in earthquake preparedness, offered to assist any neighborhood in preparing for not only an earthquake, but any disaster. Planning for such things can’t be done after they occur.
Elliot wrapped up the meeting by pointing out that ACONA is about learning how to be good and supportative neighbors, and not just about crime reporting. He told a quick story about how his neighborhood, the LaCorona-Palm St. Neighborhood Association (http://upside-down-t.blogspot.com/) came to the rescue of a neighbor whose 13-month-old had become unconscious and was turning blue. Literally within 120 seconds, the mother had 10 neighbors out helping her, one a registered nurse who immediately administered CPR, saving the baby’s life.
Within minutes, the neighbors divided up responsibility as the mother was rushed to the hospital with her baby. One neighbor immediately took in the other’s three-year-old for the night, another got the house keys to secure the house, another went to the hospital with the mother and daughter to be with her for the next three hours, calling friends and relatives from the hospital room to reassure them, and yet another neighbor retrieved the mother’s cell phone, phone charger, two days of clothing and diapers for the child, and transported them in the mother’s car to the hospital so she could drive the baby home after overnight care.
That is what neighborhoods and ACONA are all about: “neighbors”!
Next ACONA meeting:
Mon., Nov. 8
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Altadena Library Conference Room
Contacts:
Elliot Gold (Elliot@telespan.com)
Jeff Sedlik (BraeHelp@BraeWatch.org)
Sergeant Michael Randenberg (mdranden@lasd.org)
Ken Chow (alt_no_crime@yahoo.com)
Natalie Salizar (ndsalaza@lasd.org)
Wilson Lee (Wtlee@lasd.org)
April Kelcy (earthquakesolutions@earthlink.net)
