January 20, 2010
To all NC leaders,
Due to the recent cancellation of our scheduled January forum, there
seems to be a (relatively) lively discussion around the Internet about
the inner workings of the Citywide Alliance of Neighborhood Councils.
The discussion was spurred by a partial conversation between Noah
Modisett and Dan Wiseman. First, we want to clarify that the
conversation was terminated by failure of the telephone service and not
on Noah's part.
As to the crux of the conversation, we need to take a step back, and
look at the function of the Alliance. We, Noah, myself and others
involved in the development of the Alliance over the years, have always
viewed the Alliance as more or less a “trade association” for NC
leaders. Our intention hasn't been to directly influence policy, but to
put as much unfiltered information in the hands of the NC leaders as
possible. We've done that by making available a variety of elected
officials and City Department Heads for direct interaction with the NC
leadership from across the city. That may be our so-called “city bias”.
And we've done that for the better part of the last decade.
As Dr. Wiseman has noted “the Alliance has attracted more NC activists
more consistently than any other ‘regular meeting'. The value of all
these people getting together in one room outweighs the value of the
speaker's messages and the speaker's messages are of VERY great value.”
Coming from Dan, that's a tremendous validation of the work we've done
over the years, because our goal has always been to be the one place
where community leaders from San Pedro to Chatsworth come together to
exchange experiences and information.
Presently, we are scheduling four forums a year (down from six) because
we are noticing a drop off in attendance and more and more competing
venues popping up. We realize that there are only so many events that
community leaders can attend and we don't want to meet just for the sake
of meeting. The way the forums come together involves a discussion
following each meeting surveying the most important issues facing the
City as a whole and Neighborhood Councils in particular at that given
time. Noah and I then survey a number of NC leaders for their input and
we begin the process of inviting speakers. It's a messy process, because
it's hard to get elected officials to commit very far in advance. There
is always the chance they will get a better offer or an emergency will
intervene, so our scheduling efforts are often in a state of flux until
a week or two before our meeting date. Fortunately, we've earned a
reputation within City Hall as being a venue worth coming to. That helps
in attracting the top level people. Sometimes, like this past month, it
just doesn't come together, and as we noted, we'd rather not meet just
for the sake of meeting.
Given the attendance issues and the activities of the competing groups,
we're at the point of evaluating whether or not we should continue the
Alliance in its present form. That's why the emails flying around are of
great value to us giving us a better sense of what the leaders think
about the Alliance and its role in the NC world. Anyone who has a
suggestion about how we can better serve the NC leadership around the
City is encouraged to let us know.
Our next scheduled forum will be on Saturday morning, March 27th at LA
City College. Our best look at the crystal ball suggests the City budget
crisis will be in full bloom at that time. Given that, we're inviting
both Paul Krekorian and Paul Koretz, the new council folks having
experienced the budget wars in Sacramento, to offer their perspective on
the City's dire financial condition. We'll keep you posted as we get
closer to the meeting date. Updates will be posted on our website at www.allncs.org.
Bill Christopher and Noah Modisett NoahM@allncs.org
Steering Committee of the Citywide Alliance of Neighborhood Councils
