Parkwood Neighborhood

I am with you on replacing ineffective board members.  I imagine though it is difficult for residents to get to know candidates without more neighborhood functions to get everyone to know each other.  Sure, a short write-up helps just before the election to know the background on the folks running but meet and greets should be priority.  With so many homes for sale in the neighborhood there are many new families that never have an adequate chance to get to know these people aside from the things they read in the newsletter before the election.  I don't have the solution to solving this problem but an idea may be to open the clubhouse every Saturday morning for members of our neighborhood to be able to meet and discuss things, whether it be neighborhood related or not just to promote neighborly camaraderie amongst us.  I've gotten to know my neighbors in the immediate vicinity of my home through every day interaction and short conversations but what about the other 1000 (or however many) households in Parkwood?

Another thought:  I couldn't tell you who any of the member of our BOD is or point them out.  That can mainly be attributed to my own lack of availability to attend the 2 meetings I have known about since moving in but what community involvement are they doing?  Meeting each other and talking about involvement activities in person would do everyone here a lot of good.  I know many people these days aren't very talkative and tend to shy away from crowds and I don't propose an actual event be organized aside from someone simply opening the doors of the clubhouse paid for by the members, turning on the a/c, and letting whoever wants to come bring their morning coffee and talk to their neighbors in a comfortable setting.  That's my 2 cents anyway.

There is a National Night Out 2008 activity scheduled for Oct 8. Some in our neighborhood set up "block parties" so as to accomplish the goals of NNO (see www.natw.org, www.savip.org, www.sanantonio.gov/sapd, contact Juan.Ayala@sanantonio.gov NNO Main Office 207-8927/7386)and meet and greet neighbors. This could be a near term opportunity. This is a natural Parkwood-wide event which could have been planned for all in the neighborhood to partake, say at the pool-community center area and/or elementary school parking lot area, but it would take a few months of planning and preparations before that could be successfully established. Perhaps when the Board of Directors begins appointing a Recreation Committee this type of activity could begin to be planned, etc. I have walked to the door of all 1254 homes in Parkwood and met a number of interesting people thereby. It is a rather good walking exercise and would recommend finding out our community by your walks and casual conversations along the way. Reading through these discussion postings you will note there have been limited efforts in the past to start up planning ideas for using the community center for more than simply a rental facility for neighborhood property owner having private parties. Have posted the extremely limited "member visitation schedule with the Board of Directors" at the community center under the calendar at the website here for planning purposes - try to get yourself and your neighbors to these meetings and drum up interest and stimulate the current BOD members to support social activities which obviously for years have been ignored. Make good things happen, to benefit yourself and our neighbors.