Friends of Five Points

Dear Friends of Five Points,

We trust that you are enjoying the Spring Break in Athens and enthusiastically awaiting the return of the students.  The Friends of Five Points Board has been busy this month!  Here are the highlights.

First, we welcome Kevin Florence, pharmacist and owner of Add Drugs, as the Five Points Business Association Representative on our Board. Kevin, along with the entire Five Points business community, can count on our support for anything that will help that community to continue to thrive.

Recently, the Board approved a new Listserv policy.  Many thanks go to Board member Jill Gambill, who serves as listserv administrator, for developing this policy with Board input.  Over the years, the listserv has worked very well for the overwhelming majority of the folks who participate in this forum.  While the listserv is largely a self-governing community, the Board does define policies to keep it the great resource that it is. In addition, we stop spam and inappropriate advertising attempts on a regular basis. All in all, our members have self-regulated so that what is expressed is done so in a respectful way, and we hope that continues. This self-regulation depends on common sense and a little give and take.  As we all know, a perfect policy cannot be construed for public listserv, but we hope the new one provides appropriate guidelines. It is important to note that this policy is subject to revision, if we see that more detail or clarification is needed.

Another project that the Board is working on is to gather materials that are pertinent to the history of FOFP.  Board member Susan Field is spearheading this effort.  If anyone has copies of past minutes from FOFP committee meetings or reports done by a committee, please contact Susan.  The purpose of this effort is to make these documents available for future use or research.  Once the inventory is complete, Susan will contact the Heritage Room in the Athens Regional Library to see if these materials could be housed in its archives.

As everyone knows, we are in an election year, and we can expect that issues important to FOFP will be discussed by candidates seeking office at every level.  FOFP will support all efforts by the Federation of Neighborhoods to hold forums and debates for candidates for the various elected offices that are up for election. We thank Susan Field, our liaison with the Federation, for keeping our membership informed about these events on all related activities.

The Board is always working to improve communications within the FOFP community.  To this end, Board member John Weatherford has recently repaired some broken links at our website, www.friendsoffivepoints.org.  If you experience any problems with our website, please let us know so that we can fix them.

Finally, we shall be holding our Annual meeting in late Spring, with the date to be announced soon. At this time, I would like to urge each of you to consider serving on one of the Committees: Government and Community Relations, Business Relations, Membership, Listserv, and Website.  Each committee is chaired by a Board member, and you can visit www.friendsoffivepoints.org for more information about each Board member’s role. We are specifically looking for folks who have expertise in the following areas: bookkeeping, updating the website, and managing the listserv. If you are interested in joining us in any of the areas where our Board members serve, please contact us. We would be delighted to have you join us. An organization such as ours can only thrive if we have broad participation from our members. We have a hard-working Board, but it would be comforting to know that we have folks to back up each position.

We thank each of you in participating in our listserv and adding to the dialogue.

Hank Qadir

FOFP Board Chair

Dear Friends of Five Points,

As I walked my dog on Wednesday evening along the Fire Station, it seemed like Christmas Eve with most of the businesses closed. The snow on the ground added to that Holiday feeling. Waffle House seemed to be doing brisk business as usual. But, it was the sound of music, laughter and the savory smell coming from the Royal Peasant that gave that feeling that this is a special place. There were just a few cars in the adjacent parking lot which indicated that some of the residents had walked over to one of their neighborhood pubs.

There is no doubt that it is these local retail businesses, the mixed-use developments, and the diversity of the residents that make Five Points such a desirable place to live in Athens. At our last Board meeting, we discussed Business memberships and how neighborhood businesses and the residents may benefit joining our organization – we are also awaiting the Five Points Business Association to appoint a person to our Board so we may work with them to help us determine how we may structure this without seeming biased towards any establishment.

This week on the listserv, we had an interesting exchange of thoughts on the fine line between endorsements and ads. Over the years, the listserv has worked out very well for the overwhelming majority of the folks who participate in this forum. Also, the Board does define policies and pay attention so that we keep our listserv as the great resource that it is. We stop spam and advertising attempts fairly often. When I introduced our Board last year, I indicated that Jill Gambill had the most difficult job of monitoring the site, and I believe it could not have gone any better. All in all, our members have self-regulated so that what is expressed is done so in a respectful way, and we hope it continues. Coming up with a comprehensive policy that looks like our tax code is not the solution, as much of this self-regulation depends on common sense and a little give and take. Besides, a perfect policy cannot be construed for public listserv. We will bring this up for discussion again at our next meeting as we did at our last meeting. I invite your input on any caveats that should be considered when we put together a policy.

The listserv has allowed many residents to connect with each other for support at various times. It has provided some of us with a sense of our local community and it has kept us informed of events and issues that we may not have come across so easily. We trust that you were warm, safe and dry during the ice and snow. The sun is out as I write, but it will be a while before the slush is gone.

Hank Qadir

FOFP Board Chair

Dear Residents and Friends of Five Points,

We trust that you had a safe and relaxing Thanksgiving Holidays. On Sunday, November the 24th, The Five Points Business Association held its Annual Holiday House. Fleet Feet sponsored the Meridian Women’s Chorus for spreading a little holiday cheer, the Chefs from Cinco and Diez treated the visitors with a cup of hot chocolate, Athens Running Company and Earth Fare provided cookies for children, Up n’ Away Balloons treated the children with balloons and we, the Friends of Five Points, sponsored the visit from Santa, courtesy of Hodgson Building which allowed the Santa a place to have pictures taken on a cool breezy afternoon. It was a joyous afternoon as we enter the Christmas season. We thank the FOFP Business Association for their efforts and without the success of the Five Points Businesses; our neighborhood would not be the most desirable place to live in Clarke County.

Over the weekend, you should have received our Membership mailer; FOFP has initiated a membership drive so that we can bring in the new residents of Five Points Neighborhood.

http://friendsoffivepoints.org/online-membership-registration/

It is the participation of our residents that makes us a vibrant community. Membership in our organization allows us to maintain a structure in place that can be mobilized at any time the neighborhood sees a need to protect our property values or enhance our quality of life. It is with your continued support and participation that we can make our organization relevant so that the residents can do what it takes to preserve our neighborhood’s uniqueness and vibrancy.

We ask each and every household on this listserv to reach out to your neighbors and ask them to join our listserv – www.FriendsofFivePoints.org – This would help us tremendously with our membership drive. If you have student renters in your neighborhoods, please reach out to them also. We want to make them feel part of our community and help them in their issues dealing with absentee landlords and deteriorating properties.

We will continue to send out frequent updates as to what the Board is doing, introducing you to new Businesses and giving you some history of our neighborhood.

http://friendsoffivepoints.org/newsite/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/scanmempark.pdf

Next year, there will be elections for mayor and commissioners and we will seek opportunities where our residents can participate to get to know our candidates well and where they stand on the issues. We look forward to your participation and hearing from each of you.

The FOFP Board wishes each of you a safe and festive Christmas season.

Hank Qadir – Board Chair

Dear Residents and Friends of Five Points,

We trust that you had an opportunity to enjoy the runners/walkers from AthHalf marathon as they sprinted past our delightful neighborhood. Five Points’ Business Fleet Feet had a band cheering the participants and entertaining the Five Points spectators. It was also great to see members of the Clarke Central chapter of the National Honor Society volunteering at the Five Points water station.  According to FOFP Board member, Alice Kinman, who ran in the race, the atmosphere in Five Points was very upbeat and the runners appreciated the encouragement.  It is a point of pride for us to show off our neighborhood and its businesses.

The FOFP Board held its annual meeting back in May and a new Board was put in place. We now have an active Board after a few years during which the organization was kept active by Sara Beresford. During these years, Sara kept the listserv alive with the help of Kara Bride and Jill Gambill. Mary Bell Stolz, Dave Meyers and Kim Ness worked to keep the Memberships updated and Jennifer Harrington, Jennie Wenger, Jill Walton and Lisa David helped out with the Newsletters. Carol and Larry Jones, Geoffrey Walton, and John Wolfe helped with board duties. We all very much appreciate the work that Sara and these fine folks put in to keeping the organization active.

The Friends of Five Points will endeavor to manage the listserv and website and contribute towards hosting the Holiday House and the Easter Egg Hunt. We will hold forums where we will invite our elected officials and/or those running for public office so that our members can meet these folks and understand where they stand on issues that affect our Neighborhood. Most importantly, we have a structure in place that can be mobilized at any time the neighborhood sees a need to protect or enhance our quality of life. It is with your continued support and participation that we can make our organization relevant so that the residents can do what it takes to preserve our neighborhood’s uniqueness and vibrancy.

Redistricting is one issue where we will be asked for our input; the ongoing issue of Infill development and designating more areas as Historic Districts is another. Parking on the streets is an ongoing issue which will require working with Clarke County officials. Parking for the Five Points Businesses will continue to be the most challenging issue for them. Without the Five Points retail businesses, our neighborhood would not be arguably the most desirable place to live in Clarke County – we hope you will continue to patronize each and every locally owned business so that they may continue to thrive.

John Weatherford has put together a great website that is very easy to navigate and find some useful information – we now have set up a link where you can pay your membership fees online: http://friendsoffivepoints.org/membership/. This will enable our membership to pay with much ease and also make it easier for us to track the membership. John is maintaining our website and he will welcome any reasonable suggestions on what else can be posted on it.

Susan Field is the NNI representative for FOFP and receives notices from ACC Departments concerning notices of government meetings with their agenda items, notices of rezoning and demolition requests, recycling events, and neighborhood leaf and limb pick-up schedules that she forwards to the listserv on a timely basis.  She is also the FOFP representative to the Federation of Neighborhoods. Susan’s selfless and tireless effort of keeping us informed on these issues allows the community to proactively prepare to discuss and address them with our ACC officials.

John Wolfe has been our Treasurer for many years and he keeps us honest and ensures that we maintain the funds to meet our budget each year and keep some reserves. John has served in this role for some time and we are appreciative of his history of FOFP organization and how we have dealt with past issues.

Jill Gambill has the most challenging job of keeping our Listserv from getting overly emotional about some rather emotional issues, if I may say so. Jill has done an excellent job as our listserv administrator, and it is largely thanks to her that our listserv content is so relevant.  One of the Board’s tasks for the near future will be to come up with some guidelines for listserv use to help Jill, and any future administrators, with this challenging task.

Kristin Nielsen is our Membership Coordinator and we are working on our annual membership drive. We will be sending out mailers and a reminder as we draw closer to the mailing date. Kristin can be called upon with any questions you may have about your membership status or payments.

We welcome your questions and inquiries – please submit them to info@friendsoffivepoints.org and one of our board member volunteers will get back to you.

We thank you for taking the time to read this and we will answer any and all questions. I will send out occasional newsletters to keep the membership informed on what the Board is working on. Thanks to various online sources, you do not have to wait for a monthly newsletter to keep you updated on the neighborhood activities.
Wishing each of you convenient parking spots, safe school routes and a fun-filled Halloween.

Hank Qadir (Board Chair)