ARROYO
SECO NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL
Neighborhood Council Review Commission (NCRC)
Invitation to Participate
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Neighborhood Council Review Commission (NCRC) From: Naheed Qureshi Dear Neighborhood Council Board Member: When the voters of the City of Los Angeles created the system of neighborhood councils in 1999, Section 912 was added to the city charter. Section 912 requires the city council to create a commission to evaluate and make recommendations about the neighborhood council system. Well, we are that commission, formally known as the Neighborhood Council Review Commission (NCRC). There are 29 of us; people like yourselves who are volunteering our time to serve the community. We are deeply committed to understanding what has worked with neighborhood councils, and what can be improved. We have been meeting for several months. Our work will conclude in late September 2007, when we take our recommendations to the city council. You can follow our progress at our website, http://www.ncrcla.org/. You may have seen some of our meetings on Channel 35. We meet in public, and we are holding hearings throughout the city. We hope you can attend. This is an important process for those who are active in neighborhood councils. It may never happen again. This is a great opportunity to make sure that the best recommendations emerge and are enacted into law. And for that to happen, we need your help and your input. We have created a survey specifically for current and former board members of neighborhood councils, and we need your help to achieve a high response rate. We think that you have a unique perspective. You have been in the trenches, doing the hard work. You have seen what works, and you have seen what can be improved. We need to hear from as many current and former board members as possible. Some of you are probably thinking, “Not another survey!” This one is different. The results will influence the policies the city adopts regarding neighborhood councils. Your input and the input of other current and former board members will flow directly into our deliberations. We are waiting to hear what you think. Our whole commission reviewed and helped to develop this web-based survey. Our staff will collect and analyze your responses so that we can make decisions informed by your experience and wisdom. This is a long survey. There is a lot we want to know, and a lot we have to learn from you. But please take the time to fill it out and encourage other current and former board members to do so as well. Your name will be kept confidential, and is only necessary so that our staff can assess how many of those we contacted have completed the survey, and to enable us to follow up with those who have not. We will probably bug you if you don’t fill it out, but that is only because we value your opinion and want to make sure we are hearing from as many people as we can. If you have any questions about the survey, or want any help filling it out, please contact our staff. Our survey designer, Dr. Gregory Robinson (grobinson@fullerton.edu; 714/ 278-2600), and programmer, Mr. Jefferson Wood (jwood@fullerton.edu; 714/ 278-2363) at the Social Science Research Center at Cal State Fullerton have sent e-mail invitations to participate to board members with publicly available e-mail addresses. These individual invitations are customized and are non-transferable. Current and former board members that have not yet received an e-mailed invitation should visit the survey web-site: http://www.ssrc-at-csuf.com/. Instructions for obtaining a customized e-mailed invitation to participate in the web-based survey can be requested on this site (or a print copy of the survey in Spanish or English). Please join us in this historic effort. Between now and September 2007, the future neighborhood council system of Los Angeles is going to be shaped. Let your voice and the voices of other current and former board members be heard! Spread the word! With best regards, Rev. Altagracia Perez, Chair Naheed Qureshi |
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