Sligo Woods Civic Association

The sixth annual meeting of the Sligo Woods Civic Association was held Thursday evening, July 14, 2022—the first ever by video-conferencing and the first since March 2019. Taking part were 18 member-households (the voting unit; 21 total Zoom participants).

Outgoing president Todd Sleeman presided over the unanimous election of:

President — David Hollibaugh Baker
Vice President — Michele Moller
Treasurer — Sarah Meytin
Secretary — Mary Moore
At-large — Aaron Wasserman
At-large — Romy Adame-Wilson

Half of the new Board (president, treasurer and one at-large member) were elected to “two-year” terms through March 2024, and the other half (VP, secretary, and one at-large member) to “one-year” terms through March 2023.

Outgoing treasurer Glenn Moller presented a financial report showing very low expenditures during the coronavirus hiatus.  As of 3/31/2022, the association had assets of $2,455 and no liabilities.  The new board will establish the budget for the current year.

The Zoom “chat” feature was used for meeting participants to note activities in which they are especially interested, yielding: summer picnic, winter chili cookoff, yard sale, civic association T-shirts, and a program with local principals in attendance.

In closing, special thanks were expressed to the outgoing board members.

On Thursday 7/14 at 7:00pm, the Sligo Woods Civic Association will have its first virtual event and the first annual meeting since March 2019.

The past few years have been, to say the least, tumultuous and disruptive.  The Civic Association has largely been in a holding pattern, in organizational terms, since the initial COVID lockdowns started in 2020.  While we have not been able to have regular meetings and social events, the 165 individuals who are signed up on the listserv continued to be in communication with other listserv participants—especially valuable during the COVID isolation—and we are grateful to Fiesta’s Diana Moore for continuing to manage this, as she has since our beginning in 2014.

Other incredible members have continued offering key, now-traditional Sligo Woods outdoor community activities: the Halloween parade and yard decorating, and the December holiday yard-decorating contest.  More behind the scenes, the Welcome New Neighbors project has continued, thanks to Justin Way’s Mary Moore.

We know that many of you have missed engaging with your Sligo Woods neighbors and would like to return to our regular association activities. To kick things off, we will be holding an annual meeting via Zoom on July 14th to elect new board members—and all civic association members, including new neighbors, are invited to consider Board service in either one- or two-year terms.  The link to the July 14th Zoom meeting, along with phone dial-in options, was sent to the Association’s 272 member-households via a June 21 email from SligoWoods@gmail.com.

With all board positions open, the Association is looking for members who are interested in serving on the board and helping to shape the future of the Association.  More about what the Board and its members do can be found here:    What does the Board do? | Sligo Woods Civic Association.    If you are interested in standing for election or have questions, please contact me directly at tsleeman@me.com by July 10th.  The proposed slate will be emailed to the membership on July 11th.

Looking forward to “seeing” you on July 14th,
Todd Sleeman, President

Celebrate the winter holidays and join in a friendly decorating competition—the sixth annual sponsored by the civic association—and open to everyone who lives in the Sligo Woods neighborhood.

Judging will take place December 17-18 with the categories Best Overall, Best Theme, Best Daytime, Best Nighttime, Best Block, plus Honorable Mention.

Here are the rules:
1.  Open to all homes in the Sligo Woods neighborhood, except those of the judges.  Neighborhood boundaries are here
2. House address numbers must be visible from the street both day and night.
3, Homes with decorations that have been left up from previous holidays will be ineligible.
4. Homes cannot win two years in a row for the same category.
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Winners will display a sign in their yard for a few weeks and will be presented with a certificate.    Pictures of winning homes will be posted here on the website.

If you see a home you would like to nominate, please send an email to Mary by Thursday, December 16, 2021.

Can you lend a helping hand?  We need a photographer and judges (contactless judging again this year).  Please email Mary if you would like to help.

The judges have finished their work and the winning addresses announced via an all-member email this morning.  Many thanks to all who contributed to neighborhood spirit.  Photos are here.

Spring seems to have finally gotten around to showing up.  It’s great to see all the flowers coming out, as well as friends and neighbors.

In terms of program-meetings and Board meetings, the Civic Association has been in a holding pattern for the last year.  The 2020 annual meeting was cancelled, and there was no summer picnic or other social gatherings—thus our only expenditures have been for the website and the PO Box.

Because of this, the board has decided on two things:
Membership dues
There will be no dues for the 2021 year.  If you have already paid dues in 2020 or 2021, those amounts will be credited toward your 2022 dues.
Elections
The terms of Board members all have been extended for one year and, with one resignation, that means there are four positions coming open.

The President will continue to March 2022 (incumbent Todd Sleeman), as will one of the At-large positions (incumbent Doug Grove).  Three 2-year terms will be open for election: the VP position (Sandy Hinman concluding her service in this position), Treasurer (Glenn Moller concluding his first term), and one of the two At-large positions (Frank Andruzzi concluding his service in this position).  In addition, one 1-year term for Secretary is up for election (Emily Sudbrink retiring from this service).  If you are interested in running for office, please reach out to me so I can tell you more about the open positions.   There is also some basic information here.

Our current plan is to hold elections in late June, and we are exploring ways to conduct the election in a safe manner.  These could include online survey, via e-mail, or the collection of paper ballots.

While the last year has felt like treading water in organizational terms, I believe we have a good base of knowledge and enthusiasm to ‘restart’ the formal workings of the civic association.  Until guidance indicates it is safe to do so, however, we will not be holding any larger events (neighborhood yard sale, summer picnic).  If you have ideas for events that we could host, please send me an e-mail.  Also, if you have any questions, concerns, comments, please reach out to me via e-mail.

Todd Sleeman, President