Change in Leadership in the BPA and Review of 2013

Dec 232013

It has been a privilege to have been the President of the Barron Park Association during the past eight months. The BPA Board updated the BPA Bylaws this year, setting a one year term for the President. So, in that context, my period of service is not unusually brief. But, I’ve decided it’s time for me to move on and to let someone else pick up the reins of leadership. At the November BPA Board meeting, Markus Fromherz was elected President and Peter Mueller as Vice President.

I want to thank the Barron Park community for the opportunity to serve and hope that I have provided some clarity to you on some of the issues facing our community and our City.

To recap, during this year the BPA Board took some positive actions for the neighborhood.

The Maybell-Clemo project was controversial and so the Board decided to first ask our membership by a survey/vote whether to financially support the signature gathering effort to put the measure to a referendum; the response was an overwhelming (but not unanimous) yes.
We altered our bylaws to establish an annual election cycle for the BPA President and Vice President.
We responded to the comments and concerns of our members and developed guidelines for subscribers and also (for the first time) guidelines for the list manager of the BPA email lists.
We also responded to comments from members and voted to sever our relationship with the Boy Scouts of America as a BPA chartering organization next year because of their discriminatory policies on adult volunteers. In actuality, there hasn’t been an active connection between the BPA and the scout troop for some years.
We worked with City officials and the bicycle community and convinced the City to install ‘share the path’ signs along the Bol Park Bike path as safety reminders to both walkers and bicyclists.
With the energetic involvement of Dick Placone, we were able to have the City complete the multi-year effort to convert the space alongside the Matadero Well site into an attractive pocket park.
With the participation and expertise of Dick Whitmore, we helped facilitate an agreement between the Acterra/Donkey Handler group and James Witt over the use of use of his property as donkey pasture for the Barron Park donkeys.
And we’ve continued our ongoing activities; we produced quarterly issues of the BPA Newsletter under the editorship of Nancy Hamilton with articles contributed by Doug Graham and others; used our website, www.BPApaloalto.org, to regularly publish posts with news and information of interest to the neighborhood along with events on a community calendar; organized several social events during the year, including a highly successful repeat (the 36^th edition) of our May Fete coordinated by John King, and added some new events – a Chinese New Year’s celebration with Lion Dancers and a Movie Night in the Park – both organized by Lydia Kou. Our Membership Chair, Lisa Landers, has compiled the Babysitting list and distributed to those who requested it, and our Welcoming Chair, Gwen Luce, prepared and delivered information packets to newcomers. And during the year I voiced the concerns of the Barron Park neighborhood on the pace of development and the concerns about traffic at numerous neighborhood and City meetings.

I have tried very hard to represent the interests of the membership as a whole, to respond to your comments and concerns, to provide information to you about the Board activities and the measures the Board deals with and votes upon, to support initiatives that I feel are of benefit to the community and oppose those that conflict with our mission as a community organization. In short, to make you – each member of the BPA – aware of the issues that come before the Board and hopefully interest some of you , especially new residents or older residents who haven’t been active before, in participating in the Board activities. It can be a very rewarding experience.

To keep BPA Board vital, it needs an infusion of new faces , people with new ideas about how and what the BPA can do to enhance our community life– and with the energy and drive to carry them out. Please step forward and devote some of your time and talent to our neighborhood association.

Posted by Art Liberman

Should the BPA continue to be a Chartering Organization for the Boy Scouts of America?

BPA Affairs No Responses »

Oct 152013

Update – At its meeting on October 15th, the BPA Board voted, 8 to 1, to adopt the following resolution:

“The Barron Park Association will discontinue its charter of Pack 52 and Troop 52. The Pack 52 charter shall be discontinued as of November 30, 2013 and the Troop 52 charter shall be discontinued no later than November 30, 2014, or sooner should they obtain a new charter organization”

The Cub Scout Pack 52 has tentatively already found an alternative organization that would be its sponsor.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The following is the personal opinion of Barron Park Resident and BPA Board member Art Liberman. It does not represent the position of the BPA or the BPA Board. However, this item will be discussed and acted upon at the October 15th BPA Board Meeting.

Should the BPA continue to be a Chartering Organization for the Boy Scouts of America? My answer is NO.

For some years, the Barron Park Association has sponsored a Boy Scout troop and a Cub Scout pack affiliated with the Boy Scouts of America. I have come to the conclusion that we should sever our connection with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) because of their discriminatory policies. We should encourage the troop and pack leaders to find other organizations as sponsors to minimize the effect on the boys currently active in this program.

The BSA terminology for an organization that sponsors a Boy Scout troop is a “chartered organization.” In practice, a BPA Board Member signs a piece of paper at the end of each year from the BSA that defines the responsibilities of the sponsoring organization. By signing the Charter AgreementAnnual Charter Agreement with the BSA, the BPA agrees to “Conduct the Scouting program according to its own policies and guidelines as well as those of the Boy Scouts of America.” In effect, this says that in conducting or supervising the scout program, we – the BPA – are bound to follow the policies of the BSA, including their discriminatory policies, whether we personally approve them or not.

The BSA of today is not “your grandfather’s” Boy Scouts. For most of its history the BSA allowed individual troops to define their own rules, but this changed in recent decades. The national organization of the BSA has recently updated its membership policies to allow gay scouts but reaffirmed its policy that does not allow gay adult troop leaders. To fulfill its requirement in the Charter Agreement, the BPA Board member must affirm that scout troop leaders and other volunteers are not “open or avowed homosexuals.” The BSA couches its policy in terms of protecting the scouts, but this policy doesn’t target pedophiles but just all adults of a certain sexual orientation – it is discriminatory and unacceptable.

The issue before the BPA Board is not to assess the value of scouting to the participants. That’s a separate question. What the BPA Board needs to decide is whether it’s appropriate for the BPA to be affiliated with the national BSA given its current membership and volunteer policies.

There is a second reason why the BPA should disengage from the BSA. The BPA does not fulfill another requirement of a chartered organization, which is to “Include Scouting as part of its overall program for youth to meet the developmental needs for every age level.” Unlike some churches or other community organizations that sponsor BSA troops, the BPA does not have any youth development programs as part of its objectives or in any of its activities.

Art Liberman

Fall 2013 Issue of the BPA Newsletter

BPA Affairs, Newsletter No Responses »

Sep 262013

The Fall 2013 issue of the Barron Park Newsletter is out and should have reached the mailboxes of all BPA members. If you have not received your issue, send us an email. This issue features the following articles:

President’s Message by Art Liberman – on the surge in development all along El Camino and the need for City planning staff and policy makers to have an overview of all this activity and to consider the consequences of all the additional traffic before gridlock arrives on the main arteries and the residential roads are besieged with cut through traffic.

A New Pocket Park: The Matadero Well Site by Doug Graham – on the newly landscaped area with two benches (one donated by the Henshel family) alongside the Matadero Well Site, the history the Matadero Well itself as source of water exploited by private water companies until 1953, and efforts in the last few years by several determined Barron Park residents to create this new pocket park.

Art in the Park – featured artist: Nancy Lewis of Kendall Ave

Immersion Spa: Korean Spa culture in the Bay Area by Markus Fromherz (Business Liaison) – a new business in the former Blockbuster store: a Korean-style spa with American influences. They are offering first-time Barron Park residents 25% off through end of October.

Business Beat by Bob Moss – an update on businesses and business vacancies along the Barron Park section of El Camino

BPA Newsletter Survey Results by Nancy Hamilton – on the results of the survey in last issue of the BPA Newsletter, asking members their thoughts about the importance and the content of the Newsletter and for their input on ideas or willingness to participate in the Newsletter staff.

Proposal for new BPA Email List Guidelines – Your feedback please!

BPA Affairs, Email lists No Responses »

Jul 292013

The BPA Board is considering adopting new guidelines for our neighborhood email lists. The Board would like the members to look at this proposal, which is still a draft, and to receive your feedback.

The proposal includes a brief List Description, describing the use of each of the three BPA lists. Guidelines for Mailing Use Subscribers provides guidance for proper use of the email lists, Mistakes and Abuses informs subscribers what happens if they make mistakes or violate the guidelines, and Rules for the List Manager specify what the List Manager does in those cases.

Use the Contact Us link on the navigation tab (above). Tell us what you think about this proposal and give us some suggestions for further improvements.

Art Liberman, BPA President

—Draft—

BPA Mailing Lists

The mailing lists made available by the Barron Park Association are intended to help Barron Park residents exchange information relevant to our community. They are maintained by the BPA as a service to the Barron Park residents, overseen by a committee, and managed by a member of the community on a voluntary basis (the list manager).

List Description

The BPA maintains three principal mailing lists: BPA-news, BPA-misc, and BPA-issues. The lists are separate from each other, and you must be a member of the respective list in order to receive messages or post to it.

The purpose of each mailing list is as follows:

BPA-news: This list is meant for announcements of public events, city meetings, community meetings and announcements, alerts about vandalism and other crimes, alerts for lost/found pets, and alerts on other problems of general interest. This list is not for discussion of issues or expressions of personal viewpoints, although additional information in the form of meaningful links and short comments may be attached to the announcements (to provide context, but with special sensitivity given to exclude personal opinions or bias). Unlike the other email lists, BPA-news is moderated, i.e., the list manager must approve email postings (with the exception of messages from BPA board members).
BPA-misc: This list handles a variety of messages by Barron Park residents likely to be of interest to other residents. Examples: requests for house-sitters and nannies, house repair advice, yard sales, repair service recommendations, and houses or apartments for rent or sale by owner (but not for houses or apartments for rent or sale by a realtor) in Barron Park. This list is not for discussion of issues.
BPA-issues: This list is for discussions of Barron Park and Barron Park Association related issues. You may start a discussion on a topic and conversations may continue (threads) with a number of other people participating.

In summary, BPA-news is more for announcements and alerts of broad relevance or an urgent nature, BPA-misc is more for personal requests, and BPA-issues is for discussions.

BPA-misc and BPA-issues are not moderated, i.e., any subscriber can post messages without prior approval, but subscribers are asked to follow the guidelines described in the next section. How we treat mistakes and abuse is explained in the subsequent section.

The BPA lists are “Google Groups”, so sending a message requires you to place “@googlegroups.com” at the end of the name of the list (e.g., email to bpa-misc@googlegroups.com). To subscribe, send an email message to ListName+subscribe@googlegroups.com (e.g., to bpa-misc+subscribe@googlegroups.com). Note that you have a number of options when using Google Groups; for example, you can choose whether to receive messages individually or combined in a daily digest. You can find more information about “Google Groups” on the internet (e.g., start here).

Guidelines for Mailing List Subscribers

The BPA mailing lists provide tremendous value to BP residents. In order to keep them useful and practical for all subscribers, senders are asked to follow generally accepted etiquette. Specifically:

Post to the appropriate list as defined in the Description section. Keep topics specific enough to fit the list definition.
Use the subject field to indicate the topic. Do not use a blank subject.
Stay on topic, as specified in the subject line.
Refrain from personal attacks. Keep the discussion focused on the topic rather than the person.
Refrain from obscenities or name calling.
Do not send anonymous messages. Include your first and last name.
Do not forward chain letters, jokes, hoaxes, spam, or junk mail.
When announcing an event, send only one reminder.

Use of the BPA mailing lists is a privilege. If you use a list, you opt in to following these guidelines. Mistakes will be pointed out in private reminder messages. Repeated abuse has consequences up to removal from the list, as explained in the next section.

Please use current antivirus software on your computer and keep it up-to-date.

For more information on email etiquette see here. There are many other websites and books on this topic (e.g., search for “netiquette”).

Mistakes and Abuse

The list manager will respond to both mistakes and abuse found in emails sent to the mailing lists. Mistakes and abuse relative to the above guidelines will be determined by the list manager and will lead to reminder messages. Repeated abuse can lead to the eventual removal of the offending subscriber from the mailing list. Specifically:

Reminder and warning messages on mistakes and abuse:
- 1st occurrence: a message will be sent privately by the list manager to the subscriber.
- 2nd occurrence within 30 days: another private message will be sent.
- 3rd occurrence within 30 days: a final private message will be sent, and the subscriber’s email address will be marked for removal from the mailing list. The subscriber can appeal to the BPA mailing list committee (via the list manager) to have this action be reconsidered.
No public messages to the mailing list will be sent on violations. When removed, the offender can rejoin after 30 days.
The list manager will occasionally send out a public reminder message about the guidelines to the mailing lists (once a year or when a need is perceived). This message will not refer to any particular violations or subscribers.
Egregious violations or emails of a highly offensive nature may result in immediate and/or permanent removal from all lists.

The Mailing List Oversight Committee will review (grey-area) decisions, provide violating subscribers with an avenue of appeal to decisions by the list manager, and make changes and adjustments to the guidelines as necessary from time to time.

Rules for Mailing List Manager

For the private and public reminder messages described in the Mistakes and Abuse section, the list manager will use the message templates approved by the BPA mailing list committee. The list manager will not engage in any discussion of the message with the subscriber and will not send a public message regarding a violation to any mailing list. The approved templates are as follows.

Template for private reminder message

Dear <name>, please review the BPA mailing list guidelines at <link>. Your message, “<subject>”, is in conflict with rule(s) <numbers> of the guidelines for list <name>. The guidelines are enforced in order to keep the mailing lists useful and productive for all subscribers. <This is your second/third reminder within 30 days.>

Sincerely,

BPA List Manager

Template for public rules reminder message

As a reminder, the guidelines and policies for the BPA mailing lists are posted here: <link>. The guidelines will be enforced in order to keep the mailing lists useful and productive for all subscribers.

Sincerely,

BPA List Manager

BPA Membership Approves Supporting Referendum Effort

BPA Affairs No Responses »

Jul 032013

Fellow members of the BPA – The survey of the membership is now over and here are the results.

The subject was whether to approve an expenditure of up to $1000 by the BPA to support the effort to prepare a referendum asking for a city wide vote on the rezoning of the Maybell-Clemo property. A second advisory question asked members whether they supported or opposed holding a referendum.The survey period (5 days) began on June 28th and ended at the end of the day on July 2nd.

The views of the membership are very clear. By more than a 2:1 margin, the membership voted to support the BPA contributing to the referendum preparation effort, and by a 3:1 margin, the membership supports the holding of a referendum.

Q1. It has been proposed that the BPA contribute up to $1000 towards the effort to qualify the referendum for the ballot.

BPA should contribute: 117         (66 % of those who voted)
BPA should not contribute :   50
Abstain (Undecided/No Opinion):          10

Q2. I support/oppose/… having a referendum on this issue, that is, allowing Palo Altans the chance to vote on the rezoning of the Maybell/Clemo property. Note: This is not a question of how you would vote on such a referendum were it to be on the ballot. Nor is this a substitute for signing the petition to have a referendum.

I support having a referendum:                    128        (73% of those who voted)
I do not support having a referendum: 14
I oppose having a referendum :                   26
Undecided/No Opinion :                                   8

The results and a bar chart can be downloaded here

The excellent response from our members is proof of the high level of interest in this issue. We received 150 electronic responses, which was from 43% of those to whom we sent an electronic invitation for the Survey Monkey vote. We received 29 paper ballots, from 54% of those who were given a paper ballot (no email address in our database). One paper ballot was dropped off at 11:45 PM. An eighty-nine year lady hopped on her bicycle and rode it down to my house to deliver it in person. The paper ballots were validated and counted by a two person committee: Lisa (Membership Chair) and me.

I again want to publicly thank those individuals on the Board who worked over the weekend to ensure the voting progressed smoothly and who made extra efforts to contact all members: Membership Chair Lisa Landers for handling the database, Doug Moran for supervising the Survey Monkey process, and both Lisa and Doug for handling the last minute additions and changes to the invitation emails. Gwen Luce deserves special credit for personally taking charge of preparing and delivering the paper ballots to members we could not reach by email.

And I want to congratulate you, our membership, for taking this issue seriously and participating in this vote and letting the Board know your views. It is appropriate that this exercise in local democracy happened at the same time as our national holiday. A number of memberships to the BPA were received during the survey period and we believe it is because they wanted to be part of the process. We welcome them to the BPA and hope that this will motivate others to join the BPA. I also want to thank those of you who have sent me emails with your comments, both about the issue and about the process we followed. If you have some more thoughts to share in the upcoming days, please send them to me. I’d like to hear from you.

Art Liberman, BPA President

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