The easiest thing to do for starters might be to set a time for an inaugural meeting and flyer the neighborhood heavily, inviting all residents to attend. Then, when they're there, put out signup sheets and ask people to check off boxes for what they might want to help with: establishing a board, running meetings, investigating tax-exempt status, working on zoning issues, etc.

I think you'll find that a very small percentage of the people who show up will actually help out (i.e. work on things on a regular basis), which is why you want a very large turnout. If 100 people show, you might end up with 4 or 5 who will help you get things going. But somewhere out there is probably a high-energy person who would, if given the chance, grab this idea and run with it. You want to get that person to the meeting.

Clearly Philly Lion is serious about this, but he can't do it alone, so I highly recommend that the rest of you try to make some time in your schedule to attend the first meeting he calls. I think this is an idea long overdue in your neighborhood, and I'm hoping it will grow into something bigger.

I would just like to get this thread to the top of the board. I have been talking to a few people with experience setting up and running an association like this one we are trying to build. I am putting a plan and time line together and I will post in when it is finished.

Once again, anyone interested in helping to get this off the ground, please post in this thread or pm. Any and all help would be appreciated.

One of the raison d'etre for this neighborhood association is to address problems and issues of the residents. I think it is important for people to voice their concerns and to be aware and a part of any solutions to those concerns.

Judging by this board, one of the largest concerns in Spring Garden is the crime and how we, as residents, can help to stop it. As people can see from the crime and security thread, there is obviously a lot of concern about crime and a lot of activity involving police within the Spring Garden borders. Whenever a wave of popular concern reaches a certain level, people start asking what can they do, who do they contact and how can they combat it. There is also a large amount of people asking what the police are doing about it.

At the January 25th meeting of the Fairmount Civic Association, they hosted Captain Cullen from the 9th district to speak about the crime in Fairmount and to answer questions from residents. This is something I would like to have for Spring Garden, almost a liaison from or to the police to keep everyone in the loop, to field questions, and give advice about prevention and protection.

One of the things that I think helps a neighborhood to improve is to have a good and close working relationship with the police. I think that this is a relationship that the neighborhood association can help foster.

I almost feel like I am campaigning for something here...but if people need convincing than so be it. As always, anyone interested in helping out can respond to this thread or pm me.

how are things coming on this front? i've noticed this thread is no longer at the top . some people have show interest in this on another thread..."spring garden civic association or town watch". i'll try to send them to this thread.

I am new to the neighborhood and am wondering if this effort got anywhere last year, or if the existing SGCA has had any meetings scheduled?

I'm interested in participating and have a few ideas for things we could do to improve the neighborhood. For example, the concrete traffic triangle at 24th and Green would be much nicer if it was planted and landscaped.

I will make a disclaimer that what got me looking into this is a zoning issue on my house that I have to go to ZBA to get resolved, and they recommend a letter from the neighborhood association. But I still want to help improve the neighborhood overall and think an active association is a good thing.

I noticed that the existing SGCA isn't listed in PennPraxis' planning website like the Fairmount Association is: http://www.planphilly.com/node/48

With summer here, it's doubtful they will be having a meeting any time soon unless a crisis pops up. The best thing you can do is contact Pat Freeland, empress of the SGCA and the SGCDC, at her office at 17th & Wallace. As for the planting idea it's a good one, but might be better handled through the Horticultural Society that already sponsors the planting on Spring Garden street through their Philly Green department.

There have been a number of complaints about a lack of organization, transparency, regularity, etc with the existing SGCA. There are a handful of us working towards a first step towards ameliorating this problem by putting together a website for the already-chartered SGCA. Once we get that running (we're shooting to have it within the next month and a half, but we're volunteers trying to work around summer schedules), we'll have a forum from which to organize committees for things like clean ups, neighborhood parties, tree plantings, graffiti removal, or anything else SG neighbors see fit to start. As we saw it, this was a good first step of getting neighbors in touch with each other and getting information out without depending too much on Pat Freeland, the already overworked leader of the civic association and CDC. Additionally, by posting everything online, information can be accessed whenever the viewer finds it convenient, rather than only by visiting the CDC office when it's open. Once we get a good group of neighbors involved in things other than fighting zoning crises, we can start finding people willing to step up to the plate and make the leap towards having elections and regular meetings. The ball will get rolling over the course of this summer. Stay posted for updates.

As before, feel free to PM me if you want to be involved.

In the months since you said you had set up a website, little has been said here - in fact nothing. I was under the impression you'd given up. If there are things to be done regarding organizing or anything else, why not post it here? Many of us would be very interested in progress even if incremental progress.

I've been waiting for a reply to a PM for a long time...

Update:
A small handful of folks got together with Pat in June after a long and drawn out process of trying to organize said meeting. It was a good start, but we have a long way to go before the SGCA resembles what folks have posted here that they want. Right now, the "moving forward" process is small, so we can set up the bones of the group and make it easy for people to join in. Our projects for now are to make a website and to make a guide to the neighborhood (maps of the neighborhood, bus routes, recycling days, etc). That's it for now, because that's what five people can handle. Once we have a website, we'll post the website info here and all over the neighborhood so lots more people can get involved. Right now, though, the things to be done have been small and manageable enough that they've been able to be handled by the folks who have pm'd me. Because we don't have anything to show yet, posting about nothing seemed premature, but that's the update for now.

Titus, I never got a PM from you. Any lack of reply to a pm from you was not intentional on my part.