What’s in a neighborhood association president?

It was the Saturday before Easter 2003, and there was a knock on my door fairly early in the morning. As I opened the door, I found myself staring at a person I did not know saying that they were there to set up for the Easter egg hunt at the church. This was confusing because it was more than a decade before our church would host its first massive egg hunt, and this person was not from the church anyway. Moreover, I was the pastor of the church and had not heard about any egg hunt that was happening on our grounds. But this person was certain that the neighborhood association egg hunt was being held at our church, and when I arrived, there were others who thought the same thing. So I went ahead and opened the building so they could have their hunt. They hid a couple dozen eggs, and a handful of kids showed up. The kids found the eggs, received a cookie, and then it was done.

That was my first encounter with the neighborhood association. They apparently stopped holding Easter egg hunts after that one, and I do not recall hearing from them again until January 2011, when I received a call from the neighborhood association president. He explained that the association was applying to participate in the city’s Neighborhood Revitalization Program, and he wondered if our church and I would endorse the application. After listening to what the program was about, I agreed to write a letter supporting the effort. Then, he asked if I would consider becoming the association secretary and participating in the committee that would steer the revitalization effort.

I had never been to a meeting, but after listening to his passion for our neighborhood, I knew I could support the cause. So I attended my first meeting a couple of weeks later, where I was elected secretary and placed on the steering committee.

The NRP process involved drafting a plan for what our neighborhood could and should be, but when the plan was complete, most of the steering committee members returned to their own lives. This left the task of implementing the plan to the neighborhood association’s board of directors, of which I was now the secretary.

For the next five years, I observed the president. I had no aspirations to lead the group. Indeed, I had my hands full with my own family and leading a revitalizing church. Consequently, I wanted only to help realize the plan we had drafted. Nevertheless, I did observe some things that I thought were great and others that I thought should be better. I suppose this is what leaders do: they watch and learn.

It was, then, not unusual when my phone rang in early 2016, and it was the neighborhood association president. I answered the phone ready to help, but I was certainly not expecting to learn he was moving out of the neighborhood and wanted me to take his place as president. Within weeks, I was officially elected and had the title. The only problem: I still was not sure what I was supposed to do.

Our neighborhood association’s bylaws state that “the President shall be responsible for the day-to-day activities of the Association in keeping with the policies and objectives approved by the Board of Directors. The President shall preside at all meetings of the Executive Committee, Board of Directors, and membership. The President shall serve as an ex-officio member of all Association committees. The President or President’s designee shall be the Association’s representative on issues before the Des Moines City Council, City Board or Commission, media, public forum, and serve as the key contact for any City department or staff outreach.”

Out of the gate, that is a mouthful, but when you dig into it, you realize it is much, much more. In fact, when I was recently asked to summarize the role of the neighborhood association president, I came up with four main things that are only barely hinted in the official description. Of course, each one is a mouthful. So I thought I would draft a series of blog posts to explain each in a little more detail.