Neighborhood Group Night

Tonight I spent an hour and a half attending my neighborhood group's annual meeting. I have a love/hate relationship with my neighborhood group. To a large extent, they appear to be a bunch of NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) assholes who don't have anything better to do than to come up with regulations about how other people ought to live. On the other hand, I believe that building a strong community is important and that the capitalist system does everything in its power to keep us from organizing amongst ourselves. Because of that, almost any community organizating is a net positive in a world that discourages community and prizes individualism above all.

So, anyway, I went to my neighborhood group's annual meeting tonight and it was chock full of in-group language and multiple assumptions that discourage participation from anyone not familiar with the lingo. There were extensive discussions about NRP Round II. There was talk about the "Foundry" issue. There was a proposal to fund the staff without ever introducing staff members or indicating what they do for the community.

Aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhhhh!

And they wonder why nobody feels inspired to join in their organization. Well, du-uh!