The Advocate totally forgot there was an ANC 8C meeting tonight until a reminder email came in (the first) but considering the total lack proactive work done by ANC 8C there really is no surprise that it slipped my mind. I did however remember that tonight is the roundtable meeting for ANC 8C and the Committee on Aging and Community Affairs - hopefully Councilwoman Alexander is better at getting some answers to pressing ANC 8C questions than the community.

For all of you out there who still have hope that ANC 8C may one day get its act together (or who would like to see what happens when community meetings go horribly wrong). Here it goes...

ADVISORY NEIGHBORHOOD COMMISSION 8C

Wed, April 1st 2009

UPO Petey Greene Center

2907 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave SE

Washington, DC 20032

6:30pm - 8:30pm

Tentative Speaker (still don't think an agenda has been aprpoved): Public Service Commission

SIDENOTE: The Advoc8te is aware that at least several commissioners read this blog. The Advoc8te would like to make a suggestion...

CANCEL THE DAMN SPEAKERS!

Considering how ANC 8C can't tell it's fanny from it's elbow....hasn't filed it's quarterly financial reports since Moses parted the red sea.... is paying $900 a month for an office that is empty....and STILL hasn't elected a Chair or a Vice Chair...

CANCEL THE DAMN GUEST SPEAKERS AND GET YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER!!!

That is what we in the community want to see! Have a meeting where you take care of all this long overdue business! Once you prove to the community that you can crawl THEN you can walk. Once you can get the REQUIRED things completed then lets move on to doing something PROACTIVE that would would actually require some WORK and some INSIGHT!

I have a suggestion (lord knows I have plenty of them). Let's focus on cleaning up the MLK Ave corridor and Shepherd Park. Why not do something for God's sake that the community can be proud of and that we can immediately see some results?

For the love of baby animals - enough already with all the damn speakers! For one they talk tooooooooooooooo long, they talk about subjects that would be best suited for special meetings (kidney health is important but a 45 minute presentation in an ANC mtng is not the time or the place) and lastly WE NEVER FOLLOW UP ON SPEAKER SUBJECTS. I have actaully sat in ANC 8C meetings and consider filing a lawsuit against ANC 8C to get back the 2 or 3 hours of my life that they essentially wasted. The really sad part is that I know I am not the only one who feels that way! People leave the ANC 8C meetings all the time vowing never to return or people refuse to come back because they are used to them being a waste of time.

Guest speakers will come speak (for far too long), someone (usually on the commission) will complain and complain and complain about the guest speaker (or their agency) not doing this and not doing that for the community. John F. Kennedy said it best "Don't ask what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country".

We need to collectively step up to the plate and make it happen for ourselves - no one is going to make it happen for us.

The guest speakers have turned into time fillers and considering all the work that we need to do as a community as an ANC we really need to stop talking and get some ACTUAL work done! The community is ready - are you?

DON'T JUST TALK ABOUT IT - BE ABOUT IT!!!

The Advocate feels this is why it is so very important to get some new blood in these leadership positions ASAP. We expect new results from the same old cast of characters and it's just not going to happen. They can't or won't do it. We have one (maybe two depending on the day) Commissioners on our ANC board who have good ideas and who are striving for progress but are being hamstrung by the politics (or stubbornness) of the other Commissioners.

We have to make a change and the change starts with ourselves.

Just in case you were wondering...

ANC 8C COMMISSIONERS

William Ellis (8C01)

Dion Jordan (8C02)

Mary Cuthbert (8C03)

R. Calvin Lockridge (8C04)

Cardell Shelton (8C07)

UPDATE: The Advoc8te is all about giving credit where credit is due. I have attended all of Commissioner Dion Jordan's Single Member District meetings and they have been on the money! There have only been two meetings so far and yet each meeting is well run, informative and there is an open and respectful exchange of dialogue. There are also great speakers who attend these meetins, Directors of DC Agencies and over the next two months there will be DC Councilmembers (Yvette Alexander and Michael Brown) as speakers. Those are GOOD guest speakers.