Bylaws committee fleshes out neighborhood purpose

Benjamin Woodard | NN

            More than a month has passed since the residents of the Whatcom Falls Neighborhood voted to form a neighborhood association.

            The committee met at 6:30 p.m. on June 1 at Greenacres-Moles Family Funeral Home on Lakeway Drive.
            And the bylaws committee is off the ground as paperwork will be filed with Washington state to become a registered nonprofit, which will solidify the associations validity with the City of Bellingham.

            Richard Etter, temporary chair of the unofficial Whatcom Falls Neighborhood Association, provided copies of Fairhaven, Sehome and King Mountain Neighborhood Association bylaws to facilitate discussion.

            Ann McCartney, a consultant hired by the city to advise birthing neighborhood associations how to form bylaws, met with the committee to answer any questions the committee might have. Recently, she helped form the King Mountain Neighborhood Association’s bylaws.

            “I have seen a bunch of miserable bylaws,” McCartney said, “so I really want to help groups out to make bylaws that are useful to them — readable — not in lawyerese, but in plain English.”

            Through lively discussion, the committee members drafted the first section of the bylaws, which states the purpose of the organization. The members suggested these points to guide their association:

·      to build a sense of community

·      to emphasize the neighborhood plan

·      to properly disperse information to the neighborhood

·      to maintain the character of the neighborhood

·      to increase public safety and traffic

·      to maintain the quality of life or the improvement of the quality of life