SNA April General Meeting + Candidates Forum

The SNA General Membership and Candidates Forum will be held Thursday, April 14, 2022, from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. in person at the Sunnyside United Methodist Church (3520 SE Yamhill Street) and also virtually via Zoom.

  • SNA General Membership Meeting from 7:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
  • Candidates Forum from 7:25 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Both meetings are open to the public.

Meeting Agenda. Times are approximate. Agenda items are subject to change.

SNA General Meeting & Candidate Forum Zoom Link:

Both meetings will be conducted via Zoom and in person.  All attendees will be muted upon entry into the meeting.  In order to ask a question or make a comment, please use the “Raise Hand” feature.  If accessing the meeting via computer, tablet, or smartphone app, you can do so via the “Raise hand button” in the “Participant” menu. If you are calling into the meeting via phone, please dial *9.  You can learn more about how to use this feature here: https://www.techjunkie.com/zoom-raise-hand/

If you are unable to attend the meeting virtually by Zoom you can email the board at [email protected] for a copy of the meeting minutes or request further assistance with attending the live meeting. Please bring your own mask if you would like to follow Covid precautions. If you need assistance with internet access the Board will do their best to help facilitate appropriate resources to join. 

Last Month’s News. This Month’s Plans.

During March’s Sunnyside Neighborhood Association meeting we welcomed a group of interested neighbors who joined us to hear from guest speakers Erik Dorrset and Bob Thompson from TVA Architects (https://tvaarchitects.com). Erik and Bob walked us through their development project at 4406 SE Belmont St., and followed up with a round of questions. Prior to the presentation our organization had a brainstorming session on developer questions to have on hand for future presentation requests. We based our guidelines on what would best represent the neighborhood and how to apply a DEIA lens when addressing development concerns. These questions will be in the March SNA General meeting minutes online (https://sunnysideportland.org/board/meeting-minutes) if you’d like to learn more about what we discussed. 

Matt Lembo, SNA Board Member, shared pre-planning details for our upcoming Candidates Forum which will be hosted during the SNA’s April General meeting. Details are in a separate article in this newsletter. We’re anticipating a great turnout and look forward to having you join us. The event will be held both in-person and virtually. If you need assistance to join the forum, please reach out to [email protected] for support. 

The SNA will spend time during May’s General meeting to further develop our Community Agreement Statement that we started to outline in February. I encourage folks to participate in helping us create this document. The intent of this statement is to create welcoming guidelines on best practices and establish the organization’s roadmap for a code of conduct during meetings.  

We are still seeking a Land Use & Transportation Chair as well as a Newsletter Communications & Advertising Coordinator. To learn more, please reach out to [email protected]. 

A big thank you to our recent Sunnyside newsletter donors. We greatly appreciate your generosity and goodwill. We will continue to have a newsletter donation link live on the SNA website for folks who would like to contribute to the newsletter’s expenses. Our goal is to work towards the yearly production costs of $6,000. (https://sunnysideportland.org/donate-to-our-newsletter). We look forward to continuing to bring you up-to-date information and resources. 

The SNA April meeting will be held at the Sunnyside United Methodist Church (3520 SE Yamhill Street) on Thursday the 14th. Meeting details and the agenda will be posted on the SNA website (https://sunnysideportland.org) on Tuesday the 12th. The General meeting will be from 7:00 – 7:30 p.m. with the Candidate Forum to follow directly after from 7:30- 9:00 pm. We look forward to seeing our Sunnyside community.

Three Words: Know Your Neighbors

Best practices (always) for emergency preparedness in three words are … know your neighbors.

Here are two stories to illustrate this:

1) A few weeks ago, about 3,000 homes around me lost their power for more than an hour. This is not unusual for our block, so we were prepared. We calmly got out our flashlights and placed them in strategic places on the three floors of our home. My husband got out our Coleman lantern, noticed that we had no more mantles so he went over to Freddy’s and replenished our supply. Done.

I texted a few neighbors (texting is the best way during a power outage) and asked them about their power. I could see across SE Yamhill that my neighbors still had power and knew we could tap into their power (we did this once before when the power was out for about 25 hours) to keep our refrigerator running and power up our cell phones and computers. I could do all these things because I have phone numbers for most of my neighbors and we know each other well.

2) I chatted recently with a friend who lives in Ladd’s Addition. She told me about a new neighbor, whose name she didn’t know, who had recently moved across the street. These new neighbors had gone away for a few days and contracted with a pet service to take care of their dog. The only way she and some of her neighbors knew about any of this was when some other neighbors heard a dog howling inside the new neighbor’s house and wondered what was going on. So, someone knew someone, etc until eventually the issue was resolved. But it took awhile. So, imagine if these new neighbors knew their neighbors and were able to share contact info in the event that something like this might happen. It would have saved a lot of time and energy.

3) What is your KNOW YOUR NEIGHBOR’S story?

Want to share a story or need some help getting prepared? Email me at [email protected]. I am always happy to meet my Sunnyside neighbors.

Sunnyside Neighborhood Community Cares (SNACC) Committee Updates

In our March meeting the SNACC Committee discussed the Sunnyside Shower Project (SSP) Needs Assessment which was conducted to shine a light on barriers to the service, unmet needs, core strengths, as well as finding paths to move the project forward. We learned that time stood as a barrier for SSP guests with seven requesting more available days and times to shower, three mentioning the difficulty of scheduling appointments, two asking for everyday availability, and many admitting that a time limit of more than the current 30 minutes would be more welcome. Many strengths were accounted for by all participants, including 12 who declared the SSP as their sole support in maintaining their hygiene and personal care needs. Findings are available online HERE. We will be sharing a full report with the community soon, as well as discussing next steps for implementing changes based on these findings.

We also discussed additional projects that the SNACC Committee might consider taking on to provide further aid to the houseless community, such as administrative and paperwork assistance. We plan to continue this conversation in our next meeting on Thursday, April 21st from 6:30-8:00 p.m. at The Formation Lab (838 SE 37th St.). We hope you’ll join us.