The new community leadership organization (Friends of Last Thursday, or FoLT) which seeks to lead the planning of Last Thursday with city mentorship is seeking community members to serve on its steering committee. Last week FoLT distributed an agreement for prospective members to sign indicating that they are supporters of the event and will work to keep it going without additional regulation. A number of community members have expressed concerns that the bar for participating with FoLT in an oversight role as laid out in the agreement is too high.
The FoLT steering committee is apparently down to six members at present, after two of them, Bill Leissner and Jeanne Giles, were removed due to their refusal to sign the agreement. Mr. Leissner said in an email that he and Jeanne were the most outspoken members concerning neighborhood impacts and that he understands that the Community Impact Committee has been eliminated. There will be a discussion of Last Thursday issues at the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods’ SALT (Safety and Livability Team) meeting tonight, Monday April 18th, 6:30 pm at NECN, 4815 NE 7th avenue.
View the calendar announcement here.
Read the Friends of Last Thursday agreement here.
Rochelle Saliba, Vice Chair of FoLT sent me this correction:
“I did want to alert you to two inaccuracies in your recent posting re FoLT membership agreements so they could be corrected if possible 1. Bill Leissner & Jeanne Giles were not removed; they chose to step away. 2. The Community Impact Committee is alive and well and welcomes members!”
The agreement must be signed in order to be a member of FoLT.
I’d like to comment that as a KNA board member and neighborhood resident, I may have input and opinions about Last Thursday that do not necessarily dovetail with the agreement that must be signed in order to serve on any of your committees.
I personally would prefer the event to have stronger regulations and oversight concerning neighborhood impact. I would like to see a stronger plan in place for generating revenue to make the event be self-funding.
Though in all honesty I do not have the time to join another committee anyway, the requirement that I must sign an agreement that I do not agree with in order to join FOLT does not feel welcoming.
I wish FOLT luck in managing LT in the coming months and hope it goes well for all.