Allen M November 10th, 2007
It’s the time of year when things begin to get a bit hectic with plans for the upcoming holiday season. So, please do not forget that we will have an MCA membership meeting in November. It will be a week later (November 28th) than our normal meeting because of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Allen M September 18th, 2007
Welcome to the 2007-08 membership year for the Maplewood Citizens Association. We have a busy year ahead. We begin the year as we ended last year with two major development projects proposed for the neighborhood. The American College of Cardiology is moving forward with its plans for single family housing on its property and will present its latest plans to us at our September meeting (see related article). Also, the Foundation for the Advancement of Education in the Sciences (FAES) is reviewing the possible uses for its property. FAES hopes to have something to show to us at our November meeting.
Lastly, the clock is ticking on the proposed merger of Walter Reed Army Hospital with the National Naval Medical Center. A draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is scheduled to be released sometime in December. We will spend part of our September meeting discussing this important neighborhood issue. Please read the related article by Montgomery County BRAC Member (and new MCA Vice President) Janet Maalouf.
With all this activity, we need a strong Association. We become strong by having a large membership and dedicated volunteers. Not all the volunteer efforts are work. Some are play. I’m referring to the social events that MCA has hosted in previous years in the fall and the spring. Volunteers are needed to chair and to be members of the social committees that put these events together. If you are interested in volunteering to help MCA in any capacity, please contact me via either the MCA phone number (301) 530-6080 or our website. Please use either of these methods to communicate with the officers of your association at any time.
Seth M November 16th, 2005
I am the new vice president of the Maplewood Citizens Association. My wife, Marissa, and I moved to Maplewood in 1998 when we were the parents of an infant child. Now, six and a half years later, we are fully integrated into the neighborhood and its institutions, mostly through our children. Joel is a first grader at Wyngate and Ilana is a pre-schooler at Bethesda Country Day School. I am continually amazed that in a world that keeps getting smaller so much of our lives are contained in this little neighborhood in Bethesda.
As a political professional managing campaigns, serving as a Congressional chief of staff, and lobbying in Annapolis and in Congress, I have a long record of experience and activism. With a family and roots in this neighborhood, I am finding it is increasingly important — and rewarding — to use that activism on a local level. I have been involved in the effort in recent years to keep a preschool in the neighborhood and, as part of a Neighborhood Liaison Committee, I work with a neighboring institution (the French International School) on its construction plans.
For the past few years, I have been an active member of the Maplewood Citizens Association, and I was pleased to be asked to serve as vice president. We are fortunate to live in a wonderful community with a great park and a good community atmosphere. We have to work together as a community to balance the various residential and institutional interests inside, and close to, Maplewood. An active citizens association is a community treasure — a forum to discuss issues, to reach out to neighborhood institutions, and to take actions on behalf of the greater good. I am proud to be a part of this Association and look forward to serving you as vice president.
Allen M January 14th, 2005
I wish to take this opportunity to wish all residents of Maplewood a very happy and prosperous New Year. May it bring you all that you desire.
I have to report to you that the Maplewood Citizens Association begins 2005 with fewer members than at the same time last year. When I became MCA President, the September issue of The Mapleleaf was distributed to all households while remaining issues of the year were sent by mail only to households that paid the membership dues—about 200 homes. I felt that it was not fair to have an additional 650 households not informed about what was happening in their community and what their citizens association was doing.
I also felt that we might get more homes to join if all were to receive The Mapleleaf. The January, 2003 general meeting endorsed this viewpoint, voting to distribute the newsletter free of charge to all homes in the community. Our membership numbers for the next year seemed to validate this change. We closed out the 2003 membership year with 315 members. I set a goal of trying to have 400 members — or half of all Maplewood households — in 2004.
We ended the 2004 membership year with 264 members. As of this month, we have no more than 175 members. This community needs a strong association and the way to do that is to have a large and active membership in the citizens association.
If you have simply neglected to renew your membership, I hope that you renew today. If you’ve not previously been a member, please consider writing a check for the small amount of $20 to join the Association. For those who have chosen not to renew a membership, we’d like to know why: please e-mail the Executive Committee through the Association’s web site or send a letter to our Post Office Box (details at bottom of page 4).
Over the summer, and especially into the fall, I received numerous complaints from residents living near, or using, Maplewood – Alta Vista Park about the condition of the field, trash, and parking. In an attempt to resolve these concerns before the park gets more heavily used in the spring, most of our January meeting will be devoted to discussions with representatives from the Department of Parks, Montgomery County Police, and the Maplewood Football association.
I look forward to seeing you at the January 19 meeting.
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