I exchanged emails with Chris Kelly ... excerpts below. He can be reached at chriskelly@roserpark.net.
I've been Neighborhood Association President in Historic Roser Park for a year+ and am planning to accept the same role at St Petersburg Preservation (SPPI). SPPI is a 20 year old 501(c)3 corporation dedicated to preservation issues in southern Pinellas. SPPI has had many successes but recently SPPI's activities have contracted. I plan to implement a membership drive, and add programs, seminars, tours and publications to the mix, but want to target those efforts where they'll bring the greatest harvest. My goal is to move the focus of the organization to save individual buildings downtown and help instill a preservation ethos in neighborhoods throughout the City. With that, we may be able to change the relationship between development and preservation to one of collaboration.
One of the first things that I'd like to do with the City, CONA, HONNA, and the other traditional neighborhoods is to partner with the Mirror Lake Shuffleboard Club and start an intra-neighborhood league this summer. The Club is a beautiful facility(in need of attention), it's centrally located, and it lets us get together and mingle without yet another 'meeting'. The clubhouse has a kitchen and bar, and a great lodge type fireplace. Shuffling is good exercise(I call it stretching with a beverage), and some of us are getting a little creaky. If we promised to keep it fun, played some catchy music (I've got a 1957 Sinatra bootleg that doesn't quit), and wore our best Hawaiian and Bowling shirts, do you think your neighborhood could round up a team of 4, 8, or more? We could do it First Thursday, Second Wednesday, whenever people want... It's not like the club is overrun with activity on a week night. We could offer folks the opportunity to share old postcards, photos, or some other touchstone to St Petersburg's colorful history.
Second would be to either share an SPPI newsletter with every n'hood newsletter you distribute for two or three months, or to ask if you'll run a column prepared by SPPI in your newsletter. I want to start sharing the details behind requests for COA and demystify the process for all the homeowners in the new hist dist's. If we do our job really well, people will apply for COA's even if they don't have to, just so their project will get some attention, and to insure that their home remains true to the builders intent. There's an opportunity for SPPI to lift the burden of education from the NA's and Rick and Bob at the same time we're gathering members.
Third, I'd like to sit in on one of your meetings, or read the minutes of a meeting or two, just to find out what sorts of issues you're dealing with. I'm going to work on a survey to insure that I'm not running off in the wrong direction, and any materials you can share that would help in the development of those questions would be a great assist.
And Fourth, but perhaps most important, I want to hear what you and your neighbors have to say about where they would like to see a local preservation group excel. There are very talented people surrounding us, if we only manage to find a way for them to unleash their creativity, we've succeeded. Someone suggested this week that we offer to do an ''Unveiling'' and remove the vinyl or aluminum from a house as a group project. I told him that the idea was worth $5000 for the publicity it would bring, and $10K for the feeling of accomplishment it would engender. I am open to every idea.
There's a great opportunity for us to strengthen preservation and our neighborhoods at the same time, and leave this City the place we know it can be.
Please feel free to forward this as you see fit. I'm looking for the BIG conversation, so that we may inflate SPPI to capacity quickly.
SPPI dues are only $15 individual, $25 family.
SPPI
P.O. BOX 838
ST. PETERSBURG FL 33731
I've been Neighborhood Association President in Historic Roser Park for a year+ and am planning to accept the same role at St Petersburg Preservation (SPPI). SPPI is a 20 year old 501(c)3 corporation dedicated to preservation issues in southern Pinellas. SPPI has had many successes but recently SPPI's activities have contracted. I plan to implement a membership drive, and add programs, seminars, tours and publications to the mix, but want to target those efforts where they'll bring the greatest harvest. My goal is to move the focus of the organization to save individual buildings downtown and help instill a preservation ethos in neighborhoods throughout the City. With that, we may be able to change the relationship between development and preservation to one of collaboration.
One of the first things that I'd like to do with the City, CONA, HONNA, and the other traditional neighborhoods is to partner with the Mirror Lake Shuffleboard Club and start an intra-neighborhood league this summer. The Club is a beautiful facility(in need of attention), it's centrally located, and it lets us get together and mingle without yet another 'meeting'. The clubhouse has a kitchen and bar, and a great lodge type fireplace. Shuffling is good exercise(I call it stretching with a beverage), and some of us are getting a little creaky. If we promised to keep it fun, played some catchy music (I've got a 1957 Sinatra bootleg that doesn't quit), and wore our best Hawaiian and Bowling shirts, do you think your neighborhood could round up a team of 4, 8, or more? We could do it First Thursday, Second Wednesday, whenever people want... It's not like the club is overrun with activity on a week night. We could offer folks the opportunity to share old postcards, photos, or some other touchstone to St Petersburg's colorful history.
Second would be to either share an SPPI newsletter with every n'hood newsletter you distribute for two or three months, or to ask if you'll run a column prepared by SPPI in your newsletter. I want to start sharing the details behind requests for COA and demystify the process for all the homeowners in the new hist dist's. If we do our job really well, people will apply for COA's even if they don't have to, just so their project will get some attention, and to insure that their home remains true to the builders intent. There's an opportunity for SPPI to lift the burden of education from the NA's and Rick and Bob at the same time we're gathering members.
Third, I'd like to sit in on one of your meetings, or read the minutes of a meeting or two, just to find out what sorts of issues you're dealing with. I'm going to work on a survey to insure that I'm not running off in the wrong direction, and any materials you can share that would help in the development of those questions would be a great assist.
And Fourth, but perhaps most important, I want to hear what you and your neighbors have to say about where they would like to see a local preservation group excel. There are very talented people surrounding us, if we only manage to find a way for them to unleash their creativity, we've succeeded. Someone suggested this week that we offer to do an ''Unveiling'' and remove the vinyl or aluminum from a house as a group project. I told him that the idea was worth $5000 for the publicity it would bring, and $10K for the feeling of accomplishment it would engender. I am open to every idea.
There's a great opportunity for us to strengthen preservation and our neighborhoods at the same time, and leave this City the place we know it can be.
Please feel free to forward this as you see fit. I'm looking for the BIG conversation, so that we may inflate SPPI to capacity quickly.
SPPI dues are only $15 individual, $25 family.
SPPI
P.O. BOX 838
ST. PETERSBURG FL 33731
