Come to our next meeting!

Meetings are the heart of Eight Streets activities. Members get to find out what's going on in the neighborhood, share interests with each other, plan activities, and discuss the community. Eight Streets can only be as good and as active as you make it.

When & Where

We meet once a month on the first Wednesday of the month, from 6:30 until 8:30 in the neighborhood. Through the courtesy of Boston Ballet, we usually meet in their 5th floor boardroom (19 Clarendon street).

Meeting location and agenda will be posted on the Next Meeting page and sent to both the Eight Streets mailing list and the South End forum mailing list, listed in the South End News and Boston Courant, and fliers posted around the neighborhood. Even if you are unable to regularly attend meetings, your membership and dues help can support the association and its activities (although we've never turned down a volunteer. :)

Format

Meetings are usually broken into two parts. We have "Neighborhood Networking" in the first part of our meetings. This gives members a change to mix and mingle and meet each other. Also the best time to find out some of the more informal happenings around the neighborhood.

The second part of the meeting is our official business meeting. This consists of announcements, business and projects which have come to us requiring voting, presentations and guests, and any other published agenda item. The meeting always ends with 'open member discussion' where anyone can ask questions or raise issues.

Presenting at a Meeting

To help presentors make the best of both their and out time ad meetings, we have put together a special "How to present to Eight Streets" letter, which is mailed out to presenters before a meeting.

Eight Streets Voting FAQ

Both residents and businesses often come to the Neighborhood Association in order to gain neighborhood support for their project or proposal. Like any group, when ESNA supports or opposes a project, we try to not only express the will of the majority of the membership, but to hopefully make decisions that will benefit the community as a whole and our quality of life. This FAQ will help answer some questions on ESNA voting policies and procedures.

How is an issue presented?

The presenter is given time on the floor to present their request. It is up to the presenter to give a complete and thorough presentation, including enough data for ESNA residents to evaluate the proposal and make an informed vote. After the presentation, members engage in a Q&A session to ask for more details. If everyone is satisfied at this point, the presenter is asked to leave the room, where ESNA members discuss and then vote on the issue

Who can vote?

Any paid Eight Streets member in good standing may vote on an issue.

Why can only members vote?

While we do not want to exclude any resident, there is always the possibility that a presenter 'loading' a meeting - that is to fill this one meeting with supporters, in order to get their proposal approved. To try and curb this, we restrict voting to members only. It is also why members cannot vote unless they have joined prior to the meeting at which the issue is discussed.

On occasion, a large number of non-member residents will attend a meeting in order to make a case against an issue. In these cases, the president will, at their discretion, decide if the vote will proceed.

What if I don't agree with the Eight Streets Vote?

Eight streets does not give final approval to any project or proposal. The City of Boston's regulatory boards give final approval on proposals. Eight Streets, by its votes, just send letters to these boards with the results of the NA's vote.

If you do not agree with any vote by Eight Streets, individual residents are free to send their own letters to the boards and express their own viewpoints on the presented proposals.

Why are most votes to "oppose" or "not oppose" proposals? Don't we support anything?

This is the result of a great debate in the NA many years ago, during the gentrification of the late 90's. Many of the proposals coming to Eight Streets are for work on individual homes and small business requests. We used to vote on supporting/not supporting these items. But residents questioned why we "supported" someone's decks, or why we "supported" a developers plans that would only benefit the developer. After much discussion we came to the conclusion that most issues fell into the category "We have no problems with what you are doing", which translates into "we do not oppose your project". We feel this is a more neutral tone for most requests to ESNA. Should any really great project come forward, the NA can, of course, choose to support such a project