APNA Annual Meeting November 22, 2022

APNA will hold its annual meeting on Tuesday, November 22, at 6:30 PM. This meeting will include the elections of officers for next year and topics of interest to the community. Join it on Zoom.

NOTE: Normally, APNA meetings are on the second Tuesday of the month. The APNA board voted to move the APNA annual meeting to November 22. The Board felt that holding the meeting on Election night as normally scheduled would be problematic and reduce turnout. Keeping with Tuesdays the Board decided on the fourth Tuesday.

Membership!

A message from our President:

Hi Armory Parkers,

What a great neighborhood we live in.  Currently we have the highest membership in the neighborhood Association we have had in many years.  Thanks to everyone who is a member at this time. 

However, if you are not a member now is the time to join.  Friday is the last day to join and be able to vote for leadership positions.  It is very easy.  It costs just $10 a person and takes five minutes or less.

Go to:     https://armoryparktucson.org/membership/

Our Annual Meeting is scheduled for November.  We need leaders to step up and serve as officers and directors.  More from the nominating committee on that will be coming soon.

For now, make sure you are a member so you can vote in the Annual Meeting.

Thank you,

David Bachman-Williams

APNA President

APNA/APHZAB Board Meetings/ Elections November 9!

APNA and APHZAB are each holding a meeting Tuesday at 6:30. See the ZOOM link at the end of this article.

APNA has three main items this month:

1. Presentation by Peach Properties for their proposal for properties that include the old Casa Vicente Restaurant and parking lot (375 S. Stone), the old All Saints Church on the west side of 6th Ave. at 14th St., the old religious education building on the east side of 6th Ave. at 14th St. and the old rectory on the NE corner of 6th Ave. and 15th St. We will have 15 minutes to hear their proposal. Please save your questions for their presentation to the neighborhood and general public that they will announce.

2. Nomination for APNA Officers and beginning of their election. At this meeting we will have the slate presented by the elections committee and take nominations from the floor. All nominations will be entered into the ballot and sent to all members of APNA so they can vote. Please see the email by Vice President Liz Burden for more details of how this will work.

3. Green Infrastructure Committee Report. As promised, the Green Infrastructure Committee will present on future tree trimming in the neighborhood. Please sign in to the meeting to hear the proposal for how to harmoniously have our trees and vegetation pruned correctly and will respect to property owners and pedestrian rights.

The Armory Park Historic Zone Advisory Board will have a short meeting at the start of the APNA meeting.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81404567629?pwd=dU82b2hSY094MStEWjJlMk05eHlkdz09

APNA Board Election This Month!

A message from APNA Vice President Liz Burden:

Dear Armory Parkers,

Apologies for the long post. If you are APNA member, please read the post in its entirety. (If you are not an APNA member but are interested in how we will be conducting the upcoming elections, please feel free to read.

Regards,

Liz Burden

Information About Upcoming Annual Meeting and Board Election


Forced by the pandemic, our neighborhood association is moving further into the realm of the internet.  Our annual meeting on November 9 will be on Zoom (agenda and link coming soon).  Since we do our board elections as part of the annual meeting, this year we will have to have a new way of voting.  In a nutshell, we will be voting using an online, secure, user-friendly program called Election Buddy that allows for anonymous voting with a record of the vote. 

By November 4, voting APNA members will receive an email with voting instructions, their unique voter ID and access key, and individualized voting link.  In summary, the election process will be as follows:

  1. At the annual meeting, per our bylaws, the Elections Committee will present a slate of candidates for the four officers of the Board. 
  2. Nominations from the floor will be called for and accepted. After a motion to close nominations is passed and floor nominations are added, the Election Buddy ballot will be opened, and voting will begin. 
  3. Using the emailed link, members will be able to complete the ballot, review their selections, and then submit their vote. The submitted ballots are automatically counted, and an email is sent to notify that the vote was received. 
  4. An email reminder will be sent to all eligible members notifying them that voting is underway.  with  the individualized link to the online ballot on Election Buddy. 
  5. Voting members will have three days to vote. The election will close on Friday, November 12 at 11:59 pm.
  6. Election results will be emailed directly from Election Buddy to voting members.  It will also be posted for the neighborhood on the APNA Google Group.

The system is designed so the site administrators will see grand totals of the vote and who voted. Each individual vote is anonymous;  the system does not allow the administrators to see the completed individual ballots,  and email address privacy is preserved throughout.  

Election Buddy also has provisions for those who do not have an email address or online access. For those voting members, a printed letter with voting instructions along with a paper ballot will be delivered to their address. 


All systems have potential glitches,  so if you have any problems, please contact Ken Taylor at tech@armoryparktucson.org.  In particular, if you as an eligible voter do not receive your email notice about the election from Election Buddy by November 4, please email tech@armoryparktucson.org so we can straighten it out and get you the ballot to which you are entitled.

A key issue:  If you have signed up for membership as a couple with only one email address, we will need a separate email address for each person. The program’s protection against individuals voting more than once is that each email is restricted to one ballot.  We can’t change that.  So we need to have one email address for each voter.

This process differs from how we have done elections in the past. It was developed to reflect our continuing use of virtual meetings to safeguard everyones’ health. In some ways, it is an improvement of the election process:  Rather than only those present at the meeting being able to vote, all voting members will have  a chance to participate in the vote. As noted above, in the tradition of all well run elections, it is a secret ballot. 
To restate:  Online ballots will open on November 9 after nominations close. Voting members will have three days to vote. The election will close at 11:59 pm on Friday, November 12. The results will then be announced to members via email from Election Buddy and on the APNA Google Group.

Sincerely,
Elizabeth Burden, Vice President and Ken Taylor, APNA Technical Support
The Elections Technical Committee

APNA Elections Coming Up!

Hi Armory Parkers! It is time to step up and take a leadership role in your Armory Park Neighborhood Association. We will be holding elections for 2022-23 directors (members) of the Board on Tuesday, November 9th as part of the APNA Annual Meeting. Residents of the neighborhood and property owners are eligible to serve on the Board.

The basic commitment is for 1.5 hours once a month to attend the APNA Board meeting, (currently on Zoom). The meetings are held on the second Tuesday of each month from 6:30 to 8:00 PM. We are looking for people who love this neighborhood and have fresh ideas for improving and maintaining our neighborhood. The term of office is 2 years. We are establishing a culture where one can be part of the leadership for their 2 year term and feel okay to let someone else take a turn. It is a great way to share ideas and work on projects.

Two of the six positions open to election on the board are to fill out the final year of directors who had to resign. This gives an ideal way to test the waters for new candidates. The commitment would be for one year, not two. If you like it you would then run again in November ’22 for a full two year term. If not, you will have contributed one year of service (12 meetings) to your neighborhood.

Please let David Bachman-Williams know if you are willing to be a director on the board at president@armoryparktucson.org.

APNA Membership and Elections

A message from the APNA Membership Chair:

Hi Armory Parkers,

Every November, we elect directors to the Armory Park Neighborhood Association Board.  This year, 6 people will be chosen at the annual meeting on November 9, 2021 to make decisions on the issues that arise during the calendar year.

To vote in the election, it is necessary to be a member of the Armory Park Neighborhood Association   As per the bylaws, memberships for the 2021 calendar year must be received on or before September 24, 2021 for one to be eligible to vote.  If you are not already a member, and wish to have a say in who represents you, please join now.

You may join online at our website, armoryparktucson.org, by clicking on “Become a member” and following the instructions.  Dues are $10 per person and $20.00 per business.  If you use the online format to join, please send a copy of your membership form to pefnaz@gmail.com.Please contact me if you need to verify your membership.

A Message about the Listserv

A message from the APNA President about the Armory Park neighborhood listserv:

Dear Armory Parkers,

At the APNA board meeting Tuesday night we discussed the listserv’s administration and the problem that arose with one listserv member being sanctioned for political posting while others were not.  The following motion was made and approved with six votes in favor and one abstention.

To  1) expand the size of the oversight committee from two members to at least three people; 2) have the oversight committee clarify the guidelines for posting comments with attention paid to inviting multiple perspectives (i.e., do not limit free speech but strive for comity and civility;  3) delineate the duties of moderators and protocols to be followed and 4) that future suspensions, if they occur, will be handled privately and not announced publicly.

We accepted one new volunteer to work with the existing two listserv moderators.  The committee was charged with revising the guidelines so that we do not have fairness issues again.

One last task remained, to send an apology to Amanda Maass.  Over the last two days the board voted 5 in favor, with one abstention and one no vote to send the following apology. The apology is at the end of this message.

Your Armory Park Board’s hope and goal is to be as fair and open as possible with the governance of the listserv and all our other actions.  Regrettably there are hurt feelings.  We hope to now move on.

Sincerely,

David Bachman-Williams
APNA President  

(Letter)
August 14, 2021

Dear Amanda,

We, the Directors of the Armory Park Neighborhood Association, wish to apologize to you.  In retrospect it is clear that the warning and suspension of Amanda was arbitrary and selective enforcement of the ban on political posting.  In addition, we regret the public announcement of the suspension.

Sincerely,

David Bachman-Williams
APNA Board President