Murf's attempt at community involvement

Back in May of last year, the odd little man down the street had his house broken into. From that event stemmed the formation of a neighborhood association. The first meeting to see if there was enough interest was in July. Big A had class so I walked down to the cul-de-sac at the end of the street with my lawn chair and listened. A policeman from the city who "specializes" in neighborhood associations was there to explain the process and all the perks of formally becoming one rather than just informally keep an eye out on your neighbors such as a direct line into the police department's database so that everyone knows of any issues and can keep their eye on it.

At that time, there was a problem house within our 4-5 block neighborhood so once word spread that a representative from the police department would be here, August and September's meetings were packed with complainers. Eventually the problem neighbors left the area, the size dwindled and the organizers went ahead with becoming a formal neighborhood association where every interested household threw in $12 which gave them legitimate voting rights in any decision that required a vote (so far, there hasn't been a need for a formal vote on anything) and only about a dozen continue to show up to the monthly meetings.

While my fondness for men in uniform (and especially our police chief when he shows up to a meeting..rrroowwrrr..) is alive and well, I can't say my enjoyment of such a formal organization is as it once was. I like getting to meet others in the area. I'm nosey enough to enjoy the tidbits of crime information from the policeman but I'm lacking the 'gung ho'ness to be an active participant.

Earlier on, that wasn't the case and I kinda sorta volunteered to get a website up and running. Just tonight I forwarded the log-in information to the president and came up with a lame excuse about not being able to work on it due to overtime and job hunting. It was partly true, I guess. I only wish overtime was an option at my job.

Despite that, the meetings usually provide some sort of gem. In December, it was the odd little man who started this whole thing trying to describe to everyone that was there what a prostitute looked like. According to him, she was a big boned gal, dark hair, a lot of make up and thought she was hot when she really wasn't. Watching the policeman's face while he was going on was priceless all the while thinking, 'Gee, that sounds like me'.

A few weeks ago, another neighbor sent this email around to everyone who is on the association's email list:

Dear neighbors,
I will not be able to make it to tomorrow nights meeting, however, I would like to offer something to the group. I will be hosting a class at my house on Friday February 27th at 6pm. I will most likely be serving chili or soup. You are all welcome to join us.

Your house may be just like mine, looking for ways to save money. So my party will actually be a "coupon class" hosted by a woman who has used coupons, rebates, and store rewards to earn free products. She averages $2,000 worth of free product each month. She only spends in cash what is in her family grocery budget, or less. She promises to teach us to be capable of doing the same when we set aside 2 hours each week to practice what she teaches. On the other hand, this class is just as useful for those of us who are not interested in bringing in $2,000 of product, but rather, enough for our families needs. The class is focused on charitable contributions and encourages earning products that your family will use and finding a fitting place to donate the overflow to, such as; a woman's shelter, soup kitchen, or nursing home. She charges $15 for the class. The fee will cover all the equipment to get you started using coupons and staying organized and all other proceeds she donates to an organization in Haiti bringing clean drinking water to the people. I understand her husband has made quite a few trips there himself with this organization.

So...to learn how to properly use coupons and save money, I have to fork out $15 for "supplies" that can't possibly be more than scissors and a file folder and the extra goes to Haiti?!? Is there a coupon for this class so I can get a discount off of the $15? This sounds almost like a Nigerian email scam...or maybe I'm just pessimistic.

Chalk this one up in my 'At least I've tried it' column right along with canvasing to get the troops out of Iraq...or as what really happened, follow some idealistic but very fertile waiter named Mitch around my neighborhood as he attempts to get signatures and donations so he can print more flyers.