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Statement
Eugenia
(Genie)
Grohman
Candidate
for
Corresponding Secretary
VISION:
I
support
the platform of the Reform Slate. That platform includes
efforts to modernize communications, engage the whole Cleveland Park
community, and provide transparency for the operations of CPCA.
I
am running to re-vitalize an organization that has become a cipher to
most of the community, perhaps even to many of its members. I
want an organization whose members feel encouraged to participate and
who know their views will be represented.
Participation
comes on many levels, and the CPCA should be an organization that
encourages all of them. Some people will want to join
committees and be active in formulating CPCA’s
policies. Other people will want to attend meetings to become
informed about community and citywide issues. And others will
want to read about what is going on and have the opportunity to vote or
otherwise offer their view on community issues.
I do hope that everyone will participate in the listserv, so that both
the new leaders and all the members hear and understand the views of
the diverse community that is Cleveland Park.
POSITION:
I am
running for the position of corresponding secretary, whose duty is
stated in the bylaws as follows: “The Corresponding
Secretary shall handle the Association correspondence under the
direction of the President.” A little research
suggests that corresponding secretary is responsible for mailings to
the members.
I
believe this position and its duty were undoubtedly appropriate when
CPCA was created in 1911—not only before electronic
communications, but even before telephones were in widespread
use. For the 21st century, however, both the position itself
and its duties should be reconsidered. In this vein, one of
my goals as the corresponding secretary will be to lead an effort to
evaluate the CPCA’s bylaws with a view to what officers and
duties are today best for the organization.
In
addition to my official duty, I will work closely with the recording
secretary and the assistant recording secretary to expand the
CPCA’s communications on all levels, from mailings to the
listserv and other web-based approaches.
BIOGRAPHY:
I
first came to Washington
in the early 1960s to work for the government and save the world. (Well,
it’s
still.) A few years
later I left government to join
the anti-war movement and the presidential campaign of Senator Eugene
McCarthy. (It
failed.)
Since
returning to Washington
in the mid-1970s, I have worked as an editor and research and
publications
manager at the National Academy of Sciences. Thus,
much of my professional life has been
spent in communications, in
translating scientific information into more accessible language for
nonscientists.
My life started in Los
Angeles, California,
and I did know some people who became
relatively famous at Hollywood
High
School. Unlike
almost all of my
schoolmates, however,
I always wanted to come east, to where I believed life was more intense
and
interesting and where there was snow (at least occasionally).
In fact, I
thought I had gone east when I began college at the University
of Chicago:
I
was quite puzzled to discover that Chicago
is in the “Midwest,”
unlike my measurement of it on the map. And
that everyone from New York
and
other places in the east thought they had
gone west to college. This
experience
was an important lesson in cultural geography.
When
I returned to
Washington, I first lived in the eastern part of Cleveland Park, on
Connecticut
Avenue; the cooperative was then known as 3701 but has since acquired a
name, Wilshire
Park. I moved to
the western part, on Wisconsin
Avenue,
in the early 1980s, to the Chesterfield Cooperative, where I still live.
COMMUNITY
INVOLVEMENT:
At
the Chesterfield Cooperative, I served on the board of directors and as
president in the 1980s, and I am now again serving as
president.
In that capacity, I have overseen a major $2.3 million capital
improvement program, nearing completion.
I am
a founding member of AWARE (Advocates for Wisconsin Avenue
REnewal), an involvement that began when I realized that the
major local association, the CPCA, was opposing the proposed Giant
renovation and development in the face of what I saw as widespread
community support.
My
decision to join the Reform Slate and expand my local political
activism has also been spurred by the realization that in my more than
20 years of living in Cleveland Park, the CPCA had never reached out to
me or anyone else I have known in the building in which I have lived.
In keeping with my vision of an organization that represents all the
residents of the community, I hope to bring another perspective to the
Cleveland Park Citizens Association.
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