Reflection Paper On Community Meeting

I was able to attend an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) Meeting on April 28, 2016. Just as the previous meeting, I used the AA website for the state of Virginia, googled the address, and used my GPS system in order to travel to the meeting. The meeting that I wanted to attend was an open group, handicap accessible, discussion themed which covered the 12 Steps, and discussed the 12 Traditions of AA. It was to be held at 6:15 P.M., and was about 10 minutes away from my home. I had chosen this meeting because this meeting covered aspects of AA that I was not personally familiar with; such as the 12 Traditions and the 12 Steps.

This week, I attended an Open Speaker session at a local AA meeting. There were about 30 participants in the meeting. They were mostly white with ages ranging from childhood to older adult. There were a even number of men and women, and they were some couples in the audience.

As I found a seat to sit in I had other conversations with people in the meeting, one being about how nursing students often attend the meetings and the man I was talking to telling me how often addicts who receive help are very grateful for the help and appreciate the work people are doing for them. I was extremely and pleasantly surprised by how nice and welcoming everybody at the meeting I talked to was. They all tried to make me feel comfortable and welcome and multiple times I was offered the coffee and cake they had set out for the meeting. Speaking of cake, the meeting had celebratory cake due to a man's 35 years of sobriety. I had been informed of this celebration by the discussion leader and again by the women I talked to right after. I thought that this was a great coincidence and that I had been very lucky to choose that meeting and that day to attend. Since it was a 35 year celebration the meeting was slightly different that a regular meeting would have been, with the man giving a speech and everybody in the meeting celebrating

CM travel to Cooperative Counseling Services in Union this afternoon. Ms. Lisette informs CM as I walked up to her that Beyonce was meeting with the therapist right now and once she finish with Beyonce she will meet with us. Ms. Lisette reports that she attended Beyoncé’s IEP meeting at Green Brook Academy in Bound Brook. Ms. Lisette states that there was no changes to Beyonce IEP. CM expresses to Ms. Lisette that is good news to hear. Ms. Lisette also mention to CM that Beyonce meets with her mentor Pamela Jones on Tuesday after she comes from meeting with her probation officer Mr. Sosa. Mentor services is a probation referral services for youth. Ms. Lisette also informs CM that Beyonce attends anger management at family and children services

On the 14th of November, my classmate Lina and I went to Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Newington, CT for their open speaker AA meeting. Upon arrival, I was a little nervous since this would be my first time at an AA meeting and I did not know what to expect. However, once in the meeting, you could feel how much everybody cared about everyone else, whether they were new or returning. I think this was because everyone was going through the exact same thing and they did not have to worry about being judged. As stated in class and on the syllabus, open speaker meetings are ones where members of the meeting share their life story. Most of the stories told at the meeting were positive and encouraging. Here are a couple stories told in the meeting that touched me in a way.

Ward meetinghouses or ward houses are “churches” for LDS members residing in specific geographical areas. In early LDS history there would have been one ward house per town. However, as membership grew, the number of people attending a specific ward house was limited to 500. Most ward houses today are the spiritual home for about 250 people. Set by church leaders, ward boundaries allocate certain geographic areas of a city or region to a specific ward house. This method of geographic designation was influenced by the political practice of identifying voting districts in urban areas, hence the term “ward house.” Each ward is led by a volunteer bishop and two counselors with additional leaders assigned to various activities.

A community for the session-long project would be Atlanta, Georgia community. The community experiences numerous types of natural disasters, both natural and man-made. Among the disasters that will be covered in the ERP, plan includes floods, winter storms, and tornadoes.

On March 7, 2017, I attended a meeting of the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners at which they discussed land use and development. Topics and requests discussed included easements and setback applications and zoning. Having never previously attended a county meeting before, I had my expectations set relatively low for the meeting efficiency. I turned out being surprised with how the meeting was run, which I will discussed further in this summary.

The second objective our agency will advise to NFL to complete is for each team to create and develop their own town hall meetings in their own cities. The purpose of these town hall meetings is to connect the players with the police officers and start a dialogue about how change can happen. The NFL would like the three following tactics to take place during these town hall meetings. First, all players who decide to protest the Anthem must attend or will be subject to fines by the Commissioner. Second, all police departments and fire departments in the surrounding area of the team must be invited. The NFL wants everyone to feel welcome, so that we can discuss changes for the present and the future. Third, the teams will sell tickets to the

Thank you for the note. I was made aware of this by Kebby at a PTO meeting last week. I know his intentions were pure and I appreciate his enthusiasm and passion to help the students grow and become better learners. Researching the textbooks, we have an issue. The high school has told me that we do not have enough textbooks for a classroom set and take home set, they do have extra copies that students can check out from the library for home use. I am awaiting inventory lists from the schools and we will do what we have to do to take care of this issue.

On Tuesday, October 10, 2016, I attend the political science meeting in room 113 in the Grace Thomas Kennedy Building. The guest speaker of the meeting was Dr. Todd Shaw and he is the Chair of the Political Science Department at the University of South Carolina. Dr. Shaw is also the president of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists and he is very proud of his position.

I have never attended a community meeting or any meeting regarding my community therefore, attending this meeting for the first time was a great first experience. I was able to see how a meeting is ran and how the organization works in order to help make improvements in my community. When I went into the office the meeting was being held, I was offered an agenda and other informational forms regarding the meeting. The agenda provided information of how the organization of the meeting would be and who will be going over what topics. The meeting was a timed meeting where Richard Hernandez and Bill Houtt managed on recording to keep data. The issues that were discussed were citizen’s request for city improvements, a short review of the 2016 Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report (CAPER) Accomplishments, which is a grant that helps build homes for low income families and was reviewed by Rhonda Haynes a community developer. Lastly, the Sidewalk at Divisadero and Rinaldi, North Visalia citizen report were also discussed by Bill Houtt a member of the committee, and construction issues in N. Visalia discussed by Lt. Brent Abbott.

I have always prided myself as a person who knows virtually everything that happens around my community. It is common for humans to judge or misjudge what they do not know or understand. Too often we are quick to criticize and lash after what other people say or do simply because we do not understand it. This fact describes the character and attitude of many people especially when it comes to politics and how a country is run right from the top to the bottom. The average people is generally unconcerned with political affairs like how politicians spend their tax money. You only need to look at the dismally low voter turn out to confirm this fact. This should to change and for me, this change came on 26th October 2017, when I decided to attend The Tempe City Regular Council Meeting. I had never attended such a meeting before. Part of the reason is perhaps owing to the attitude of most people as I explained earlier but more particularly, I had not seen any local issue that moved me enough to demand the necessity to have my voice heard or to be curious enough to want to find out about the secrets of the operations of the local government. Generally, I knew that the decisions made and policies developed by the city government affected my life directly or indirectly. However, to sit and watch all the work and grind that goes to the formulation of these policies and decisions has made me realize that democracy is not self-driving.

On September 18, 2017, I had the pleasure of attending my first city council meeting in the city of Durham, North Carolina. Located in downtown Durham, the meeting took place at City Hall inside the council chambers on the first floor. The meeting began at 7:00 pm and lasted for approximately 2 hours. Although it was open to the public, not too many people attended the meeting. Including myself, no more than 10 people were accounted for at the meeting. As far as the board members and official council staff, there were about 20 people. The overall setting resembled a courtroom. The council officials (staff) sat in the front of the room behind this wide panel table. The other half of the staff behind a panel table as well, located on the right side of the room. The seats that were available to the public were directly in the middle of the room facing the city council officials and the big TVs on the wall where the meeting was being recorded. Before the meeting took place, they give you an agenda that outlines the whole order and process of the meeting and what topics will be discussed.

For the service learning project, I teamed up with three of my classmates to volunteer at a lady’s conference at Imani Restoration Centre church (IRCC) on the 16th of September, 2017. IRCC is a non-profit organization which is a Kenyan community founded that focuses on bringing African immigrants together to support and learn the things of God. Samuel Mwangi, the senior pastor of IRCC, said that through the counseling sessions that he holds at the church every Thursday, he discovered that most ladies go through the same challenges. Therefore, he thought it would be great for him to organize a lady’s conference, so that ladies could come together to share and support each other (Personal communication, September, 16, 2017)