Everything you’ve wanted to ask about the Laguna Honda Neighbors but were afraid to know.

1. Who can join this group?

2. Aren’t there any specific requirements for membership?

3. How much are dues?

4. Who are the officers?

5. How does a meeting get scheduled?

6. What issues does this group cover?

7. How does LHNA make decisions?

8. Why doesn’t LHNA institute a more formal structure such as Forest Hills’ or St Francis Woods’?

1. Who can join this group?

   The necessary and sufficient condition for membership is principally this: participation. If you’re willing to host a meeting, participate in discussions, attend the Fall Block Party, and otherwise join in, you’ve joined!

2. Aren’t there any specific requirements for membership?

   Since this is an informal organization without charter or rules, that’s hard to say. However, we have always stipulated that you need to live on one of our streets in order to join. Frankly, we can’t imagine why you’d want to if you don’t.

3. How much are dues?

   At this point, there are no assessed dues or other expenses. Everything we do is driven by volunteer contributions. (Well, we do collect contributions at the Fall Block Party to pay for drinks and other communal resources, but this is a contribution, not a requirement.) If we could think of something that requires finances, then we may reconsider this. (Even this web site is provided as a contribution, but if there were a reason to host it on a higher bandwidth pipe, we may have to rethink this as well.)

4. Who are the officers?

   This informal organization has no charter or rules, and there is no formal organizational hierarchy. The org chart is flat to the point of being depressed.

   There has been a defined “chair”. For years this was Al Ciabbatoni, and since 2002 it’s been Stan Kaufman. But it’s time for new blood in this role if it’s going to continue to be a role. However, a designated “Chair Search Committee” has so far been unable to identify a suitable candidate. It appears that this kind of informal group doesn’t need such titles.

5. How does a meeting get scheduled?

   The rate limiting step for all meetings is this: who is going to host it. There are no funds for renting out a facility, and besides everyone has always preferred to meet in people’s homes, thinking that this is the most congenial way to get acquainted.

   So if there is a reason that you’d like to have a meeting, volunteer to host it!

   You can use this web site to communicate your interest. Post what you have in mind either in the Public Forum or inside in the LHNA group (where what you post will be accessible only to registered members). To place an event on the calendar, you’ll need to email us.

6. What issues does this group cover?

   This is driven by the interests and concerns of the participants. Primarily we deal with quality of life concerns — crime, city services, parking, etc.

   We also have dealt with other types of issues such as utility service reliability and general City politics. Members have many opinions about such issues, and one of the issues that some members have is that these issues should not be dealt with by this group. This has been a contentious point, with many other members finding such exclusions to be unreasonable and, well, peculiar.

   In any event, there are other, formally-constituted neighborhood organizations — notably the Greater West Portal Neighborhood Association — to which issues that require lobbying or other such intervention should go. (That said, GWPNA has many organizational idiosyncrasies of its own that make trying to work with it problematic at best.)

7. How does LHNA make decisions?

   It doesn’t. The Laguna Honda Neighborhood Association has no formal decision-making process. It has no means of voting. Some think that this is a problem, while others think this is a strength. Regardless, that’s the way things are.

8. Why doesn’t LHNA institute a more formal structure such as Forest Hills’ or St Francis Woods’?

   Those other neighborhoods were created with formal neighborhood associations. Anyone living in those neighborhoods built/bought with the full knowledge that they were assuming the obligations — financial and procedural — of those associations. It is entirely otherwise here, and it is simply implausible to introduce such strictures and structures after the fact. On those few occasions when someone has tried to suggest this, the huge majority of neighbors have loudly shouted this down.