livingcover
7 Steps to Forming a Neighbourhood Association
1. Build awareness in your neighbourhood
and gain support to form an
association. The Council of Lethbridge
Neighbourhoods can guide you on
how to promote the idea and educate
residents on the benefits of an
association.
4. Complete the Service Alberta forms,
signed by the new board, and submit
them to officially form a society.
5. Register it with corporate registry.
2. H
old a meeting to approve objectives,
boundaries, and bylaws, and form a
board of directors.
6. O
nce the incorporation papers have
been received, contact the Council of
Lethbridge Neighbourhoods to apply
for membership and to be added to its
database.
3. C
hoose a name, one that is unique and
specific to your neighbourhood.
7. Obtain board and liability insurance
from a registered insurance provider.
Now start making your community a better place to live, work, and play!
For a full listing of neighbourhood associations in Lethbridge,
and current statuses, visit lethbridgeliving.com.
The council was initially started as an informal
support group for the city’s existing neighbourhood
associations, which at the time included Westminster
Neighbourhood Association, Westminster Village
Committee, London Road Neighbourhood Association,
Tudor Estates Neighbour Association, and Senator
Buchanan Neighbourhood Association, but as more
groups and citizens from throughout Lethbridge
stepped forward, “it quickly came to the point that
we needed to create not just an informal support
group,” Jerry says, “but a formal one [with] a focus
on the engagement of neighbourhoods, not just the
ones with associations or those working towards
one, but the ones without as well.” The foundation
for such a group had already been poured last
summer through the City’s Beyond Your Front Door
campaign that inspired residents to step beyond
their front doors to engage with their neighbours.
In correlation with the campaign, Jerry and the City’s
Community & Social Development Group were at the
time searching for a way to mobilize neighbourhood
associations “because we found that we can’t do our
work in the neighbourhoods if we don’t have groups
to interact with, and what better group to focus on
neighbourhoods than neighbourhood associations?”
adds Jerry. After a year-long process, the council was
officially formed last July, and includes members from
neighbourhoods with established associations such
as Acting Chair Darlene MacLean from Westminster,
Treasurer Olivia Pelucco from Garry Station, Secretary
Sarah Hooper from Copperwood, and Directors
Shanda McKnight from Tudor Estates and Paige
Rosner from Senator Buchanan. As more associations
are developed and established, the group will grow
to encompass neighbourhood association members
as well as community-minded residents who don’t
necessarily have an association with any single group.
The council’s former Chair, Kim Siever, who is also
the Past-President of the London Road Neighbourhood
Association, says, “[Members of the council] would
love to sit down with neighbourhood residents and
find out about their neighbourhood, what makes the
neighbourhood a success, and what it is about the
neighbourhood that is motivating them to want to
get involved in improving it in any way. And then talk
about the process of finding like-minded neighbours
who want to get involved and also what’s involved,
and to show them that [the council is] here for the
entire way,” Kim says, adding that he is encouraged
by the positive response amongst residents. “It’s
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