jessica

Firstly, I would like to thank the residents of Lazybrook for the vote of confidence in allowing me to assume the role of President of the Lazybrook Civic Club.  Lazybrook has been home for my family for 5 years and we have become connected to the community and are excited to take our community support to another level.  I would really like to see our Civic Club become a vital part of the neighborhood as it was in past years and am willing to do whatever necessary to support that happening.

Over the course of Lazybrook’s history, the Civic Club has been integral to community activities.  Since we moved to the neighborhood, some of our more significant accomplishments included:

• Completing a significant beautification and planting project in the medians running up and down TC Jester and 18th.  Most of the younger trees and shrubs were planted during this project.
• Saving many of those same trees and shrubs during the drought a few years ago.  The volunteer time of residents aided to keep the trees adequately mulched to provide more resistant and supplemental watering both worked to preserve our investment.
• Revitalizing our National Night Out program to include a neighborhood parade and block parties which have been some of our biggest turnout nights in years.
• Piloting a mosquito spraying program to help control our mosquito populations during the summer
• Coordinating with the City of Houston to ensure our bayous and watersheds are properly maintained
• Donating and contributing to the revitalization of surrounding parks

Looking forward to 2014, we want to continue building on these accomplishments.  However, the truth is that have many challenges facing us and we need our residents to step forward more than ever.  Last year was our lowest resident participation level on record at only 36%.  We also have some critical leadership roles that help support our fundraising efforts that are vacant.  Without resident support through membership and volunteering, the future of the Civic Club will be at risk.  It is essential for us to preserve this organization to ensure that our neighborhood continues to be a vital, well maintained place with manicured medians, enforced deed restrictions, and a voice within our broader Houston community.  Without a Civic Club, it will be difficult for any of those things to occur.

I want to start my term as President with a plea to each and every resident.  If you haven’t joined the Civic Club yet, please consider doing so.  If you are a member, please consider increasing your commitment by volunteering to serve in a leadership role.  If you have any ideas on other ways to support Lazybrook and make the neighborhood and the club a better place, please reach out to me via email at president@lazybrook.org and let’s have a conversation.  The Executive Committee has met and started planning how we can change things for the better.  We are exploring ways to increase membership and reduce operating costs to begin balancing our budget.  But we can only turn our course around with your support and ideas.