Committees and Subcommittees
The Drake Neighborhood Association has several standing committees/subcommittees that work on accomplishing the goals of the Drake Neighborhood Plan. Following is a description of these committees and subcommittees. If you are interested in participating in any of these committees, please contact the person listed.
Finance and Fundraising
Contact: Dean Blum deanynot@msn.com
Land Use and Zoning
Contact: Deric Gourd deric.gourd@gmail.comPlanning and Land Use committee is an advocacy group. In this group, the Drake Neighborhood Association is working with the city on zoning rules and the city's 2020 Land Use strategic plan. This group would review housing and commercial areas and make recommendations to the board on zoning and land use changes that furthers the goal of building a sustainable neighborhood. This group may also represent the neighborhood before the Planning and Zoning board on any recommended zoning or land use changes.
Crime and Safety/Neighborhood Based Service Delivery (NBSD)
Contact: Bill Cappuccio bill@wrc3.netThe Crime & Safety Committee works with residents, businesses and the NBSD Team to coordinate responses to safety and nuisance problems in the Drake neighborhood. It also works along with other neighborhood organizations to propose changes to the City Municipal Code that address common issues that affect all our neighborhoods.
Housing
Contact: Deric Gourd deric.gourd@gmail.comThe role of the Housing Subcommittee is to serve as the first word in issues around protecting the existing housing stock and maintaining the historic character of the neighborhood, while encouraging sustainable growth and in-fill as necessary.
Rental Community Relations
Contact: Kristina Johnson kj4kristina.johnson@gmail.comAccording to the 2000 Census, approximately 56% of the housing in the Drake neighborhood is renter-occupied. The Rental Community Relations Committee has been created in order to establish a relationship between the DNA and the rental community. The committee will include individuals who own and/or manage rental property in the Drake neighborhood, will identify needs and issues particular to the rental community (including tenants) and work to find and/or provide resources to address them. The goal of the committee is that, working together, we will ensure that safe, attractive and well managed rental units are available within the Drake neighborhood, and for the Drake neighborhood to be seen as a good place for investment by rental property professionals.
Historic Survey
Contact: Deric Gourd deric.gourd@gmail.comOriginally conceived as part of the comprehensive planning process, a "reconnaissance level" survey by James Jacobson of History Pays! documented the Drake Neighborhood's physical and contextual history. Through the City of Des Moines, the neighborhood received two grants to fund this professional historic survey research. Special thanks goes to the City of Des Moines, the State Historical Society of Iowa, the Department of the Interior's National Park Service, James Jacobson, and of course all the volunteers who put in countless hours!
Professional survey work on the reconnaissance level survey was completed in mid 2011 and provides a well-documented understanding of the neighborhood’s specific historical resources and patterns of development.This web site was established as a living, growing document. It will serve as a tool for historical research, genealogical discovery, and documentation of the neighborhood's story. It is a groundbreaking endeavor to link photos, oral histories, building documentation, and historical contexts together in a web of information. Check it out at www.historicdrakeneighborhood.org
Marketing and Communications
Contacts: Kristina Johnson (kj4kristina.johnson@gmail.com) & Bill Cappuccio (bill@wrc3.net)In primary duty of the Marketing & Communications Committee is to improve communications between the DNA and residents, businesses, schools, non-profits, and other institutions and organizations located or doing business in the Drake neighborhood though the use of newsletters, email, website and social media. The goal of the committee is to increase knowledge of, and engagement in, the many issues affecting and events occurring in the neighborhood, and to enhance and improve the image of the Drake neighborhood.
Membership
Contact: Dean Blum deanynot@msn.comThe membership committee keeps tracks of peoples' membership information (address, phone, email, dated of renewal, committees of interest) and sends out renewal forms.
Parks and Trails
Contact: Kevin Venhaus kcvenhaus@mchsi.comThis committee’s goal is to help improve the quality/safety of the neighborhood parks. We have worked on ways to improve the physical look of the parks with signage, lighting, landscaping and equipment to developing ways to make the parks a destination for multiple types of recreation.
We have also developed concepts to make the neighborhood more bike friendly. We want to work with the city to help implement their bike trail plan that was approved this year and will create and identify the best ways to bike through the neighborhood with certain streets designated as bike lanes, boulevards or trails.
Beautification
Contact: Kevin Venhaus kcvenhaus@mchsi.comThis committee helps make our neighborhood look its best by creating garden spaces, cleaning up trashy areas, weeding and supporting neighbors who want to develop garden spaces of their own. We also handle all the orders and delivery of the free annuals the parks department grows every year for all the cities neighborhoods to plant on city property.
Community Garden
Contact: Rose Scott (rosescott66@yahoo.com) and Eddie Robinson, Jr. (515-255-5630)The Drake Community Garden is located on 27th and University ave. South of University. The Community garden consists of up to 40- 10' X 12' plots. The garden is mainly for growing vegetables and is totally organic. We do not use any chemicals to fertilize. Volunteers are able to help with revamping our compost area, picking up debris, which includes walnuts, pine cones and tree limbs. In the spring we help elderly gardeners with preparing their plots. We could use help with spreading compost, preparing walk ways in the spring, tree trimming, and weeding all season.
Volunteer Recruitment and Retention
Contact: Erica Luna esimbro@yahoo.comThe DNA has many volunteer opportunities, many of them related to the Drake Neighborhood Plan. Recruiting, managing, and retaining volunteers from the neighborhood is essential in working through these critical tasks. The committee needs volunteers to help develop a process and maintain that process over time to accomplish the many tasks we would like to complete in the neighborhood.
Additional Volunteer Opportunities:
Home Tour Planning and Staffing
Contact: Kendall Dillon (kendall.dillon@dmu.edu) and Trisha Davis (tkedavis@earthlink.net)Drake Half Marathon water Stations
Des Moines Marathon Water Stations
Jazz in July
National Night Out
Newsletter Writing
Archives Organization
Contact: Jen Thompson (jen.a.thomp@gmail.com)and Erica Luna (esimbro@yahoo.com)Website Design
Contact: Bill Cappuccio (bill@wrc3.net) and Deric Gourd (deric.gourd@gmail.com)Farmer’s Market Booth
Contact: Jen Thompson jen.a.thomp@gmail.com