NYCkayaker Fw: What Is Public Notice?

[bonnie13 at earthlink.net]

Trying again - haven't been able to post to NYCKayaker or email Rich today. 

BTW I think that this is going to be my last hurrah as far as actively messing around with Park stuff, I'm pretty sure I'm just staying at Sebago, whatever happens. I'll still be following developments at the Barge & in the park with a lot of interest, but since I don't expect to be paddling there any more, I'll be a lot less invested in what happens. I'll miss it, but I'm totally loving J-bay and the wonderful West Bar off Breezy Point. 
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I recently discovered how completely dependent I had been on the grapevine to hear about those various meetings I sometimes like to attend - the last Advisory Council meeting where the barge was discussed, I heard about after the fact. The results were fantastic, nothing to complain about there (if I've got this right, the Trust is supporting paddling continuing at the barge the way it always has, and that's awesome - now it's up to the DEC, I for one wrote my letter as requested!), but since the grapevine failed, I did a little sniffing around on the Hudson River Park site & discovered that there isn't really anywhere on that site where you can look up when upcoming meetings are & what's on the agenda (they did have last night's board meeting posted, but no agenda, and that was the only meeting info I was able to find).
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>I did sign up for the mailing list on the site, thinking that might do it, but mentioned that to Noreen & she told me that that one doesn't get you Advisory Council notices. She said she'd add me to the list & that she'd do the same for any individual who wanted to be added, said it was OK to pass her email along, too - 
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>ndoyle at hrpt.state.ny.us
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>Better than nothing, but that still seems to require that people be in a certain loop to hear about things. 
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>I went looking for info to post on Frogma ( www.frogma.blogspot.com ) about a Jamaica Bay workshop I attended last night (it was amazing, btw, I think I'm staying out there & it's not just because the uncertainties surrounding the future of paddling in the Park are so stressful), and within 30 seconds after initiating a Google search, I was in the DEP's highly informative Public Notice section, which they have on their News page. http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/news/depnewsframeset.html
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>Now, the DEP is a lot bigger and probably has more money than the Trust to maintain something like that, but it seems like at least having some easy-to-find spot on the Trust's website where members of the public can sign up to get notice of Park-related meetings would be a good idea. 
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>Does that make sense to anyone else? There's been a lot going on behind the scenes, and I'm not sure what I'm right to be concerned about and what I'm blowing out of proportion (I do know is that there's a little of both), but this at least seems to be a reasonable thing to expect. 
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>BTW here was Noreen's actual email concerning adding people to the notification list - it had some information in it that might be helpful in avoiding misconstruing things. 
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>"And of course, people can email me if they want to be on the circulation list for meetings. It would be helpful if they could understand that the Advisory Council itself includes organizations that are specifically named to the Council. There is a legal cap on the number of members that can be added. Others are welcome to attend in that the meetings are public (though as I said space is limited at most meetings). It is up to the Chair to set the agendas, and the Trust does not control this process. People who want to know more can read the Hudson River Park Act, available on our website. Pier 63 Maritime will shortly be added to the Council as a result of last week's vote, subject to our Board's confirmation."
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>Just to clarify, when I'm talking about attending meetings, ALL I'm referring to is having the right to walk into a meeting and hear what's said. I'm not trying to get myself, or anyone else, elected to anything official.
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