President’s Message

Ned W. Rhodes

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Being the volunteer president of the Donaldson Run Civic Association is an interesting position. I became involved with our Civic Association in 1999 when I volunteered to read the Emissions Reports we received from the contractor who had antennas on the water tower (Lee Pumping Station) near our homes. That grew to doing the web site, setting up an email communications list, a couple of years as Treasurer and now a few terms as President. What initially prompted me to get involved with the community was to see about getting a sidewalk down 26^th street near the golf course so that I could safely walk my dog.

DRCA became involved with the Neighborhood Conservation Program in 2000 when our Neighborhood Plan was accepted by the Arlington County Board. For me, our participation has been instrumental in my thinking of our group of homes as our neighborhood. As a result, I have had the opportunity to get to know many more people who live in the neighborhood than I would have if I had not participated in the Civic Association. I encourage all of you to consider ways you could become involved either by paying your membership dues, attending a meeting or volunteering for a leadership position.

I also want note that one of the operating principles of our   Civic Association that we operate in an open fashion. To do this, we send the newsletter to all 950 homes in our Civic Association 4-5 times each year. We have been doing that since 2000 and we continue to do that so that every household in the neighborhood (whether a member or not) knows what the Civic Association is doing. We can’t make you read it, but we can make sure you always get a copy. In addition, we post meeting announcements, copies of all newsletters and other informational items on our website (http://www.drca.org). We recently launched a Facebook page to further foster a sense of community and to provide another forum for communications. And, all active DRCA members can join our email list that receives items of neighborhood interest 2-3 times a week. Other than personally calling everyone in the Civic Association, I am not sure what else we can do to reach out. Please email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  if there is something I have missed.

The Executive Committee holds 5-6 meetings a year to discuss Civic Association business. If a vote needs to be taken on a major item, then the Executive Committee will make sure there is an article in the newsletter preceding the meeting where the vote will be taken. This is our policy and has been for a long time.

All of this is a long-winded way of saying that we are an active and open Civic Association. We have good working relationships with the County at all levels. As always, I encourage you to become a member of the Civic Association. There is a membership application in every newsletter as well as on the web site. It has been my experience that working for changes with the Civic Association is more effective than working around the Civic Association since the various County Departments wind up coming back to us anyway.