Once I get the site moved your accounts should work just as before but hopefully emails will come through more reliably.

Update: I believe these issues are now resolved. Please let me know if you are still having any trouble!

To combat new SPAM accounts I have altered the registration process to include a couple new required fields.  These must be answered or the account will be blocked.  If this isn’t sufficient to keep out the spammers I will have to increase security further.

Please note that SPAM accounts do not in any way represent a breach in security.  The steps I undertake here should deflect SPAM bots but we can’t ever eradicate human based SPAM automatically.  So if you suspect any accounts are being used inappropriately or if you notice any posts that appear to be SPAM please contact me.

If anyone wishes to become a board moderator let me know.  I could use a hand keeping an eye on things.

Please feel free to email me if you experience any issues with the transition at hightechdave@gmail.com or info@dekalbcrimewatch.org.

Also I have added a calendar page and sidebar item for upcoming events. You can check it out here: http://dekalbcrimewatch.org/calendar/

I will get to these when possible but likely the target date will need to be 2-4 weeks from today.

If you have any questions please let me know.

Flamingo Fridays! – Get to know your neighbors at a random (volunteered) location every (hopefully) Friday. Enjoy a beer and enjoy the nice weather basking in the glory of the mighty flamingo! Okay so we may not find a flamingo but hopefully we can get this going.

Meeting protocol - Who needs yet another long meeting? Relax, grab a beverage and know it won’t be going on all night. Going forward we will always try to have a set (okay maybe rough) agenda and keep the meetings to an hour. This should keep everyone focused and productive without scaring people off if things get too involved.

Clean-up – This was brought up but we don’t have anything scheduled just yet. Hopefully we can plan our next clean-up session at the next meeting. The worst area seems to be the entrance at Venice. There are also some yards that could really use some love. Once I get my mower in action I am happy to volunteer it for this duty. Perhaps we can also toss Reggie a few beans to help us out.

Fliers and signs - For now, Ashley and I will handle printing any fliers that are needed (I have quite a surplus of paper) as well as handling the maintenance of the signs (getting more insert material and writing them up ahead of events). We will look to the block captains to help distribute the materials as needed.

Maps – Amanda and Devery have volunteered to manage the maps. We will get these posted to the site soon for download. If anyone knows what happened to the big map used at previous meetings please let us know. I will follow up with Mark on it. Maps are here (blank) and here (color).

Contact Information - Please, please, please sign up for the site by first going into the Discussions area then registering. This will make it much easier for us to stay in touch with you. Block captains email or PM me to get the list of everyone’s info we have to date.

The Website - Anyone can post to the discussion area! This includes creating new topics and responding to existing ones. You can also send private messages to other users. Jeremy O. and I will be supporting the site so if you need any assistance let us know.

Homework - Well, it’s not all fun and games. Block captains your homework assignment is to identify the houses which you think you will be responsible for. You can download the maps here (blank) and here (color).

Block Captain Meeting Take Two – We will be having another meeting for the block captains on Tuesday the 13th at 6:30pm on our back patio at 1520 Harvest Lane. We should have enough seating but it couldn’t hurt to bring an extra chair or two. If the weather turns sour on us we will have to relocate so if it looks like rain, look for an update here and a phone call.

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Those of you who are familiar with RSS, you can sign up for our RSS feed over there to your right under the “Subscribe” heading.

Hopefully that covers it. I guess we covered more ground than I thought. Please feel free to hit me up if I have missed anything. I have setup an email box, info@dekalbcrimewatch.com. Please make sure you don’t block this as it will be where we send out any email notifications from.

- Dave Wheeler (1520 Harvest Lane)

Incidents
The only incidents seem to have been related to noise late in the evening and possibly an occurrence of mail theft. So, overall things have been going great with no break-ins or rampant mail theft.

The Big News is…
Both Don and Mark will be moving so they will not be able lead the Neighborhood Watch any longer. Don will be available for neighborhood cleanups and such and Mark will be around to help keep after Don’s house. So they haven’t left completely but it means we need to pick things up and make sure we don’t lose momentum.Thanks guys so much for your help getting this started. I don’t think we (Ashley and I) would feel as much a part of the neighborhood without your efforts.

What’s next?
Several folks, myself included (Dave Wheeler), have indicated they would be willing to take on responsibility in leading the watch.We will begin meeting every other week with the block captains and monthly with the entire neighborhood. Our first block captain meeting will be held on Tuesday May 6th, 2008 at 6:30pm. The location will be 2652 St. Patrick Ct. We will send out a communication before the meeting as a reminder.

Spring get together
There seems to be a number of folks who would be on board with getting this started. The weather has been great and this would really help us to get to know one another. If you would like to contribute or have any ideas please stop by the discussion started in the forums.

Save our trees
Many of the trees in the neighborhood have vines which may choke them out in the drought. To save our trees please keep the vines at bay. This affects our homes as well as those of our neighbors and some of the vacant lots. It would be a great help if we can all contribute to staying on top of this. If anyone can post more detail on the best way to handle the removal please do so. I know several of us are severely allergic to poison oak so it would be great to know if there is a hands-off approach.

Trash
The gentleman that had been providing and maintaining the trash cans in the neighborhood has removed them. This is unfortunate as it was helping to keep the neighborhood clean. If possible we can get a work day setup soon to address this in the worst areas.

I think that about covers it, please let me know if I missed anything. Feel free to sign up and hit the discussions area to comment on this or anything else.

- Dave Wheeler