Saturday, March 06, 2010

The Fort Greene Park Conservancy


To All -
I have been involved with the Fort Greene Park Conservancy as a volunteer since 1999. Utilizing my background in public relations, graphics and journalism, my efforts enabled the Conservancy grow from a local gardening club in the 1990s to the organization it is today.
In 1999-2000 I created the Fort Greene Park Conservancy website. I wrote or edited the website’s content, newsletters, press releases, articles and upcoming events. The graphics and historical images came from me. I promoted the organization with custom banner ads; coordinated the advertising space; instituted the “Donate Now” PayPal buttons. I wrote, designed and hosted the Centennial2008.org website. I set up the FGPC Flickr site, the Facebook pages, and the Twitter accounts; and coordinated the Constant Contact email service. I acted as the press liaison, fulfilling requests for images and historical information. In addition I have worked on every Halloween Festival and fundraiser since 2000.
Last month I was both surprised and disappointed to learn that the future of the Fort Greene Park website had been determined without any input or involvement from me. It appears the new Board had made this decision without even contacting me or giving me the opportunity to submit my own proposal for the site’s future. I had been lobbying for a complete FGPC website redesign for many years, similar to my recent work on the new Fort Greene Association website.
Effective immediately I will no longer be involved in any manner with the Fort Greene Park Conservancy. I have already begun the transfer and cancellation of the web hosting. I wish to do this in a time frame that is convenient for me, rather than wait until the board gets around to inform me of their plans. Any current FGPC website content that is to be reused must be approved by me, and attributed to me. The use of, or transfer of any other content – either created by me, archived, and/or owned by me – will be at my discretion.
The new board of the Conservancy seems to have little regard for the community residents who built the organization and their efforts. In my opinion, any non-profit community group that treats their longtime volunteers in such a way is not worthy of community support. I will no longer support the Conservancy and urge others to do the same.
Sincerely,
Abbot Weissman