Last night I met some very nice people from the OpenOakland Brigade of Code for America, these are grassroots who volunteer their time to solve our city’s problems through the use of technology, within their framework there is a group focused on reducing crime through volunteering and the use of technology. Basically our kind of people. Continue reading
Monthly Archives: November 2012
Happy Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone.
We at Neighborhood Guard want to be thankful for the resolve of our fellow neighbors here in Oakland, while all Oaklanders know about hardship we are also showing that Oakland will not surrender to crime. People of all backgrounds, social groups and skill sets are standing together united in Neighborhood Guard Continue reading
Minutes Nov 19. COOP Founding Meeting
Founding Meeting, Nov 19, 2012, Redwood Heights Recreation Center.
The founding meeting of the Oakland “Neighborhood Guard Cooperative” was held November 19, 2012 at Redwood Heights Recreation Center, 3883 Aliso Avenue, Oakland, CA between 6 pm and 8:30 pm. The meeting room was full, standing room only, with about 60 people attending. Co-op founder Jesper “JJ” Jurcenoks chaired the meeting, Moderated by Mary Kay Rusell of the Redwood Ridge Neighborhood organization and Max Horowitz, Minutes: Sandra Pohutsky
Oakland City Councilmember Libby Schaaf
Ms. Schaaf expressed her gratitude to the organizers who reacted to a tragic occasion in their neighborhood to make it safer and who are now sharing their experience in finding security solutions for the rest of Oakland. Ms. Schaaf said we are entering an era of crowd sourcing and are on the verge of creating networks that the Oakland Police Department could never accomplish. Ms. Schaaf reported that she knew of at least three cases in 2012 of Oakland Police Department arresting criminals using evidence from private security cameras; all were convicted.
Founding
Neighborhood Guard founder JJ Jurcenoks began with his local neighborhood watch group when one of his neighbors was brutally attacked at home. They vowed that they would work on a method to protect others by reducing the danger of criminals breaking into Oakland homes. For their neighborhood they set the goal that no Criminal would enter or leave their neighborhood undetected. Continue reading
1 week to Nov 19 meeting and things are heating up.
This weekend Mayor Jean Quan mentioned us in her Newsletter
Libby Schaaf, Oakland City Council member for District 4 and a strong supporter of all crime reduction initiatives, will be joining us on Nov 19 to share her view on Community Crime reduction. http://libbyforoakland.com
We have been interviewed for the Montclarion so look out for an article by Maya Mirsky in the next edition (Friday Nov 16, 2012) Online version here.
This week we gave additional presentations to both large and small neighborhood ranging from 50 to 300 households.
We have additional presentations lined up for next week.
The list of neighborhood groups who: 1) has already joined, 2) are in the process of joining or 3) who are setting up organizations in preparation to join, contains more than 40 Neighborhoods all over Oakland, this is no longer just a Oakland Hills initiative. We have even more groups joining us every week.
We have received requests to show the Camera Presentation as part of our evening. Some groups have not yet had a chance to see the presentation, others have not seen the latest version. So we will start the evening with a short version of the Neighborhood Camera Presentation.
For the evening itself we need volunteers: We need someone to:
- Come a little early to help set up chairs
- Make sure everyone gets a name tag, and fills out the information sheet.
- But most important we need someone to bring home-baked goods like brownies and cookies to bring us all in a neighborly mood.
Here is the Updated Agenda for Nov 19.
- Introduction by Founder Jesper “JJ” Jurcenoks
- Importance of Community Action in Oakland, by Libby Schaaf
- Neighborhood Guard’s DIY Camera solution, with examples of Real Photos.
- What is a COOP and how would it work for us.
- Member Benefits
- Member Obligations
- Fee Structure Feedback round.
- Next Steps and Tasks Ahead
- Election of Interim Board / Filling of Critical volunteer positions:
- Chairperson
- Treasurer
- Secretary
- Members for the Bylasws / “legal” committee
- Members for the Pr & Marketing committee
- Members for the Web-master committee
- Members for the Recruiting committee
- Members for the Services committee
- Members for the Tech Support committee
- Members for the Software Development committee
- Open Discussion
Again we cannot wait to see a lot of concerned citizens ready to do something about crime on Monday.