Presidents Message                                    Neighborhood News - Winter 2010

My Journey With The MNA

My name is Dan Ramsey and I am the interim President of the Meredith Neighborhood Association. I live at 4409 51st Street with my wife Beth, daughter Emily (age 16) and two dogs, Sparkles and Bear. We have lived here for two years and the Des Moines area for seven years. We really enjoy the Meredith Neighborhood area. We appreciate the friendly people, the close proximity to shopping and the feeling of belonging to a community.

I attended my first MNA meeting at Hoover High School shortly after moving here for one of the quarterly meetings. They are open to anyone who lives in the area and I was wanting to meet some of the neighbors and see what a neighborhood association was all about. Everyone there was friendly and welcoming.

At that meeting, I got a sense that everyone cared about the community. Being the new kid on the block, I had particular interest in neighborhood events, new businesses, city services and law enforcement. All of those issues were discussed and after I left, I felt much more informed and quite pleased that there were people actually taking the time to do what they could to monitor and serve the community. There was also a sign up sheet available to assist with local events and projects.

Generally, I am hesitant to volunteer for anything. My schedule was already very full and felt that I had too little free “me” time anyway. However I did feel like I could possibly invest a few hours a month to gain a better understanding of the place we had chosen to live, serve those around me, and possible garner some new friendships. I put my information on the sheet and what I was interested in doing.

A couple of weeks later, I received a call from one of my neighbors asking if I could assist with delivering the newsletters to area businesses. It fit right in my schedule, only took a couple of hours and didn’t seem too intense, so I helped delivered newsletters. I got a chance to meet some of the local business owners, and everyone was happy to get their newsletters. Afterward, I felt a sense of satisfaction from the experience.

About 6 months later, my current employer, hit by the economic downturn, eliminated my position and I found myself unemployed for the first time in my adult life. Having sold a few things on eBay, I decided to try this on a more full time basis to keep paying the bills until I found a new position.

To build inventory, I naturally went to the Meredith Neighborhood Annual Garage sales and reconnected with one of the more active MNA members who invited me to attend another meeting. Having lots of time on my hands, and starving for the personal satisfaction one can only get from being of service, I was happy to go, besides, it would be a good way to network to maybe find a new job, get the word out about my new business and provide an opportunity to help others.

During that meeting, I was asked and I accepted the vacated Vice President position. Three months after that, the President announced that he had accepted another position out of state…and here I am.

I apologize for giving you all the details of my journey here, but I wanted to share some of my story with you to help show some of the benefits that MNA brings to our community, as well as to my life and the life of my family. I encourage you to check out the MNA. If you are like me in asking, “What’s in it for me?”, come and find out. It is possible that it is more than you think.

Feel free to contact me anytime at 319-936-4359 or by email at dan.ramsey@gmail.com.