Neighborhood Leaders and Residents Encouraged to Attend County Neighborhoods Conference

Do you want to find out how to reduce crime in your neighborhood?

Do you wonder what the laws are regarding social networking and what rights you can exercise to protect your information?

Want to know which pesticides to use to keep the bad bugs out and leave behind the good ones?

Then, you should attend the 2011 Hillborough County Neighborhoods Conference.

The Neighborhoods Conference will take place on Saturday, April 2 from 8:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. The event features 24 workshops on a variety of topics that explain how you can have a more beautiful, sociable and safer neighborhood.

Wanda Sloan, neighborhood relations official and chairman of the conference, says that she expects this event - the eighth one in a row - to be just as successful as the previous seven were.

“It gives people a chance to network, as well as learn,” Sloan said. “We had 256 people last year. Three hundred, if you include all the volunteers.”

Each of the 24 workshops will have its own speaker with expert knowledge in their field of specialty.

Some of our keynote speakers are Doug Christy, who is an attorney with Wetherington, Hamilton & Harrison, and Chandra Lee, who will be doing a workshop on social networking and how you can communicate with your neighbors using social networking, Sloan says.

Sloan says that there will also be an exhibit area from the county and different cities, as well businesses like banks and landscapers where attendees can pick up free giveaways.

The event will be held at Hillsborough Community College in the Humanities building, the courtyard and the gymnasium. All the workshops will be indoors with state of the art equipment available for use.

Phyllis Corr, president of Belle Mead Homeowners Association, believes the event is important for anyone who is on the board of a homeowners association.

“The more people who attend, the more workshops your neighborhood can participate in, and the more information you’ll leave with,” Corr said. “This will be my first year to attend as president. Other board members who have attended always come back with glowing reports – knowing more that what they did. I’m going to learn about Legislature and how it affects the home owners association.”

Dave Fredericks, president of the Carrollwood Neighborhood Association, agrees.

“Just being there and being able to network with other community leaders from other communities in Tampa is a huge benefit,” Fredericks said. “You can get advice and solutions to different issues in a dialogue.”

Fredericks learned about website construction and was able to meet the goal of creating one for his HOA. Fredericks said he cares about community and he wants everyone in his community to become involved.

“We call our home owners association a ‘neighborhood association,'" Fredericks said. "We want people to be neighborly. The name has a little bit more of a warmer, friendly feeling to it, because we have renters. You don’t have to be a homeowner to be in the association.”

Fredericks describes the event as a great value and an excellent opportunity to get answers and decisions made at one convenient location.

Grant Walters, vice president of the Fawn Lake Homeowners Association, which represents 252 homes, has attended the event every year since its inception. Walters says that he believes the environmental concerns that are addressed are important. He also reinforces Fredericks’ statement of convenient access to community officials.

“There will be people there who are interested in the preservation of wetlands, and quite a few different civic type organizations,” Walters said. “There’s also a luncheon in the end with several of the county commissioners.”

Walters advises those who plan to attend to arrive early to take a look around.

“There’s usually a breakfast with some nice fruit. The Plant City strawberries are good,” Walters said.

The Hillsborough County Neighborhood Conference will be held on April 2, 2011 from 8 a.m until 2:30 p.m. at the Hillborough Community College, Dale Mabry Campus 4001 Tampa Bay Blvd. Admission is $20, and includes breakfast, lunch and access to all the workshops.

For more information, contact Wanda Sloan at (813) 307-3564 or sloanw@hillsboroughcounty.org.