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Hi, Bill!

Thanks so much for the great info. I will contact Molly and/or Mark from Parks and Rec and start the process of talking with them. As for my next steps within the community, Kim and I are going to host a meeting on July 16 at 7 pm with anyone who would like to come (you are more than invited, but I know you are busy, so no pressure!). I think the agenda will be something like this: show Franklin Park Film, introduce myself, my intention, and my experience with community gardening, share the results of the survey, and deal with the issue of site, followed up by possible roles around the planning and implementation of the garden (secretary, photographer, treasurer, grant co-writer, PR person, etc), and set a follow up meeting and garden tour date. We will ask someone to take minutes so that we can share the information with others. I am still working through what this conversation will look like, and I would love your advice on the aspect of the site choice. Basically, the surveys reflect that so far prefer the community land (which belongs to all of us) as the ideal site. Three of the six or seven people that live across from there are adamantly against it (two have said that it is "their" land, but the main idea is that they don't want it, and regardless of the validity of their reasoning, I don't want to force anything on anyone). So that leaves us with the park, but I haven't heard back from the people that live near there as of yet. I am not opposed to the park at all, but ... Part of me wants to say, philosophically, the land that belongs to the community is where we will put it if the majority says so. Another part says do the least harm; create advocates not adversaries. I am leaning towards the latter. So what do you think about this? I have some ideas of how the meeting should go, but I am seriously afraid it will get crazy with people yelling at each other or people getting steam rolled. I will obviously do my best to facilitate good communication, but what insights from all of your amazing experience can you share with me regarding this HUGE decision. Of course my next question is: Now that we know there are enough people interested in the garden, how do we in fact decide where the garden is placed? Majority? Least Harm? Gut feeling?

Thanks so much for all of your help and guidance, Bill. I can't express enough how much I appreciate it!