Thursday, June 2, 2016
As the Old North End Neighborhood has gone to work to try to ameliorate problems created by the recent shift of Colorado Springs city buses to North Nevada Avenue, questions have been raised such as:
- What is the Old North End Neighborhood?
- Where does it get the authority to act for the improvement, safety, and well-being of the Old North End?
The Old North End Neighborhood, also known as ONEN, was chartered by the State of Colorado in 1957 to serve as a volunteer homeowners’ association representing the interests of the section of Colorado Springs residential housing known as the Old North End. The Charter of the Old North End Neighborhood specifies that the organization will be governed by a Board of Directors. The original directors who organized the volunteer homeowners’ association are given the power in the Charter to fill vacancies on the Board of Directors as they occur.
This is the traditional form of organization given to state-chartered non-profit organizations created to pursue a specific purpose. In the case of the Old North End, the purpose of the Old North End Neighborhood, as laid out in the organization’s Charter, is to advance the interests of the neighborhood. That is where the organization’s authority for its actions lies.
There are many similar state-chartered non-profit organizations in Colorado that are created and perpetuated in this way, including most of the private colleges and private schools in the state. They are governed by a self-perpetuating Board of Directors or Board of Trustees exactly as the Old North End Neighborhood is.
Tomorrow, to better understand the operations and accomplishments of the Old North End Neighborhood, we will review the organization’s history.