Name change proposal brings new members to Civic
North Fort Myers Civic Association president Michael Land has called public apathy the plague of the 21st century. For many of the organization’s recent meetings, not many more than a dozen people have come to meetings despite some pretty tantalizing topics.
Then Land proposed changing the name of North Fort Myers.
People came – by the score.
There was yelling and chanting in the direction of the embattled president last Friday.
But there was also a silver lining to the stormy meeting.
Nearly 40 attendees become dues-paying members of the civic association, with those who stayed throughout the meeting agreeing to become members of the board of directors.
By the end of the meeting, the group had itself a new secretary and was able to fill its entire board for the first time in a good while.
For a meeting that nearly descended into chaos, it turned out to be one of the best things to ever happen to the civic association, Land said.
“We got new members, raised some money and got four new members of the board of directors, including a secretary, and got a lot of new input, and that’s fantastic,” Land said.
For the first 15 minutes of the meeting, it was all shouting. It got so that Land couldn’t continue the meeting and had Lee County Sheriff’s Office deputies telling him to end the meeting.
Seeing that the residents were getting involved, even if some were being somewhat rowdy, Land offered them the opportunity to join the organization.
They bit. One by one, residents were paying dues and signing up. It was like that for the next 30 minutes, with some paying dues without actually filling out their application. Land said he would try and locate these people.
Once order was restored, Holly Marth, a local Realtor, served as a moderator to help keep order. Eventually, she agreed to become a member of the board of directors.
She also had her opinions on the name change and how the community can channel their concerns for the better good.
“You can live here six months and want to make a change. If all of us put our energy together instead of bashing this guy who had a crappy idea,” Marth said to applause at Land’s expense. “If what he wanted to do was get our attention, he got it. Now, let’s do something about it.”
Honorary North Fort Myers mayor Doug Dailey and Dan Ballard, a commissioner for the North Fort Myers Fire & Rescue district, joined Marth.
Laura Malcolm-Lewis volunteered to become new secretary, thus filling out both boards.
Land used the time to get the new members who stayed up to speed on the issues regarding the area while taking care of usual business. The meeting ended just before 10 p.m., as they kept the recreation center open an extra hour because of all the people who came.
In the end, Land said he intended to get more people involved. He didn’t expect to fill the entire board.
“I didn’t expect our board of directors to take this on. I knew most of the people were opposed to it. I thought if we could get them to a meeting, we could get some of them to participate in our quest to turn this town around,” Land said. “We got a lot of participation and that’s great.”