Mission Statement

As defined during our Dec 8 in-person meeting and refined on our mailing list, our mission statement is:

The Friends of the Urbana Dog Park group:

• encourages responsible dog ownership and responsible park membership;
• promotes communication among dog park members and with the Urbana Park District;
• and engages in projects for park improvement.

Chuck-its, courtesy of the Friends of the Urbana Dog Park

There are now three public Chuck-Its at the park, for use by any and all. Many thanks to Martha for picking them up and labeling them with the Friends of the Dog Park contact information. We hope those with ball-crazy dogs will enjoy them!

Report from meeting with the Urbana Park District

Five of us met today with two Urbana Park District (UPD) staff members, Judy Miller and Derek Liebert. It was a very productive meeting! UPD is very enthusiastic about having a way to communicate better with the community and we are very enthusiastic about enabling members to better communicate with each other and with UPD.

We discussed rotating posters with information about park rules, dog behavior, and dog training, presented in an easy to absorb and friendly way.

We discussed the possibility of a kiosk as a location for park members to communicate with each other and with UPD.

We discussed maintenance priorities. If you have requests about maintenance items, let the group know (urbanadogs at gmail dot com) - we will communicate them to UPD, who are happy to have more “eyes on the ground” to know what's going on at the park.

Report from Dec 8 meeting

We had a lovely meeting at Martha’s house today — thanks, Martha! In attendance were Ilyse, Jessica, Jory, Karen, Laura, Martha, and Martha’s dog Stella.

We listed the basic points of a mission statement for the group. I will write this up and mail it out for the list to discuss in a day or two. When it’s finalized, I’ll make sure it’s posted on this site.

We planned our next steps:

1) Meet with the Urbana Park District (UPD). Talk with them about how best to convey any concerns from park members. (For example, current concerns: mulch by the front entrance; holes in the ground that are dangerous). Discuss setting up a kiosk/message board inside the park for messages from UPD to park members, and from park members to each other (things like lost & found, dog sitter recommendations, etc).

2) Purchase of chuck-it ball throwers for use in the park. We each donated $5 and Martha will purchase 2-3 ball throwers. We will mark them as donated by the Friends of the Urbana Dog Park, for use in the park, and leave them for public use. We'll also put up new versions of the “join the friends of the dog park!” posters to explain the ball throwers and encourage people not to take them home.

Our next meeting will be in the evening so that people with different schedules can attend. However, we hope to have most of our discussions on the mailing list.

Introductory meeting

Our first meeting is December 8 at 11 am. Our proposed agenda is below. Want to join in? Email us at urbanadogs at gmail dot com for the address and directions!

Agenda

1. Introductions: who we are, who our dogs are. If people want, they might also say why they joined this group and/or what they hope to get out of it.

2. Decide on some basic goals of the group, suitable for putting into a mission statement. When someone asks what the group is for and what it does, what will we tell them? Some suggestions to get us started:

  - improve communication among dog park users
  - improve communication with Urbana Parks District (UPD)
  - provide educational opportunities about dog care/training

3. Specific goals/projects. What do we want to work on?