Origin Story
It started simply enough last year over drinks. Chris Paulus (Capitol Hill Community Council) looked around and realized that while neighborhood leaders across Seattle were all fighting the same battles—navigating city departments, engaging volunteers, amplifying events, updating bylaws—they were mostly doing it in isolation. He decided it was time for council leaders to meet up. That first casual get-together sparked something immediate: a realization that we are far more effective when we stop trying to solve every problem from scratch, on our own.
To turn that spark into a more permanent resource, a small group of us got organized. Stafford Green (Floating Homes Association) and Nikola Davidson (Leschi Community Council) together stepped in to build the initial structure and start the connections, followed quickly by Soojin Kim (Eastlake Community Council), Tim Kitchen (Fremont Community Council), and Curtis Atkisson (Capitol Hill Community Council). Together, we’ve been working behind the scenes to move the Seattle Neighborhood Alliance from a “good idea” to a “knowledge swap” and roundtable discussions that actually saves leaders time. And this leadership team is growing as more volunteers from new parts of the city pitch in.
Our March 2026 Realization: The Answers are in the Room
Our meeting this March 12th at Doric Lodge in Fremont confirmed exactly why this network matters. When we brought leaders together from over 30 different organizations, we confirmed exactly why this network matters. Together we have the knowledge, we just need to connect the wires.
We found that for many struggles one council is facing (a “Get”), there is a neighbor just a few blocks away who has already found the solution (a “Give”). We are now actively making those connections so that if you need to refresh your bylaws or update your digital archives, you can just call a peer who has already done the groundwork.
Roundtables for the “Big Rocks”
However, the data also showed us that there are some “Big Rocks” that almost all of us are struggling to move. Areas like volunteer recruitment (especially for the next generation) and event amplification (getting more neighbors to be engaged) are universal challenges. No single council has the perfect answer yet, so we’re changing the game.
The SNA Quarterly Meetings will host structured, networking sessions—focused, small-group roundtable discussions where we bring in outside specialists as needed to work directly with us on these shared hurdles. Instead of just talking about the problem, we’ll be building the skills to solve it together.
The “Priceless” Connection
At the beginning of the March meeting we read the names of the 30+ neighborhood community councils that were there, and we all cheered each other. We were finally together. Perhaps the most important result of the March meeting wasn’t the data or the spreadsheets—it was the simple joy of being with each other. There is something priceless about meeting the people behind the neighboring councils, hearing their stories, and realizing we are all part of the same Seattle.
The networking—the learning about each other and the character of our neighborhoods—reminded us why we volunteer in the first place. We left the room with more than just a list of “Gives” and “Gets”; we left with a community of peers.
