A recent memo from CEO Lisa Marsilio has focused attention on issues that residents have been discussing off and on for the past year or so. In her June “Community and Operations” memo, Lisa voiced concerns about how the space near the dining rooms and café entrances of the KCC Centers are being used. Residents will find the full memo here.

In the third paragraph, Lisa raises the following topics:

  • The recent increase in tables, displays, and signage
  • Keeping the hall comfortable, welcoming, and accessible
  • Congestion and disrupted traffic flow

She asks residents wanting to share information to “avoid the dining entrances” and “use other areas, such as bulletin boards, or websites”.

These issues have been percolating for a while. The memo just served to bring them to the surface. These are topics that need broad community discussion, and there will be an opportunity for exactly that on Wednesday at 3p.m. in the Kendal auditorium. (It’s not clear whether Lisa’s memo is meant to address matters in the Centers of both campuses. The Wednesday meeting will focus only on Kendal.)

An instance of hall congestion. I don’t know what triggered the ideas in Lisa’s memo, but one particular event that I have heard about serves as a possible example. Back in mid-May, there were two simultaneous activities involving tables in the hall outside the Kendal cafe. On one side of the hall was a table of sale items from the Gateway Shop’s annual sale. On the other side was a table, staffed by two residents, accepting donations for Kennett Area Community Services (KACS), which runs the local food cupboard and which is suffering from cuts to Federal funds for long-income people.

It was lunchtime, and residents were stopping by on their way to lunch. They browsed the sale items and talked about the food drive. There were at least two easels flanking the entrance to the café. Three of the residents had dogs with them. Members of the marketing department were meeting with potential new residents, and the area became crowded. As I understand it, there were no problems or expressions of anger. Nonetheless, it is easy to see how someone wanting to get through that part of the hall would have been slowed down.

What should be done? While this type of congestion in front of the café, including tables on both sides of the hallway, is highly unusual (in my seven years at Kendal, I don’t recall a similar situation), I can see an argument for working out ways to avoid it.

On the other hand, a policy of not ever having tables in the hallway would not be a solution. These tables are very useful and are an integral part of Kendal community life. Apart from the Gateway sale and KACS fundraising, tables have been used for voter registration, for the staff pumpkin decoration contest, for committees involved in Earth Day, for petitions of various kinds, for sign-in for marketing events, and much more. This has been the case for many years.

Similar arguments can be made about signage on easels. The bulletin boards and the website may be a partial answer, but neither of those reaches the same audience with the same effectiveness as easels do. The number of easels has increased in recent years, but easels have been used (both by resident groups and by the administration) for at least the last seven years.

At the Wednesday meeting, there will be the opportunity for brainstorming about ways to deal with tables and easels, along with other topics raised by Lisa’s memo.

Bring your ideas to the Wednesday 3 p.m. meeting.  The Wednesday meeting, which arose out of a series of email exchanges among residents, will be your opportunity to weigh in on these issues. Do you think there should be policies about tables, easels, and posters? If so, what should they be and how should they be created? Should the resident association handle this? The administration? What, exactly, should be the role of residents?

I hope to see you at the meeting. We need the broadest possible range of points of view represented. We need your thoughts!