After its second meeting to discuss the city’s idea to boost community involvement within Seattle’s 13 neighborhood district councils, some members of the Northwest District Council were concerned that increasing the amount of stakeholders could shake the the focus of council goals.

In a partnership with Imago Organizational Design, the city's mission is to work with each of Seattle's district councils to support their ongoing efforts to engage and involve all community members within their district, according to the Department of Neighborhoods.

The cities 13 district councils are composed of representatives from community organizations within that district, which makes recommendations to the city on a number of issues.

“The Department of Neighborhoods recognizes that the groups are already doing a lot of great work, so it’s an opportunity to strengthen what’s already happening,” Angela Powell, a primary consultant from Imago Organizational Design previously told the Ballard News-Tribune.

Powell attended the most recent Northwest District Council meeting for the second time and presented the organization's findings about how the district council is performing and evolving.

Three major themes came out of the analysis, said Powell: 1) How does the council engage and get groups involved? 2) Should the council re-establish its bi-laws? 3) Should the council create outreach strategies?

Gloria Butts of the Broadview Community Council said communication has been one obstacle the district has had in increasing community engagement.

“We have no way to communicate to the community because we don’t have a newsletter so there’s a big communication gap in this location and there’s an even bigger budget gap," she said.

She added that the city should realize that the Northwest District Council is in a senior district with many who are disabled, making it difficult for them attend community meetings.

“If we really want to be inclusive, can we have transportation to the meetings?” asked Will Murray of GAIN (Greenwood Aurora Involved Neighbors).

Irene Wall from the Phinney Ridge Community Council said that those who are already associated and come to meetings regularly attend because it benefits a cause they support.

“There are probably things we can do to make participating in council more attractive, but really people come because they have a mission and they know they can get the city to support them somehow if they attend,” Wall said.

Wall also added that a possible downside of being more inclusive is that the district may end up over-promising. But Wall suggested that could be combated by reinventing district councils and giving them more authority.

“That could be an attractor to a lot of different groups who would come to the district council,” she said. "It would be more of an attractive forum for people that wouldn’t necessarily want to stay and join forever but would have a membership for a period of time when they have a common interest discussed.”

"The point of this (project) is to see if there is an opportunity to include people that have not been included before," said Powell.

She added that involvement could also be increased through activities planned by the council.

“It’s an opportunity to participate in that together and see where you end up,” Powell said.