Lawrence has given us the green-light to implement the redistricting of our NETs around topographical boundaries rather than around the rigid political boundaries of neighborhood associations. This will do away with inane situations where some people must travel a couple miles to get to their staging location while another NET is literally operating across the street!
This is a major change and will likely impact every NET. Some NETs may be merged (or divided). Some people will change NETs, so your team may grow or shrink. In the end, however, our NETs will be more efficient and serve their areas better.
Everything is open for discussion at this point, but the preliminary idea it to redefine our NETs around the current staging locations. You will self-select the NET which makes the most sense for you (e.g. easiest to get to). But your NET may no longer be covering the same area as before. You may be taking on new (adjacent territory), but are likely giving up other (more distant) territory.
While this makes a great deal of logistical sense, there are, nonetheless, problems to be worked out. For example, what about NETs which might span larger political boundaries (e.g. SWNI/SWHRL)? And since we are moving away from neighborhood association boundaries, we should probably move away from naming our NETs after them too. We should probably name them after staging locations.
One advantage to this new approach is it should expose hidden gaps in the coverage area under the current neighborhood system. I doubt that any SW NET is currently capable of covering its entire neighborhood association boundaries.
This will be a major topic for discussion at the next “All-hands” SW NET Gathering near the end of August. We would like to come away from the gathering with these issues firmly worked out, with new names for the NETs, and a roster of each NET’s members. But in the interests of efficiency, it is my hope we can discuss the merits and pitfalls of this plan here on this page well before the gathering. Ideally, we’ll go into the gathering with a firm plan in place, and all we need do is work out the details of staging areas, names, coverage areas, and rosters.
If you have thoughts about any of this, please post a comment below. (You must be logged in to post a comment. If you do not have an account, why not sign up for one right now? It’s free!)
the redistricting
I'd like to get up to speed on people's ideas for redistricting SW NETS. My first thoughts are large physical barriers, such as freeways and rivers, and then communications. A NET on every hillside for line of sight radio communication would require a large number of teams! Do we want to retain about the same total number of teams?