Membership
Who Belongs?
According to the bylaws of the TNCA, every family that owns property in the Greater Tom Nevers Area is automatically a member of the association, regardless of whether they pay annual dues or not. Currently, there are nearly 600 TNCA members and all communications from the association are sent to all members. Those who wish to directly support the association’s many efforts on their behalf pay dues (just $50 per year) and become Voting Members. Most TNCA Members are Voting Members, and as such, enjoy the extra benefits detailed below.
Benefits of Membership
All Classes of Membership
- You’re part of an organization recognized by the Nantucket Civic League and the Island’s town and county administrative bodies as the official representative and spokesperson for the property-owners and residents of the Greater Tom Nevers Area.
- You’re part of an organization dedicated to the ongoing promotion, protection, and preservation of the residential character of the Greater Tom Nevers Area and to the promotion of agreed-upon betterments and improvements affecting the welfare of property owners and residents of the Greater Tom Nevers Area (e.g., reduced speeding, reduced airport noise, adequate fire protection, zoning compliance/changes, water quality, area planning, etc.)
- You’re kept alerted to all the important issues and developments that may impact the value of your property and/or quality of life via our TNCA Newsletters posted on this website and via e-mail.
Voting Members
- Based on our ongoing member surveys, your voice is directly represented in the lobbying efforts of the TNCA at the town/county administrative level. (Off-Island residents normally have little to no voice in town/county affairs!)
- You automatically become a member of the Nantucket Civic League, giving you even more clout. (See information on the Nantucket Civic League, below.)
- You’re eligible to attend and participate in our Summer Annual Meeting, voting on key issues and expressing your personal point of view. (If you can’t attend, you can vote by proxy.)
- You’re invited to our gala Voting Members Cocktail Party (usually in late July) to meet with all your neighbors in a relaxed environment and to welcome new members to our group. (All costs are covered by your dues.)
- You directly fund such key TNCA efforts as support for our Area Plan, fighting tax and zoning proposals that negatively impact our area, keeping our local roads and beaches clean, crowd control at Tom Nevers Field events like the County Fair, etc.
Annual Dues & What They Cover
Basic Membership – No charge
Voting Membership – $50 per family (tax deductible as allowed by law*) contributes to the on-going maintenance of the Nantucket Conservation Commission Tom Nevers area firebreaks and costs for our neighbor-hosted Annual Cocktail party each summer.
*The TNCA is a non-profit organization under IRS Code 501(c)(4).
Automatic Membership in the Nantucket Civic League
When you became a TNCA Voting Member, you automatically became a member of the Nantucket Civic League. Founded in 1903, the Civic League is an influential non-profit community-based organization that represents all 24 of Nantucket’s neighborhood associations.
The prime benefits of NCL membership? Strength in numbers and better information. For example, one neighborhood association might consider airplane noise to be their critical concern, another speeding. Through the Civic League, each neighborhood learns how others are dealing with that same concern. And in turn, the Civic League becomes the advocate at the Island-wide level for remedies to those concerns that will benefit all Island neighborhoods. Amplified music, mosquitoes, commercial operations impacting a residential area, salinity of drinking water, opening of our ponds, failed septic systems, and the threat of a 40-B development are all examples. From experience, members of the Civic League know that one neighborhood’s problem today might be another neighborhood’s problem tomorrow.
When the Civic League speaks, it does so for all 24 neighborhood associations, for nearly 2,000 families. And the whole community listens. Why? Because the Civic League has earned a reputation for doing its homework, for speaking out only after becoming informed and because the Civic League advocates not just for one narrow interest, but for the interests of the community-at-large.
And in the process, members of the Civic League become better informed about issues at both the local and Island-wide level. It gives them a year-round presence—and voice—on key issues. And most importantly, it enables Nantucket citizens to cast informed votes, both at the Annual Town Meeting and at the ballot box—through community forums and through the widely-watched “Meet the Candidates” and “Meet the Articles” Nights. These are becoming increasingly important as the Island’s issues grow more and more complex and the solutions become more and more costly. Informed voters casting informed votes benefit the entire community—both year-round residents as well as seasonal residents.
As a TNCA Voting Member, you become eligible to participate in all Nantucket Civic League activities and have 5 of your members appointed as delegates to the NCL’s Board. The Nantucket Civic League meets on the first Monday of the month at 4PM in the conference room of the Land Bank, 22 Broad Street.
How to Become a TNCA Member
Click here for a Membership Application Form. You may either:
- Complete and mail it along with a check for your annual dues to:
PO Box 3144
Nantucket, MA 02584 - Email the completed form to treasurer@tomnevers.org and pay electronically through PayPal at: https://paypal.me/TomNevers
- We also send out annual invoices to neighbors for whom we have valid email addresses, allowing your dues to be paid via credit card
You can also contact us via email:
info@tomnevers.org
Please include your name(s) as you wish to be listed, your Island property location, mailing address and phone number, your off-Island mailing address and phone number, if appropriate, your email address, and which location and email you’d prefer that we use for mailings.
Keeping Your TNCA Membership Up-To-Date
Also, be sure to alert us if you change your email or postal addresses, your phone numbers or any other contact information. Let us know ASAP so that we can keep your TNCA Newsletters and mailings coming to you uninterrupted.