Draft — letter of resignation from Gordonston volunteer participation

Status: DRAFT ONLY — NOT SENT, NOT ISSUED. This file is a backup plan if the neighborhood does not hold an affirmative vote on the issue below before the Gordonston Art Fair needs people who have done my volunteer work. It can be revised or thrown away if GNA, trustees, or leadership meet that bar. Nothing here counts as notice until I send a dated copy to named recipients.

Why this draft exists now: I am not picking a random deadline. The next Gordonston Art Fair is expected late 2026 or early 2027. Ads, tickets, and payment setup usually start months before the show. Anyone planning around gordonstonartfair.com, vendors, or my past web work needs advance warning — I will not help hand things off to someone else, and I will not volunteer again until the neighborhood has voted and agreed as described below (or I send this resignation before that fair).

Author: Ari Asulin Draft date: 2026-06-04

Minimum (vote and agreement — must happen to withdraw this draft)

This is not a demand that the park reopen tomorrow. I am looking for a vote and neighborhood agreement on one issue:

The neighborhood agrees — by an affirmative vote — that Juliette Gordon Low Park will reopen to Twickenham as part of any serious reconstruction or rebuild effort (signage, grounds, Mary Calder Cottage, playground, policy — whatever you call the project). That commitment does not have to carry a completion date. I know it may take time to find money and make plans. What I need settled is the principle: Twickenham is in, not permanently outside the fence.

What satisfies me: A real vote is held, it passes in the affirmative, and the outcome is clear that reopening to Twickenham is part of the neighborhood’s plan for the park going forward.

What triggers this resignation (before the next Art Fair):

• The vote does not happen, or
• The vote fails, or
• The vote is delayed past the point where fair planning would normally pull me back in — delay is the most likely failure mode, and I will treat endless postponement the same as a no.

I live on the edge of an apartheid, but I won’t support it. If this neighborhood cannot vote yes on Twickenham as part of repair, I will not keep volunteering through another fair season.

Timeline (not something I made up): The vote needs a clear outcome before the Art Fair production ramp — ads, tickets, payment processing — would normally pull me back in months ahead of a late-2026 or early-2027 fair. [Insert send-by date once fair committee publishes its calendar; until then treat “before summer/fall 2026 web & vendor lock-in” as the practical warn-by window.]

If the vote does not happen, fails, or is run out on delay, I intend to send the letter below (or a tightened version) and follow through — no transition help, no return to fair or neighborhood volunteer work until that agreement exists.

Strong preferences (not required to withdraw this draft): Once the vote passes, I still want leadership to adopt reasonable rules in writing that mitigate their concerns (noise, wear, liability, whatever) — not blanket bans that shut out whole neighborhoods or user groups; Avondale treated like Twickenham on access; and real repair on the grounds, not signs alone. I am not prescribing head counts or a rulebook from the outside. Those are how I think a healthy park should run — they are not what this vote has to schedule.

Not part of the minimum (notes for the letter): Everything in “Leadership” below is context — why trust is gone, not part of the vote ask. Dog-owner access, deferred park repair, and Hollywood beyond “last straw” are not conditions to withdraw this draft.

Letter (draft text — not sent)

Subject: Resignation from Gordonston volunteer participation — park access vote not held or not passed

To Gordonston Neighborhood Association leadership, Juliette Gordon Low Park trustees, and neighbors who use this corridor for children:

I am writing to resign from volunteer work in Gordonston neighborhood programs, events, and web projects I have helped with (including gordonstonartfair.com and related outreach), effective [date].

I am putting this in writing now — while this file is still a draft until the vote below fails — because the fair’s calendar drives the timing, not my mood. The next Gordonston Art Fair is slated for the end of this year or early next year. Ads, tickets, and payment setup all start months before the event. People who have counted on my web work and fair-season help deserve warning before that ramp starts. I will not help with handoff or train a replacement. I will not help again — not with the website, not with fair operations, not with neighborhood programs — until the neighborhood has voted and agreed as described below. That is not a bluff; it is lead time.

This is not drama for its own sake. I asked for something small and concrete: a vote and agreement.

What I asked for: That this neighborhood vote — and pass in the affirmative — that Juliette Gordon Low Park will reopen to Twickenham as part of any real reconstruction or rebuild you pursue. I am not demanding a reopening date. I am not demanding that money appear overnight. I know plans and funding can take time. I need the principle settled: Twickenham is in, as part of how this corridor fixes the park after 2011 — not left outside the fence forever.

What I got instead: No vote, a failed vote, or — most likely — a vote kicked down the road until fair season would drag me back in without an answer. That is the same as no to me.

I am not asking for a park with no rules. I am asking you to come up with reasonable rules that mitigate your concerns — not blanket bans that write off Twickenham, Avondale, dog walkers, or ordinary families. Posted hours, permits for heavy use, and Mary Calder Cottage rental are fine if they are fair. I am not setting a number or handing you a script; that is your job as stewards. Those norms are preferences once you agree Twickenham belongs in the rebuild; they are not what the vote has to calendar.

I asked for a neighborhood decision, not a lawsuit. I live on the edge of an apartheid, but I won’t support it while leadership will not even vote yes that Twickenham is part of the fix.

The history I was sold — and the history I learned

When I first moved here, neighbors kept telling me how wonderful the history is. I believed it. I wanted to belong to a place that sounded like a children’s legend made real.

Since then I actually learned the history — not only the brochure version. Gordonston’s children-first tradition helped inspire the world: Juliette Gordon Low, the park gift, troops and Brownies on this ground for decades. The record includes many Black Scouts and, at certain points in council history, prominent Black leadership in the Girl Scouts — not a footnote, part of what this corridor once carried openly.

What I learned next was the more recent story — the one that seems to have erased much of what used to exist here. Over time, Black children were no longer welcome in the park culture that older press and older neighbors still invoke. That drift did not stay informal. It hardened — gate scenes, Residents Only, the 2011 fight that never finished — until exclusion read as a permanent rule for people on the wrong side of Gwinnett. I can only imagine what Juliette Gordon Low would think if she could see the neighborhood as it operates today: the worldwide children’s legacy on one side of the sign, Twickenham’s children on the other.

I am not saying every trustee or volunteer acts from malice. I am saying I cannot put my name on your fair, your website, or your closed groups while the day-to-day practice betrays the founding story neighbors still tell newcomers. I hope this letter helps others see that — not as politics, but as conscience. Vote that Twickenham is part of the repair, and you start to fix the story. Until then, my labor and my name stay off your volunteer stack.

It is starting to seem those fixes are not possible here — not because the will and the history are gone, but because current leadership has let this place become divisive, fractured, intimidating, and petty — easy to deny in public, easy to joke off, and still documented for anyone willing to look.

Leadership (not the vote — why trust is gone)

The vote above is only the floor — what I would need to stay in the room. Everything here is not part of that vote. It explains why I do not trust the culture that sets the rules.

This place has become divisive, fractured, intimidating, and petty. I do not say that for effect. The same script keeps running:

• Twickenham — an entire neighborhood written off by the feud and the gate, as if one long fight could erase decades of ordinary use.
• Dog owners — the same pattern: one incident at the iron gate becomes the story forever, and a whole group of neighbors loses the park. I do not like that. Whole neighborhoods — and whole user groups — should not be shut out because leadership would rather freeze a single bad day than post fair rules. Something should be done for dog owners as well — posted access, ordinary leash-and-cleanup norms, an end to permanent exile over one gate fight. That belongs in a healthy park culture. It is not part of the vote ask; it shows why I do not trust who sets the rules.
• Deferred repair — Mary Calder Cottage, the playground, and the grounds could likely have been fixed long ago if whole neighborhoods next to Gordonston had been partners instead of shut out. When you treat Twickenham, dog walkers, and fair-season volunteers as problems, you should not wonder why things rot and the volunteer bench empties.

I could go on about gossip, who gets heard at the association table, and who is told to “petition” at a gate. I am not asking you to agree with every sentence. I am saying the vote exists because leadership would not move without forcing the question.

The last straw (Hollywood / Facebook)

The Hollywood incident was the last straw — not the first wound, and not what this letter is mainly about. I could write at length on taxpayer-backed police, traveling crews, and industry money that never hits a neighborhood ledger; I will not do that here. What matters for this resignation is what happened after I spoke on Gordonston on Facebook:

An admin (Jack Taylor, on the public record) deleted a post about filming and public cost before I could finish a reply, purged my posts, removed me from a group used for cat rescue and other programs, and denied any path to appeal the rule he alone interpreted. His public note cited “no politics” and “no personal attacks” while admitting I was complaining about being banned — I had not attacked any neighbor before or after removal. The framing did not match what I had actually posted. The hardest part was not one admin: almost no one spoke in the thread when it mattered. Private messages of support came after — after the fact does not matter. Everyone watches. I already know I am not crazy and should not be treated this way as a neighbor.

The intimidation factor

By intimidation I do not mean only loud threats. I mean what happens when people break their own rules and the norms neighbors claim to believe in — and everyone looks the other way.

One example: a hashtag campaign was developed and posted around this dispute. Someone messaged my wife and asked her to ask me to remove my post. In the end I agreed — but only because of a deal I made with my wife, not because the neighborhood square had answered anything on the merits. From the outside that can look like me giving in to people who are willing to break the rules to get their way. I could describe what that opens at home only as the start of a spouse war — pressure routed through family instead of answered in public. I will not run my household or my name through that again for the sake of a Facebook group.

From the gossip I have already heard about this neighborhood, I can see how that pattern is normal here: when it happens, nobody calls it out. People watch. Private messages arrive later. After the fact does not matter.

That is the same pattern as the admin delete and the purge — easy to deny, easy to laugh off, still real. I cannot keep showing up in a place where breaking norms is routine and calling it out is optional.

I will not pretend this is a healthy neighborhood square that treats good-faith questions as politics, censorship as goodwill, family pressure as consensus, and silence as peace.

What I am stepping back from

• Further volunteer work on the Gordonston Art Fair website, ticketing, ads, and payment processing tied to the fair.
• Transition support — finding vendors, training a replacement, or keeping systems warm so the committee can pretend nothing changed.
• Showing up for neighborhood programs and events in a volunteer or organizer role — ever again, unless the affirmative vote above has passed first.

What I am not abandoning

• My home on this corridor.
• My daughter — you may still see us at the park only to bring her there when access allows; that is parenting, not volunteering for your programs.
• My right to speak outside closed groups — including the public record in Make Gordonston Great Again and linked investigations.

If leadership later holds a vote that passes in the affirmative — Twickenham included in any neighborhood reconstruction or rebuild plan for the park, with no requirement that I set the construction timeline — I will reconsider helping again. Until then, consider this resignation firm.

It is nothing personal toward individuals I have worked with. If you disagree with what I have said here — about the park, the ban, the silence, the intimidation — then for you it may be personal. I am still writing as a neighbor who hoped this place could match its story.

Respectfully,

Ari Asulin [Address / phone — insert before send] ari@asu.edu

Internal notes (strip before send)

• Recipients (draft): [GNA board contact, park trustee contact, optional copy to city council district office if author chooses — not listed here.]
• Do not send while vote window is open unless leadership clearly refuses a vote, delays past fair ramp, or vote fails.
• Art Fair calendar: Confirm committee’s published date; back-plan months for ads/tickets/merchant processing before locking send-by date.
• Transition: Author explicitly declines handoff — recipients must plan alternate web/ticket lead without author labor.
• Tone check: Letter is resignation from volunteer participation, not a threat to leave Savannah.
• Jack Taylor: Named because of public admin statement on record; not a demand for personal punishment.
• Hashtag / wife message: Author-supplied; messenger not named in send version unless author chooses. Strip or soften if sent to wide list.
• “Spouse war”: Author phrase — consider whether to keep in letter to trustees vs. reserve for private cover note.
• Dog owners / single-incident pattern: Not vote tier; moral context only — same pattern as Twickenham “whole neighborhood written off by one incident.” 2011 press dog-walker gate scene: dossier R1.
• Mary Calder Cottage / deferred fix: Author opinion — alienation delayed repair; not part of vote floor.
• Vote floor: Affirmative neighborhood vote that Twickenham reopening is part of any rebuild/reconstruction; no completion date required; delay = trigger same as fail.
• Hollywood: Last straw in letter only; full ethics lane in MGGA.
• Black Scouts / Girl Scout history: Author ethical read; expand with dossier primaries if letter is sent. Not proven: racist intent behind every trustee act — lived exclusion + 2011 press (R1).

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