The Arlington County Civic Federation opens the new year with a renewed emphasis on recruiting new organizations and better serving all member groups.
“In the new year, I’m planning to work with members to expand the recruitment strategy and to renew and update the strategy and actions for member support that were developed a few years ago,” the chair of the reconstituted membership committee, Jacqueline Snelling, said in the January edition of The Civic Voice, the organization’s monthly newsletter.
Civic Federation president Nicholas Giacobbe told ARLnow the committee will serve several functions.
“We’re always looking at ways to grow the membership, and not only actively recruiting possible new members, but having a group to review applications for membership,” he said.
Founded in 1916 by six civic associations, the Civic Federation’s ranks have grown to approximately 80 organizations — some neighborhood-based, others broader in scope.
“We have some applications pending. There’s an area in Potomac Yard that is not covered by any civic association that is interested in forming a new group,” Giacobbe said. “Plus, we have a couple of condos who are in the process of putting together applications.”
The committee will also focus on membership support and services, including soliciting — and acting on — feedback from membership, he said.
The new committee chair, Snelling, has long been active in the organization and broader civic life in Arlington. In 2024, she received the Civic Federation’s Order of Distinguished Meritorious Service, a rare honor presented for sustained achievement.
The committee’s strategy “strives to bring together civic groups with diverse perspectives and backgrounds to discuss issues and to seek collaborative solutions to issues,” Snelling wrote in January’s Civic Voice.
Member organizations pay $65 per year and are entitled to designate both delegates and alternates. There is no option for individuals to become members, although meetings are open to the public both in person and via Facebook.
Organizations also sometimes depart the Civic Federation, whether due to declining membership or, in the case of the Arlington NAACP in 2023, over policy disagreements.
Plans are also coming together for the Civic Federation’s annual banquet and awards ceremony, slated for April 24.
This will be only the second annual banquet since the one held in the spring of 2019. The events went on pause from 2020 to 2023 due to the pandemic, and in 2025, other priorities took precedence for the organization.
“We’re trying to ease back into it and doing an every-other-year tempo to get started,” Giacobbe said.
The 2024 dinner was held at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, marking the organization’s 108th anniversary. Attendance exceeded 100 people, down slightly but not significantly from 2019.
The 2026 banquet will present a variety of honors. They will include the Civic Federation’s biggest annual award, the ARLnow Cup, presented for outstanding achievement in civic leadership.
The award traces its roots to the mid-1930s and has outlived four previous sponsors, all primarily print-media outlets: the Washington Evening Star, Journal Newspapers, the Sun Gazette and the GazetteLeader.
The inaugural ARLnow Cup was presented to Portia Clark last June for her activism on education issues and longstanding efforts on behalf of the Green Valley community.
