Join or renew your membership

Join as a member of the SASY Neighborhood Association for the nominal fee of $5. It supports our work and gives you the right to run for a board seat, vote for board members, and vote on by law changes.

Welcome to the SASY Neighborhood

The SASY Neighborhood Association is a 501c3 not-for-profit organization. Our mission is to empower residents to engage in decision-making processes that affect life, business, and the natural and urban environments of the SASY and the east side of Madison. You’ll find static information on this site, including current board members, minutes of past meetings, neighborhood FAQ, and info on the Neigborhood and the Neighborhood Association. For more fresh information and photos follow our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and subscribe to our email group.

Board meetings are back IRL

After more than a year meeting online we’ve returned to in-person board meetings. As of August 12, 2021, our monthly board meetings will be held at our default location: Goodman Community Center. Occasionally, we may hold meetings in novel locations around the neighborhood. If we do that we’ll announce it on our Facebook and on our email group.

SASY has worked on a variety of projects to improve our neighborhood. A few of our efforts have included:

  • We’re a member of the Business development consistent with the neighborhood plan, including the Schenk-Atwood Business Improvement District masterplan
  • East Washington Redesign – traffic mitigation and design issues
  • East Isthmus Neighborhood Planning Council (EINPC) member
  • Friends of Starkweather Creek and other environmental initiatives
  • Improvements to Circle Park and Lake Monona shoreline
  • Review of new residential development
  • Olbrich Gardens master-planning expansion and projects
  • Development of the Garver Feed Mill property
  • Sustainability initiatives with Sustainable Atwood

To learn more about current topics of interest to the SASY neighborhood, visit our active email discussion list shown on our web site home page, or download a neighborhood brochure.

The Schenk-Atwood-Starkweather-Yahara neighborhood (most people just say SASY) is located on the near-east side of Madison, Wisconsin. It stretches from the Yahara River on the west to the Starkweather Creek on the east, from East Washington Avenue on the north to Lake Monona on the south.

The SASY neighborhood council was formed in 1999, and then incorporated in 2017 as the SASY Neighborhood Association. SASY Inc. works with our Alder on the Madison Common Council (we’re in District 6) to represent the interests of neighborhood residents, businesses and organizations.  

What we do:

  • We encourage and facilitate participation by our constituency in local government.
  • We convene SASY residents and businesses at regular monthly meetings (2nd Thursday of each month, 6:30pm at Goodman Community Center), and occasional issue-based neighborhood meetings.
  • We solicit the perspectives of SASY residents and businesses on issues that affect the neighborhood, and convey those perspectives to decision-makers and policy-makers.
  • We maintain communication with, and between, SASY residents and businesses, city agencies, and our representatives in local, county, and state government.
  • We produce AtwoodFest to raise funding for the organization and our programs.
  • We grant money to neighborhood groups and organizations for projects that improve the quality of life on the east side of Madison.  
  • We host the Summer and Winter Solstice celebrations at Olbrich Park.
  • We identify issues that may negatively affect our shared environment, and seek solutions for those problems.

AtwoodFest is an annual neighborhood music festival held on the last weekend in July on Atwood Avenue.  AtwoodFest is produced by SASY Neighborhood Association, in partnership with the Barrymore Theatre.

There are always plenty of volunteer opportunities available! Join a committee or run for a seat on our board of directors, volunteer at AtwoodFest or a Solstice celebration. Start here

SASY has several standing committees that  address a variety of issues and programs, including preservation and devleopment, traffic, environmental and special events. See more here.