Formation of the Aiken Council of Neighborhoods began following a trip to Rock Hill, South Carolina, by Cynthia Mitchell, Shelby and Diane Saunders. The group met with the Rock Hill Council of Neighborhoods to gather information about the organization, how it began and operated. After returning to Aiken, Ms. Mitchell then brought together another group of community leaders who traveled to Greenville, South Carolina, to meet with and gather information from their Council. Following the trip to Greenville, Ms Mitchell invited the President of the RHCoN and Rock Hill’s Neighborhood Empowerment Coordinator, Terry Windell, to Aiken to meet with Aiken’s community leaders. Shortly after that meeting, a group of approximately ten leaders came together to author the group’s bylaws and elect officers. It was felt that each neighborhood would have a stronger voice if we united and spoke to neighborhood issues as a group with a common purpose rather than speaking as individual neighborhoods. One of our original goals was to gain tax exempt status (501(C)(3)) which ACoN accomplished in 2017.