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Chapter News Updated: April 14, 2008
Want to know what your district boundaries are? District Map 2007 DID YOU KNOW....
MnAPA Citizen Planner Committee Meeting St. Cloud City Hall December 21,2007
10:00 am August 17, Citizen Planner Committee Meeting Minutes: Approval of minutes was tabled. Discussion and Evaluation of November Video Conference: In general and other than the technical problems the video conference went fairly well. A high point was the local discussion facilitated by staff planners that ensued following the presentation. This seemed particularly effective among those who knew each other. Attendees and committee members thought it would be better to have the presentation live rather than taped even thought the presenter was available for questions following the presentation. One disadvantage of a live presentation is making sure the presentation adheres to the time frame. Technical problems included small pictures transmitted to remote sites and problems with the DVD transmission. Members thought a topic like that for the November video conference could benefit by having additional presentations with more detail such as, How to use the comprehensive plan, legal requirements etc. In general participants thought additional video conferences would be worthwhile. 2008 Training Ideas and Suggestions: Members seemed interested in pursuing web conferencing as a possible alternative to the video conference. The APA and the Lincoln Institute present web conferences for $195 a site. All that is needed is a speaker phone and computer to transmit the image to a screen. Some locations simply just do the audio portion. The programs provide resource materials and guidelines for a local follow-up. A disadvantage of this program is that there are set times for the program that cannot be tailored to local needs. Other web-conferencing ideas could involve locally produced programs along the same lines to a variety of locations in Greater Minnesota. 2008 Annual Planning Conference: One suggestion is to have special training program for citizen planners at the annual conference in Duluth making one day or segment of a day “citizen planners day.” For example, conduct training geared specifically to citizen planners on for example, Monday afternoon from 1:00 to 5:00. This could be followed by a half-hour to an hour facilitated discussion and food snack. The idea is to get citizen planners talking among themselves, meeting members of the committee and making suggestions on how the committee might serve them better. There would be a special fee for this event that would be in addition to the conference fee, probably around $70. Having the program at the beginning of the conference might entice a few to stay for the whole conference. deas and suggestions will be solicited from other citizen planner members unable to attend today’s meeting before exploring feasibility with conference planners. You, too, can sponsor a MnAPA brown bag lunch The brown bag lunches have been a successful way to get a group of planners together to discuss or learn about a specific topic. Do you have an idea of a topic that could be covered in about an hour? If you do, consider holding a brown bag lunch. It is easy and fun and any member of MnAPA can do it! I have put on numerous brown bag lunches and it is quite simple. The following are my suggestions:
BOARD MINUTES and ANNUAL RETREAT MINUTES Board attendance at the meeting included: Carolyn Braun, Jen Zierke, Holly Butcher, Adam Fulton, Anita Rasmussen, Sam Woods, Sam O’Connell, Peg Schmid, Carissa Schively-Slotterback, Mark Grimes, Bruce Peterson, Brad Scheib, Lance Bernard, Dan Jochum, Robin Caufman, Michelle McPherson, Wayne Hurley, Andrew Mack, Bob Graham, and Jean Coleman. Call to order and Introductions. I. Approval of Minutes from November. Bruce Peterson so moved and Scheib seconded. Minutes were approved. II. Treasurer’s Report Bernard reported the balance of the checking account was $45,572.79 and savings was $9,763.15. The outcome from the conference was $11,215.38. It also was reported that we need to build up funds for the 2009 national conference because of the marketing expenses involved. Approval of Treasurer’s Report. Jochum so moved and Peterson seconded. Report was approved. III. Report – Districts/Committees A. Conference 2008 Report Fulton and Butcher provided an overview of the 2008 conference in Duluth. The conference will be Monday through Wednesday. The first two days will be at the DECC and the Wednesday morning sessions will be at the Holiday Inn where the rooms are reserved. A website for the conference is in the works. Once again, MnAPA is working with Blue Cross/Blue Shield on some of the conference topics. The program committee and other committees have begun to meet. There are several different tracks being planned for the conference including rural and small town and professional development. Mobile tours will also be included. Discussion was held regarding how many CM credits should be offered at the conference. Moving the board meeting to Wednesday morning at breakfast to offer more CM credit opportunities was discussed. A harbor tour is planned, and there is an issue whether to include the cost of this into the conference registration or to make it a separate item. B. Conference 2009 Report Braun provided an update on the 2009 conference and reports she has met with National APA. She indicated National does a lot of the work. Carolyn provided a list of the conference committee chairs. The chairs are responsible for getting members on the committee. There are over 90 mobile tours done at the conference, and each mobile workshop requires a tour host. The Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce will help with the MN booth at the Las Vegas conference to market the 2009 conference, including financial contributions. Greg Krushke is interested in finding out who from MN is going to the Las Vegas conference. He is the publicity and media relations co-chair and wants to find people interested in working at our booth in Las Vegas. C. Standing Committee Reports Membership Committee – Scheib indicated Mike Darrow and Ben Gazola have been moving forward with the membership committee. The membership brochure was sent out to the leadership of MnAPA. This brochure is to be distributed as necessary to tell others about MnAPA. Program Committee – Grimes indicated brown bag lunches are being planned for every month and also been very successful in recent months. A Twins game and golf outing are being planned for 2008. Awards Committee – McPherson reported the committee is considering a breakfast awards ceremony on Tuesday of the conference. The awards nominations for this year are due on July 11. A brief discussion on whether there should be a streaming powerpoint or DVD to highlight awards. There has been negative feedback regarding this issue but others have complained about the awards presentation as well. Misc. – Sam O’Connell gave an overview of the Minnesota Design Team. She indicated they are looking for volunteers from MnAPA to assist with MDT team visits. Legislative Committee – Andrew Mack indicated he wants to work with the program committee in the future. There is more information regarding the legislative committee later in this report. Director Reports SW District – Bruce Peterson reported there have been some local contentious issues in his district related to Comp Plan/Zoning relationship, as well as jurisdictions confused on authority. Bruce also is doing some education for elected officials. Central District – Anita Rasmussen – Reported that on April 24 there will be a brown bag lunch on Housing issues in conjunction with the Initiative Foundation. NE District – Holly Butcher also discussed the teleconference. NW District – Wayne Hurley reported that his district is working on a Western MN truck route to connect I-94 near Fergus Falls. Also he reported that School Emergency Management Transportation Plans have been discussed. This is an opportunity to help school districts in the area with transportation planning. SE District – Bob Graham said there has been community outreach to discuss planning issues, including an access management handbook. Metro District – Kate Garwood – no report. Jen Ziereke – no report. Student Report – Sam Woods – Sam is interested in setting up a mentor program for MnAPA so students can gain more technical expertise. Lobbying Information – Carolyn reported we have no new information regarding lobbying. IV. Budget. Bernard gave an overview of the proposed 2008 budget. The legislative committee is requesting $2500 and a carry forward from last year. This will be covered later in this report. V. Web Page Maintenance Peg indicated she talked to 3 people regarding web page maintenance. The price ranged from $32 to $60 per hour. The idea is to chose somebody and use them as needed, instead of using a set amount of hours per month. Megan will continue to do web posting. Bernard made a motion to put a $1,200 cap on web page maintenance for 2008. Recommendation is to use Eric Schmid at a cost of $32 per hour. Seconded by Caufman. Motion carried. VI. Set Meetings for 2008 The meetings were set for the 2nd Friday of every month until the conference. The meeting will be Friday afternoon at 2:00 PM. Bob Graham made a motion that we agree on a working budget at today’s meeting. Scheib seconded. Motion carried. Annual Retreat Minutes I. Professional Development A. CM Kate Garwood indicated that Professional Development is considering buying CD’s or DVD’s for CM training. As of right now we haven’t gotten any approval on which CD’s/DVD’s will be approved for training. Kate indicated APA has been slow at approving CM classes. It has been around 6 to 8 weeks turnaround. Encouraging providers was also discussed. The question asked was how do we do this? A grant was discussed as incentive for providers to provide CM credits. The grant would be from MnAPA. A question was asked if MnAPA could have a donation that would cover these costs. Handling conference sessions was also discussed. Brad suggested we need to set a policy or make a motion on what the conference is expected to make in terms of profit. If it was decided that we wanted to make a profit every year the profit could go for education of MnAPA members. For example, 5% profit could be built into the budget that goes for education of MnAPA members. B. Ethics – Dues Periodically somebody is using the AICP designation and not paying dues. Dan Jochum suggested they be brought up on ethics violation charges with the AICP commission if it isn’t a simple oversight that they aren’t paying dues. Kate and Peg will develop a policy to deal with this situation. C. FAICP Committee National is seeking nominations for FAICP. Carissa believes there should be a committee to look at this. The committee could be out front of the nomination process. Hurley made a motion to create a FAICP nomination committee. Scheib seconded. Motion carried. Schively-Slotterback will chair the committee. II. Committee Issues A. Legislative Committee
Andrew Mack and Jean Coleman came to the meeting to discuss
legislative issues. Discussion revolved around a past memo on legislative
actions that was presented to the Board in July 2007. The Legislative
Committee is requesting $2,500 for 2008 for Legislative tracking. Jean Coleman reported that the DNR is looking at updating the shoreland management rules and are looking for up to 4 MnAPA members to be on the committee. Carolyn will have an email sent out to ask if anyone is interested in being on the committee. It was also noted that new co-chairs will be needed for the legislative committee. Carolyn will appoint Jean Coleman and Andrew Mack legislative committee co-chairs contingent on Janet Jeremiah’s resignation. Jochum made a motion to appoint Coleman and Mack co-chairs of the legislative committee contingent upon Jeremiah’s resignation. Seconded by Bernard. Motion carried. B. Awards Committee The comments above regarding the awards committee will serve as this report. III. Requests for Sponsorship/Participation Peg Schmid provided the following information. Blue Cross/Blue Shield has been asked to become involved in Complete Streets. They want someone from the MnAPA Board to become involved in this. Sam Woods volunteered to sit with the Complete Streets project. The MOU with the Manitoba Professional Planners Institute was briefly discussed. Carolyn will send out the signed MOU. Anita Rasmussen will volunteer as the MnAPA representative for the U of M accreditation process. Green Communities has asked for MnAPA support. We will support them without money by sending out e-mails and other applicable information. IV. Goals and Objectives for 2008-2009 More information should be added for citizen planner goals. There is a need for someone to organize more effectively for citizen planners. A discussion about how MnAPA serves citizen planners ensued. A question was asked if MnAPA is the organization that can best serve citizen planners. Dan Jochum suggested that MPA previously did this but nobody from MPA has stepped forward to do this with MnAPA. Steve Reckers has done very well with what he has done so far. Further discussion is needed. Job Descriptions Committee chairs should put together job descriptions and goals for the next year for their committees. Misc. Discussion There are numerous MnAPA policies that should be documented and consolidated into one document. Jochum volunteered to outline a one day CM training session (mini-conference) that would attempt to provide up to 8 hours of training in one day somewhere in the Twin Cities. The session would go from approximately 8 AM to 5 PM. Also discussed a possible MOU with MASLA on working together with conferences, etc. Meeting adjourned at 3:30. Motion by Hurley, second by Ziereke. Motion carried.
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Minnesota Chapter American Planning Association |
