[APA-InfoTech Leaders] APA-TECHNOLOGY DIVISION: 2007/04/16th Meeting Minutes
pi at spatiallink.org
pi at spatiallink.org
Thu May 3 19:06:36 CDT 2007
***
Technology Division of the American Planning Association (APA):
Annual Business Meeting- Summary Minutes
16th April 2007 [6:00 - 7:00 PM EST]
Room 204 A
Philadelphia Marriott
2007 National Planning Conference
Philadelphia PA
Ken called the business meeting to order shortly after 6:00 PM and
brought up the following business meeting agenda for review:
1. Annual Division Awards Ceremony
2. Annual Business Meeting
3. 2007 - 2008 Proposed Work Plan
Ken thanked the division members for their active participation and
congratulated the lucky-draw winners for their 1 year memberships. He
also thanked Jocelyn Hittle, Harsh Prakash, Gene Roe and Jason Levy for
their volunteer efforts. He then thanked the division sponsors- ESRI and
PCIA, for their generous assistance with the conference.
Ken welcomed Gene Roe (autodesk.com) as Membership Chair, Gordon Hansen
(talgov.com) as Policy Chair and Jason Levy (wwu.edu) as Conference
Chair.
Ken announced the winners of the Annual Division Awards. He thanked
Jennifer Cowley for her work on the awards. He then presented the
following certificates and checks:
Student Paper
1 Benjamin Alden $500 + 1 year membership
2 Ahmed Baha El-Deen Abukhater $500 + 1 year membership
Outstanding Use of Technology
1 City of Sheboygan WI- Crisis Command $100
2 East Central Florida Planning Council $100
3 MyRegion.org (http://www.myregion.org/) $100
4 University of Florida $100
5 Virginia Commonwealth University $100
Ken informed the division members about the newsletter changes- how 3
out of 4 newsletter editions have been turned digital to save costs;
adding that the operating conference budget was approximately $7,400.
He confirmed the division's name change from 'Information Technology
Division of APA' to 'Technology Division of APA'. He also talked about
planned improvements to the division website. With regards to the
website, he mentioned 2 interested candidates for the vacant Website
Chair position. He then informed about the mutually-beneficial
agreement with Planetizen wherein the division would write a newsletter
article about Planetizen and receive a posting in return.
Finally, Ken adjourned the business meeting.
Respectfully recorded
Harsh Prakash
Secretary/Treasurer
***
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: [APA-InfoTech Leaders] APA-IT DIVISION: 2007/04/05th
Meeting Minutes
From: pi at spatiallink.org
Date: Fri, April 13, 2007 3:26 pm
To: APA-InfoTech Division Leaders <apa-infotech at list.planning.org>
Arriving Saturday early morning with booth paraphernalia. See you all
soon.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [APA-InfoTech Leaders] APA-IT DIVISION: 2007/04/05th Meeting
Minutes
From: pi at spatiallink.org
Date: Fri, April 06, 2007 3:56 pm
To: APA-InfoTech Division Leaders <apa-infotech at list.planning.org>
***
Information Technology Division of the American Planning Association:
Executive Committee Meeting Minutes
5th April 2007 [1:00 - 2:00 EST]
1-888-245-4141 X 394006
Attendees
1. Ken Snyder, Chair
2. Jennifer Evans-Cowley, Vice-Chair
3. Harsh Prakash, Secretary/Treasurer
4. Judy Tjiong, Division Coordinator
5. Mike Gritz, Immediate Past Chair
6. Gene Roe, Membership Chair
7. Gordon Hansen, Policy Chair
Ken called the meeting to order shortly after 1:00 PM and
brought up the following meeting agenda for review:
1. Confirmation of New Chairs
2. National Planning Conference (APA 2007):
a. Logistics
b. Events
c. Reception
d. Booth
3. Newsletter Update
4. Planetizen Posting
5. Next Steps/Next meeting
6. Other
Ken informed the committee that he had received several
responses to his earlier email that would help fill 3 out of the 4
vacancies for chair positions. He welcomed Gene Roe (autodesk.com) as
Membership Chair, and Gordon Hansen (talgov.com) as Policy Chair. He
also welcomed Jason Levy (wwu.edu ), not present, as Conference Chair.
He also announced his decision to award the conference seat available
with the division to Jason who would be conducting a panel presentation
on Geospatial Technology and Hazard Mitigation at the upcoming
conference. With regards to the vacant Website Chair position, Ken
mentioned 2 interested candidates.
Ken then talked about Leadership Events scheduled on the
first day of APA 2007, specifically the Leadership Development Training
Event (2:00 PM - 6:00 PM). He asked Harsh to try to attend as many
events as possible. Harsh replied by saying that he was planning to
arrive at the conference after Friday evening, but that he would look
into it. Ken also asked others to email their arrival times and days
for better coordination.
He then shared his discussions with Susan Turner,
Leadership Affairs Coordinator (planning.org), and her ideas on
membership outreach, including a 20 minute slot for showcasing division
activities. He mentioned that Gene had already prepared a draft
presentation for this showcase which will be held on Saturday, the 14th
(11:00 AM).
Ken then listed division-related conference events. He
mentioned that for their Annual Business Meeting and Reception to be
held on Monday, the 16th, he had reserved Room 204 A (5:45 PM - 7:30
PM). He also shared the following meeting agenda:
1. Annual Division Awards Ceremony
2. Annual Business Meeting
3. 2007 - 2008 Proposed Work Plan
Harsh informed about his weekend registration and thus,
his availability on only Saturday and Sunday. Judy told Harsh that the
division had around 6 - 12 booth passes that did not require
registrations, if he was interested in attending the business meeting
on Monday. Mike advised that this information regarding exhibit hall
passes be first verified with Deene Alongi (planning.org). Harsh said
that he would look into it and coordinate his times and days with Ken
via email. Judy notified about her inability to attend this year's
conference.
Later, Ken congratulated Jennifer and Amiy for their work
on the Annual Division Awards. He also told the committee that their
newsletter prints were ready in time for the conference. Harsh asked
Ken to have the printer invoice the division as needed.
Then Ken discussed his design for the booth banner. He
said that he had gone ahead and updated the division name in view of
the upcoming near-certain 'name change' approval by APA. He also
notified the committee about ESRI's generous assistance in printing and
shipping the booth banner.
The committee later discussed ideas for the booth. Ken
talked about collecting business cards, and handing out newsletter
prints, listings of technology-related conference events and reception
invitations. He added that since only around one-third of the division
members were planning on attending the conference, the division would
also send out its newsletter to the entire membership via mail and
email.
He also shared other attention-grabbing ideas for the
booth, viz short demonstrations, trivia quizzes, questionnaires,
sign-ups etc. Jennifer suggested having candy bowls at the booth. Harsh
added that given the long queues for emails and spotty wireless
availabilities from past conferences, a laptop providing internet
access would also help. On laptops, Ken talked about setting up a video
loop of planning tools as eye-candy.
Gene pitched his idea for a lucky-draw. Harsh reported
how in the past the division had given away free memberships to the
winners. Ken suggested having a draw a day. He also announced a
presentation on case-studies and decision-support tools by an attendee
tool provider.
Later, Ken informed that since Chris Steins
(planetizen.com ), Milton Ospina (tpl.org) and other 'old-timers' were
not attending this conference, he would need more volunteers,
especially for Tuesday, the 17th.
While on Chris, co-Editor-in-Chief of Planetizen, Ken
mentioned the mutually beneficial arrangement with Planetizen wherein
the division would write a newsletter article about Planetizen and
receive a posting in return. In reply to an inquiry from Harsh
regarding invoices, Ken clarified that the exchange would not require
any invoicing. He also informed that Jocelyn Hittle (orton.org) was
working on this deal.
Later, Harsh promised to email this and other archived
meeting minutes searched during their annual report preparation. Ken
briefly talked about that 25 paged 2005 - 2007 Annual Report.
At the end, the committee discussed possible dates for
their next meeting and eventually settled on Friday, the 4th of May
(1:00 PM - 2:00 PM [EST]).
Finally, Ken adjourned the meeting.
Respectfully recorded
Harsh Prakash
Secretary/Treasurer
***
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [APA-InfoTech Leaders] APA-IT DIVISION: 2007/01/26th Meeting
Minutes
From: pi at spatiallink.org
Date: Thu, February 08, 2007 12:36 pm
To: APA-InfoTech Division Leaders <apa-infotech at list.planning.org>
***
Information Technology Division of the American Planning Association:
Executive Committee Meeting Minutes
26th January 2007 [1:00 - 2:00 EST]
1-888-245-4141 X 394006
Attendees
1. Ken Snyder, Chair
2. Jennifer Evans-Cowley, Vice-Chair
3. Harsh Prakash, Secretary/Treasurer
4. Judy Tjiong, Division Coordinator
5. Robert Smith, Telecommunications SIG Chair
6. David M. Simpson, Research Chair
7. Christopher Steins, Past Chair
Ken called the meeting to order shortly after 1:00 and
brought up the meeting agenda for review:
1. APA-IT Division Elections: Chair, Vice-Chair and Secretary/Treasurer
(next steps and timeline)
2. Nominating Committee (need 3 people not in elected positions to help
facilitate the nomination and election process)
3. Appointed Positions: Communications Chair, Research Chair,
Telecommunications Chair, Education Chair, Policy Chair and Newsletter
Editor will remain appointed positions (next steps and timeline)
4. Membership Retainment and Recruitment (plans for calling expired
memberships, presenting at APA, Planetizen Banner)
5. APA 2007: Recruiting volunteers for -
a. Getting the printed version of the newsletter ready to hand out at
the conference
b. Assembling a booth committee to design, equip and identify people to
tend the booth
c. Identifying a Reception Committee to prepare for our business
meeting, reception, and awards ceremony
6. Next Steps/Next Meeting
7. Other
David asked for a count and Harsh confirmed the presence
of a quorum.
Ken asked the members if the appointed positions should
continue as-is. Judy asked whether the inactive members were still
interested in their responsibilities. Harsh agreed with Ken on sending
personal emails to the inactive members to find that out.
Harsh then asked about interest in the elected positions.
Jennifer expressed her willingness to continue in her elected position
if the other members were satisfied with her duties. Robert too
expressed his willingness to continue at the pleasure of the
membership. Ken in turn expressed doubt over his commitment for the
entire duration of his elected position- 2007 to 2009. Jennifer and
David advised him to focus on the current election and "run as
necessary".
Jennifer then asked if there were any openings to bring in
some fresh blood. Ken repeated his intention to send personal emails to
the inactive members like Joe DiStefano, Policy Chair, to ascertain if
there were any such openings. David said that although he has not been
actively involved of late, he planned to redo the benchmark survey. Ken
informed him about a student in Wyoming who may share a similar
interest. Judy added that since she would not attend this year's annual
conference in Philadelphia, she would not be as active as their Division
Coordinator as last year. Harsh asked if she would be interested in
assuming the role of their Policy Chair. Judy replied by saying that
she is currently unaware of its entailed responsibilities and would
need more time to decide. Ken suggested emailing about the electable
and appointed openings to the entire mailing list to generate
competition. Both Jennifer and Harsh agreed with his suggestion.
Then Ken brought up the task of getting 3 nominations for
their Nominating Committee. David volunteered to be on that committee.
Robert suggested that these nominations should also be opened to the
entire mailing list to generate competition. Ken agreed with his
suggestion and asked David to play the lead role on this committee by
sending him an email requesting 2 other nominations.
After this discussion, Harsh asked if the members felt
that his Secretary/Treasurer position be divided into 2 positions-
Secretary and Treasurer, like some other divisions. Ken asked him to
continue as-is if he felt that all his responsibilities could be met by
1 position.
Motion:
Harsh asked the members if they could think of any new position that
could be created. After discussion, the group decided on creating the
role of a Membership Representative. Ken passed the said motion while
David seconded it.
Finally Ken suggested 2007/02/09th as the deadline date
for accepting statements for all positions. He asked Chris to email him
descriptions of the positions from past year. Harsh informed the members
that the electable positions required current memberships with APA, but
that requirement may not be applicable to the appointed positions.
Then Ken brought up the issue of APA's Petition Rule which
prohibited the use of electronic devices for submitting votes. Chris
confirmed this current restrictive requirement for mail ballots. So Ken
suggested that the members amend their bylaws to circumvent this
prohibition. Chris shared his experiences as Past Chair while dealing
with a similar circumvention. The members agreed to amend their bylaws
and seek the necessary votes in their next newsletter. Jennifer
expressed her confidence in getting these necessary votes.
Chris offered his idea of using SurveyMonkey.com for
voting. On voting, Harsh said that the APA ID be used to verify member
status for all votes submitted. Ken suggested that the Division Roster
can also be used for verification. Finally Ken suggested the following
deadline dates:
1. 2007/02/22nd: Voting through SurveyMonkey.com
2. 2007/02/23rd: Result verifications and announcements
Chris also offered the use of Planetizen.com and its
newsletter that reached over 15,000 subscribers to help the division
retain and recruit members.
Later, Jennifer briefed the members on the 2007 Award
Competitions. She informed them that the number of nominations was
considerably lower compared to last year- Infact the "B est Use of
Technology for a University Urban and Regional Planning Program"
category had received no nomination. Chris offered her the use of
Planetizen.com's banner advertisements to help spread the word.
Jennifer replied that the extended deadline had already expired, but
she would consider his suggestion for next year. She and Chris also
discussed how invitation emails need to be worded appropriately to
avoid being looked upon as spam. Ken shared his experiences using
Google Docs for such collaborative editing.
Finally, Ken adjourned the meeting.
Respectfully recorded
Harsh Prakash
Secretary/Treasurer
***
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