[APA-InfoTech Leaders] APA-IT DIVISION: 2007/11/02nd Meeting Minutes

[pi at spatiallink.org]

[pdf with graphics attached]

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Technology Division of the American Planning Association: Executive
Committee
Meeting Minutes

02nd November 2007 [1:00 - 2:00 EST]
1-888-245-4141
X 394006

Attendees
1. Ken Snyder, Chair
2. Jennifer Cowley, Vice-chair
2. Harsh Prakash, Secretary/Treasurer
4. Judy Tjiong, Division Coordinator

	Ken called the meeting to order shortly after 1:00 PM and brought-up
the following agenda for review:

1. Approve Agenda
2. Leadership Meetings (Harsh report out)
3. Website Evaluations for Other Divisions
4. Newsletter: Name, Design and Article Solicitation
5. APA National Awards Etc.
6. Next Steps/Next Meeting
7. Other

	Harsh started by sharing his experiences at the 2007 APA Leadership
Meetings:

	'Soon after the registration on Saturday, APA unveiled its plans for
the Certification Maintenance (CM) program- it was the biggest news
coming out of the meetings and got discussed throughout the weekend.
Saturday also included opportunities for division networking.

	The Divisions Council (DC) sessions were held on Sunday. At these
sessions, the newly unveiled revamping of CM was discussed, chiefly how
it would open doors to registered private service providers offering
credits towards maintenance, and how the divisions could play similar
provider roles. The main concern voiced by members was how these changes
could turn CM into a money-making program, thus making it more expensive
and beyond the reach of some deserving members. Note that APA presented
only tentative costs. In other items, APA informed the divisions about
their website upgrades scheduled for spring 2008 and requested
suggestions.

	The DC Business Meeting was held on Monday. In it, the APA Development
Plan 2008-2009 and budgets, and DC Workplan and budgets were put
forward. The 3 main agenda items were- moratorium on new divisions;
sunset provision of 3 years as performance period for inactive
divisions; and creation of Natural Hazards Division. The main concern
voiced by DC was its declining membership in spite of the rise in APA's
overall membership. In response, APA informed DC of its division
marketing initiative. The Business Meeting also included a paper
presentation by the Gays and Lesbians in Planning Division (GALIP).
Other agenda items included DC elections and appointments.'

	(Since I left early, the following are end-notes from Vicky Carrasco of
the Latinos and Planning Division):

	'A vote was approved to recommend a 1 year moratorium on creating new
APA divisions. However, this vote was not to approve or recommend all
the alternatives presented in the referenced document, including the
"300 members" sunset provision. The 1 year would be to further evaluate
recommendations, division transformation, challenges etc.'

	As advised by Ken, Harsh said that he specifically approached the
following divisions for possible collaborations- Environment, Natural
Resources and Energy Division; Small Town and Rural Planning Division.
He also talked with other similar divisions that interest- Indigenous
Planning Division; Latinos and Planning Division. Harsh suggested to DC
that the divisions be enabled to provide web-based credit trainings and
thus, reduce their providing costs. On website upgrades, Harsh suggested
enabling a survey tool or a common account with SurveyMonkey
(http://www.surveymonkey.com/). He also suggested a website analytics
tool for the divisions. On the proposal for a new Natural Hazards
Division, Harsh preferred that it be part of the existing Environment,
Natural Resources and Energy Division, especially since divisions were
loosing membership. On the division marketing initiative, Harsh offered
the division's services to map APA membership by division, region and/or
state for a summary view.

	Moving onto website updates, given the lack of activity, Ken informed
the committee that he would call Lyle next week to ask him to relinquish
his position as Website Chair.

	On newsletter article solicitation, Ken again informed the committee of
their general lack of participation. Harsh shared his experiences with
the OSGeo Journal (http://www.osgeo.org/journal). He suggested that
since the task of article solicitation for a 8-12 page newsletter was
proving frustrating, the newsletter be broken down into smaller chunks
by professional niches like GIS, GPS, Visualization/Modeling etc. and
the section solicitations be then divvied-up among interested members
with any remaining blanks being filled-up by "filler" items. Ken
mentioned that this would make the newsletter a "state of the practice"
newsletter. He suggested 1 themed feature article to go along with the 1
page blurbs. Jennifer advised that the division rethink spending big
money on its conference booth, and instead think about spending more
money on its newsletter. Judy recommended including their award winning
papers. Harsh also asked Judy to write about the San Diego wildfire
given her proximity to the event. Judy replied that given her time
constraints, she could not promise anything, but that she would look
into it.

	Later, Jennifer brought-up their new newsletter template for
discussion. The members shared their views of the header design. Ken
also shared the results of their name survey: approximately 47% of the
division members voted for 'Planning & Technology Today' as their
newsletter name.

	On their Awards Program, Jennifer informed the committee about changes
in award categories to better match participation.

	The committee scheduled its next call on 12/07th/2007 (1 PM EST).
Finally, Ken adjourned the meeting.

Respectfully recorded
Harsh Prakash
Secretary/Treasurer

Attachment(s):
(1)
[graphic]

(2)
American Planning Association
Division Membership Comparison
By Division
FY2005 - FY2007
				
Division	FY2007-3	FY2005-3	+ or -     2005 Q3  to  2007 Q3	% of
difference 2005 Q3 to 2007 Q3
City Planning & Management	760	980	-220	-22.45%
County Planning (4/2007)	46	NA	NA	NA
Economic Development	780	874	-94	-10.76%
Environ. Natural Resources Energy	792	907	-115	-12.68%
Federal Planning	438	385	53	13.77%
Gays & Lesbians in Planning	164	174	-10	-5.75%
Housing & Community Development	472	497	-25	-5.03%
Indigenous Planning (4/2004)	102	109	-7	-6.42%
International	355	404	-49	-12.13%
Latinos & Planning (11/2006)	67	NA	NA	NA
New Urbanism (4/2002)	590	487	103	21.15%
Planning & Law	832	896	-64	-7.14%
Planning & the Black Community	254	256	-2	-0.78%
Planning & Women	165	171	-6	-3.51%
Private Practice	276	305	-29	-9.51%
Regional & Intergovernmental Planning	174	134	40	29.85%
Resort & Tourism	265	305	-40	-13.11%
Small Town & Rural Planning	740	838	-98	-11.69%
Technology (formerly Information Technology)	372	438	-66	-15.07%
Transportation Planning	1430	1,529	-99	-6.47%
Urban Design & Preservation	910	950	-40	-4.21%
 	 	 	 	 
   Totals by Quarter	9,984	10,639	-655	-6.16%
(3)
[graphic]  
(From: pi at spatiallink.org
Subject: [APA-InfoTech Leaders] APA Leadership Retreat: 2007
Sent: Fri Nov 2 12:25:44 CDT 2007)
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