PROJECTS

(updated 3/1/2012)

After trying a number of different kinds of projects, we’ve focused our efforts on building an interactive online presence and strengthening our relationships with APA. For the April 2012 conference we will build on our last two years of awareness-raising to directly engage our members in an open business meeting to chart our future course, and figure out what we can do with this ship we’ve built.

Our Activities

Online presence

WHAT: We’ve consolidated our open discussion / member interaction on our LinkedIn site (~1,500 members), since many professionals already have a profile there and the interface is reasonably good. Our static content is permanently housed here on WordPress via sustainableplanning.net, which can also be home for future projects. We keep presences on Facebook and Twitter, but that’s largely to drive people to the LinkedIn site.

We do have a mailing list (~1,000 subscribers), which we used quite a bit in the first year to raise awareness; it’s been supplanted by the LinkedIn site, and is currently only used to send out important announcements.

WHO’S INVOLVED: Daniel

APA Sustaining Places Initiative involvement

WHAT: Represent APA-SCP membership on APA’s Sustaining Places Initiative task force. This project was completed with the release of the Sustaining Places PAS report in Spring 2012.

WHO’S INVOLVED: Daniel and Ben were on the SPI task force. Angela plus three other APA-SCP supporters (Lester , Debra , Scott ) were on the SPI Corresponding Committee.

Presence at 2011 National Conference

WHAT: 2nd Annual SCP Reception, at the 2011 APA national conference.

WHO’S INVOLVED: Angela, Joyce, Seth, Peter

WHAT HAPPENED: Our reception was BIG — around 500 people. Our speakers (which included APA President Bruce Knight, and APA Sustaining Places Task Force co-chairs David Godschalk and Bill Andreson) as well as our Innovation Station communities were both very well-received and themselves pleased with the event. We also collected $110 at the door and many hundreds of new names for our membership.

Before the reception we also held two internal business meetings, which were very productive: we got some important decisions preliminarily made (final decisions come once the Coordinating Committee members who weren’t at the conference have a chance to weigh in), and had some good, solid discussions about goals and next steps.

Create Re-usable Content

WHAT: Develop basic, short content (slides and/or
paragraphs about that people are interested in) / talking points
about various aspects of Sustainable Community Planning for our
members to use as a resource in presentations and their work This
material could be sourced from our partnerships/sponsors, as well
as from our newsletter list (crowdsource it; give people
opportunities to be published and recognized). Perhaps it could
take the form of a “Sustainable Community Planning Wiki” (e.g.,
http://www.wikidot.com/ or
http://www.wikispaces.com/).

WHO’S INVOLVED: Aaron, Dana,
Sharon?, Nicole?

Showcasing

WHAT: This is one of the main things people have
asked for. Seek out and showcase top examples of sustainable
community planning.

WHO’S INVOLVED: Joyce,
Aaron, Sharon, Kevin?

Partnerships:

WHAT: Develop relationships with other
like-minded groups, including other planner groups (within and
outside APA) and other professions. Some folks have done some
initial networking; no formal partnerships yet. There’s lots of
potential for working with groups our people are already involved
with, both inside and outside APA.

WHO’S INVOLVED: Aaron, Ramona,
Nicole, Angela. Kevin? Joyce?

Internal Strategic Planning

WHO’S INVOLVED: Sarah, Ralph, Peter, and Aaron

Proposed Projects

** At the 11/9/10 meeting we agreed that if two or more core
APA-SCP people want to start on a project, they should be able
simply send a proposal to the Google Group
(apa-scp@googlegroups.com) — and if there are no objections, they
should feel free to proceed. We’ll try things this way and see how
it works.

Ambassadors Group: Recruit and manage allies to assist us
with networking, advocacy, and advice.
NEED: Someone to head this up; a plan for recruitment and
support.

Outreach: Work with Chapters and Divisions on having SCP
presence at their events? Direct outreach to specific audiences,
like students? Regular blub in APA magazine? Blurbs on APA website?
But first, we need more work on outreach, showcasing, etc.
WHO’S INTERESTED: Ramona, Julia.
NEED: Someone to head this up (or pieces of it); a plan for
assessing what we want to / can accomplish.

APA Legislative Advocacy: We need to look at things from
an APA legislative point of view; perhaps revive the APA’s 2000
“Policy Guide on Planning for Sustainability.” Keep on top of
existing National APA legislative proposals (via APA legislative
committee).
WHO’S INTERESTED: C.J.? Ralph can help.
NEED: Someone to head this up; a plan for determining what we want
to influence and in what direction.

Fundraising group
NEED:Someone to head this up, and a fundraising plan.

Advocate for new APA Sustainable Community Award: Sarah
was inspired by what she saw at European Green Capitals conference
, where an award like this was used. APA already has a “National
Planning Excellence Award for Innovation in Best Practices for
Sustainability”, but it’s not strictly focused on communities.
WHO’S INTERESTED: Sarah

Specific partnership with ICLEI on Community Star project
next steps?
STATUS: DL forwarded Sarah’s ideas on this to
Angela to assess if there’s an opportunity here.
WHO’S INTERESTED: Sarah, Joyce