Maine Association of Planners
Board Meeting
2/8/2008
Minutes
Next Meeting: Note change of date: Wednesday, March 5th 1:30 PM in Brunswick to be followed by the SPO Sponsored AICP training at MaineDOT (we need to have a specific meeting location for Brunswick)
Attending: Linda Johns, Jim Fisher, Steve Condon, Hugh Coxe, Beth DellaValle, Helen Edmunds, Jane LaFleur, Maureen O’Meara, Judy Colby-George, Fred Marshall, Rebeccah Schaffner, Stacy Benjamin

1.         Minutes of January 11 Meeting Approved without revision

2.         Strategic Plan Update discussion - starting with Goal 3
Goal #3: To provide recognition of the important and valuable contributions

• Continue the current practice of Annual Awards program and increase statewide media coverage of the event
• Develop a legislator of the year award for the elected official that promoted some important aspect of planning

No suggestions for projects coming out of  Goal 3
Goal #4 To build capacity and improve the caliber of planning in Maine

• The Association shall actively support the creation of a Graduate Planning Program at the University of Maine. 
• Suggest that the association present a letter to the university supporting the Muskie School
• Hugh will contact Jack Kartez to see what efforts the faculty think might be helpful.
• Tabled until the next meeting
• The Association shall assist colleges and universities to place planning interns in municipal, regional and state planning offices.   The Association shall contact schools with undergraduate and graduate planning and other related degree programs and offer assistance with their intern programs.
• Board discussed ways that we can support Muskie School internships
• Concerns were raised about costs of formalizing internship programs
• Need to find out what USM faculty want and can manage
• The Association shall at least once a year develop and present a professional training program of timely interest to planning professionals.

The board discussed whether MAP should offer a grant for graduate studies ($500 or $1,000)

• Rebecca pointed out that Muskie is not accredited, so it is difficult for students to get competitive scholarships.  Given this, MAPs support would be welcomed.
• Hugh is planning to talk with Jack Kartez about the MAP-USM relationship

Discussion of Enhancing internships

• Communication: MAP can provide information to students and towns through out website and  list serve.
• Communication: MAP pays for an advertisement in the Maine Townsman providing information about opportunities
• Clearinghouse: Might have a page on the website dedicated to this purpose. The current jobs page is probably adequate.
• Create a page for students seeking jobs
• MAP could provide competitive funds to towns to hire interns

Goal #6
To foster cooperation and communication between the Association and the national, state, regional and local planning organizations, planning boards, boards of appeal, students, private groups and interdisciplinary professionals, and educational and government institutions.
Policies:
Develop and promote workshops for lay planners especially in the areas of basic legal procedures.  Cooperate with MMA and the Regional Planning Agencies with this program.
The board discussed ways to provide additional educational opportunities

• How can map assist with training for lay planners? 
• Stacy noted that SPO funding may decline for training.
• Training sessions are being presented. Perhaps we can video some of these presentation and provide copies to planning boards.
• MAP might partner with SPO to make DVDs available for training.
• UTube – have up to 9 minutes
• MAP can also partner with regional planning commissions for outreach to small towns.
• The State Bar Association is also a good partner – law offices provide training to towns, sometimes free as a recruitment tool.  Some law offices send out newsletters to towns.

Present a training session at the annual MMA Convention that would be of interest to a wide variety of municipal officials.   Wherever possible involve other professional groups in the development and presentation of the training session.
Promote the use of the MAP Home Page as a forum for sharing planning ideas and other technical information.

• Rebecca asked whether there would be a way to retain lessons learned from the list serve.  It would be good to be able to go back to the discussions, but it is difficult. 
• Jim suggested that the person who launches a dialog provide a summary of lessons.
• Jim noted that hiring a list serve moderator who would know how to summarize dialogs would be costly.

Goal #7
To provide an advocacy role in policy development at all levels of government.
Policies:
Continue the advocacy and review role of the Association's current legislative committee.
Encourage increased membership participation on this committee.
Explore the possibility of creating a lobbyist position in cooperation with other associated groups to pro-actively influence legislation that impacts planning, land use, economic development, and the environment.
Develop a training program targeted for legislators that explains the importance of planning.

• Beth thought this idea was interesting.  Would need to be repeated regularly.
• Webinar / UTube and other internet solutions – might archive these so that people can tap in when they like.  Judy does this already for her business.
• Brochures, DVDs and other deliverable content

Develop a speaker's bureau using the expertise of the current membership and offer this service to state and local government, and private organizations.
3.         MAP Promotional materials:
            •Display Board - Judy
            •Brochure - Judy

Judy sent out her draft documents.  The board recognized this as a very good start. 
Fred will look for more report cover graphics for the poster.

MAP Brochure

• Target audience: People interested in becoming planners
• Who we are?
• What is planning? 
• NNECAPA has produced a good brochure about planning.  We can purchase these, put a MAP sticker on them and have them at our booth.
• This can come out of our brochure in that case.
• Judy is interested in ideas for replacement information for this center panel.
• What we do?

Address on the brochure

• The board decided to emphasize the website as a point of contact rather than a postal address or phone number.
• Membership forms need to have an address, which can be that of the membership secretary.  We might also use a sticker if we need to print a lot of brochures at one time.

4.         Continuing Education
            •GIS session – Judy

Her session has been planned and is ready to go. Need more information for the MAP website.

            •MDOT / SPO sessions - Kat Fuller

We need to do a better job about promoting these events. 
Information about the sessions is somewhat scattered.
The Session at Bowdoin was not promoted widely.

• Bowdoin did not have a sign-up sheet.
• Need to get our protocol in order

Action: Jim will contact Kat Fuller to verify when to post these sessions on the MAP webpage.

            •NNECAPA web series session – tabled until next meeting.

            •MAP Annual meeting with Uri Avin, Scenario Planning
Kat Fuller, offering to have the meeting coordinated with Gateway 1. 
The date has not been finalized – but looks like Thursday, June 5th
We need to finalize time and place before we can send out registration materials.

Jane has the awards process under control. Documents are posted to the MAP website.

5. Growsmart downtown initiative - Matt accepted and attended the meeting

6.         Newsletter - Rebeccah
            •2008 Schedule
            •electronic newsletter - Matt

• Rebeccah is waiting for a couple more articles, but needs to go to press soon.
• This saves MAP funds, $1,000 per year
• Some newsletters contain forms that people fill out and send back.
• Constant contact – software for distributing newsletter content to lists
• Maureen would like to send out two issues electronically and see how people react.  Jim suggested that we might need to run it for a year before people become accustomed to it. 
• Beth: We can offer options between paper or email. 
• Motion to send out next two electronically -

Website – Rebeccah has been making inquiries about professional services to redesign and manage the website. Her initial inquiries suggest that it is possible to find someone who works in the software we currently use. She indicated that she is awaiting a cost estimate.  She will report back next month about her findings.

7.         Other items from Board members

NNECAPA is looking for a legislative liaison – meet 3 to 4 times per year. One meeting occurs in New Hampshire.

• Maureen advocated the experience.
• Rebeccah offered to explore this.

Beth
– A legislative floor fight is likely over amending the Informed Growth Act
- Vernal pool program, looking into whether AICP credit may be possible – this would have to happen quickly.  Nobody volunteered to do this.
- Newsletter – for April 11 deadline. 
- Need to have a nominations committee appointed for the next meeting.  Beth and Jim volunteered.