Attendees:
Jamie Steffen, Kerrie Diers, Pierce Rigrod, Sandrine Thibault, Ben Frost, Jim Campbell, Angela Vincent
Call to Order:
The meeting of the New Hampshire Planners Association (NHPA) was called to order at 9:15 a.m.
Minutes of December 1st, 2005:
The minutes of the January 26, 2006 meeting were unanimously approved.
Treasurer's Report:
Steffen provided a Treasurer’s report. Steffen noted that there are still numerous membership renewal checks to cash, which will be reflected on the March Treasurers report (provided in April). Steffen also said that he filed the Non-Profit report that needs to be submitted every 5 years. Members approved the report from January/February 2006 unanimously.
NHPA’s Professional Development Conference:
It was mentioned that we will have June Hammon-Rowan conduct her survey workshop at our October Annual meeting. NHPA will $500 toward the workshop and provide the food. The training would involve developing public surveys.
NNECAPA Report:
Vincent gave an overview of the preliminary discussion about this year’s NNECAPA workshop with the NNECAPA committee. A final theme idea has been drafted by the COG:
The Evolving Planner
"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent,
but the one most responsive to change."
- Charles Darwin
There will still be three tracks: Energy, Environmental/Water Resource Planning and Community Planning. The workshops will be presented in various ways from using charrette style, lectures and ResultsLab which is a computer-based workshops format. The COG has been working hard on securing all of the workshops with three subcommittees formed to work on the tracks. The Thursday night reception is still being planned, but members were leaning more towards having a beach party in back of Church Landing with entertainment, etc. More details to come.
Thibault updated the members on the $1,000 grant program. An email was sent out several weeks before soliciting proposals. She received 12 proposals for projects ranging from Master Plan updates to website development to zoning rewrites. Thibault asked the members to look at each of the proposals and ranks them. Members commented that if this is going to be done from year to year, criteria need to be established to assist with ranking.
After discussing and voting, three proposals were chosen: Meredith (Main Street Program Charrette), Beaver Lake (watershed group support – website, management plan, etc.), Fitzwilliam (online survey of town residents about vision and concern for future growth and development in Fitzwilliam).
Website News & Updates:
No report per Diers from Czysz.
Strategic Plan:
Diers handed out a copy of the Strategic Plan. What has been done before is to chose portions of the plan to create a workplan for the upcoming year(s). Diers will email out a copy of the plan for everyone. Members should take a look at the Strategic plan to discuss at the next meeting.
Newsletter:
Pierce Rigrod asked if we ever did a formal newsletter. Members discussed bringing the newsletter back instead of using the website for it. It was decided that our current format was not working well because there were no deadlines. Rigrod has some ideas for a Spring/Summer newsletter including: conference updates/registration, updates on projects around the state, events, etc.
Legislative Issues:
Ben Frost reviewed the current legislation that is of concern to NHPA (spreadsheet handed out). The members discussed how best to deal with distribution of the Legislative update. This is a service we are offering our members as part of their dues, so the members voted unanimously to keep it to the NHPlanners listserv and post it to the website
Old & New Business :
Vincent brought up Planning Awards. In an effort to be prepared for the NNECAPA awards when they come up in July, she suggested that NHPA start soliciting award nominations from New Hampshire Planners. It was suggested that we stick to the four types of awards – Citizen Planner, Professional Planner, Plan of the Year, Project of the Year. The committee will discuss at the next meeting.
Next Meeting : April 27, 2006 at 9:30am
Adjournment: Move to Adjourn, 11 am.
Respectfully Submitted,
Angela Vincent