ACSP Executive Committee Meeting

Wednesday, October 20, 1999

Chicago, Illinois

 

 

Members present: Sandi Rosenbloom, President; Bruce Stiftel, President-elect; Wim Wiewel, Vice President; Susan Bradbury, Secretary-Tresurer; Rolf Engler, Bursar; Dennis Gale and Chuck Connerly, Southeastern Region Representatives, Marcia Marker Feld, Northeastern Region Representative, Johanna Looye, North Central Region Representative; Tom Clark and Elise Bright, South Central Region Representatives, Genevieve Giuliano and Deborah Howe, Western Region Representatives, Lewis Hopkins, PAB, Cheryl Contant, PAB, Barbara Becker, FWIG, David Amborski, Conference Chair; Mickey Lauria, JPER; Katherine Hart, JPER Managing Editor, Jennifer Dill and Caitlin Waddick, Student Representatives; Nancy Frank, UPDATE Editor, Tom Harper, Canadian Liaison, Patty Pollak, Bill Page, Chris Silver, Vice President-elect; Michael Hibbard, Daphne Spain, and Pat Gleason, ACSP Association Administrator.

The meeting was called to order by President Rosenbloom at 8:17 am.

Minutes - Susan Bradbury

The summary of the minutes from the last Executive Committee which was held in Seattle, on April 23, 1999 were reviewed.

Motion: to accept the minutes was made by Dennis Gale and seconded by Wim Wiewel. The motion passed without dissent.

Bursar's Report - Rolf Engler

Some minor adjustments were made to the summary budget from the spring. The summary budget proposed for 1999-2000 shows the projected uncommitted funds to be $76,471. The projected balance at the end of the fiscal year 1998-1999 is $152,945.

The report shows the financial activity from April 20, 1999 to October 14, 1999. The balance on April 20, 1999 was $188, 518. Total income earned between April and October was $193,885. and the total expenses were $99,899., thus creating a balance of $93,985. for the time period April 20 to October 14. The ending balance as of October 14, 1999 is $282,504. (the net balance of $93,985 plus the bank carryover of $188,518).

Membership dues appear to be coming in quite well this year despite the increase in dues. Memberships appear to be holding steady. One reason why this maybe occurring is that to be in the Graduate Guide you must be a member, so Departments maybe continuing their memberships this year so that they can get in the Guide.

Motion: to accept the Bursar's report was made by Chuck Connerly and seconded by Dennis Gale. The motion passed without dissent.

Treasurer's Report - Susan Bradbury

The budget shows an up-dated version of the budget which was passed at the last Executive Committee meeting in Seattle. There are some minor changes to the budget, namely to the McClure award and Ritzdorf award. We had agreed to reduce the financial award to $100 (for both awards) but we failed to notice that they had already been advertised at $500. Closing cash balance on hand for the 1999-2000 proposed budget shows $49,068. As a result, the net assets for 1999-2000 are $69,849. Otherwise there were no changes to the budget.

Finance and Investment Committee Report - Susan Bradbury

ACSP requested bids from five accounting firms, three located in Tallahassee and two located in Boston. We received three bid proposals all from the firms in Tallahassee. The bid proposals were relatively similar in nature and were fairly close in price and the price generally corresponded to the amount we budgeted for last April. The Finance and Investment committee has reviewed the proposals and recommends that we hire Purvis, Gray and Company to do the financial review.

Motion: to hire the accounting firm of Purvis, Gray and Company to conduct ACSP's financial review was made by Dennis Gale and seconded by Gen Giuliano. The motioned passed without dissent.

 

President's Report - Sandi Rosenbloom

Since Cheryl Contant has changed schools she can no longer serve on the Executive Committee as the North Central regional representative. To fill this vacancy President Rosenbloom proposes that Johanna Looye serve as acting regional representative. Johanna has been elected to this position but her actual term is not slated to begin until Saturday.

Motion: that Johanna Looye serve as acting regional representative replacing Cheryl Contant. The motion was made by Wim Wiewel and seconded by Chuck Connerly. The motion passed without dissent.

Fannie Mae Foundation gives $25,000 to the ACSP to put on a conference track "Fannie Mae Foundation Housing and Community Development" track and sponsor a competition for best papers given in any track. There are prizes given in three categories: best student paper, learning from practice and best overall paper, each to be awarded $1000. Mickey Lauria has been selected this year to run the Fannie Mae best papers competition. Mickey ran the competition this year.

President Rosenbloom is starting a new award this year, known as the Presidential Service Award. A plaque will be given to an individual or individuals for their under-appreciated service contribution to ACSP. This will be given at the luncheon on Thursday.

A new ACSP committee will be formed which will handle fund-raising for ACSP. As the number of programs, services and activities expand there is a greater need for more money to fund these projects. This committee will search out alternative sources of funding and help set policies regarding acceptance of money. Sandi Rosenbloom will chair this committee.

Free Speech and the Internet

The Free Speech and the Internet Task Force was a joint ACSP/APA task force to examine the responsibilities concerning the internet. Ken Pearleman and his committee conducted some research and prepared a report. At the last ACSP conference in Pasadena, a President's roundtable session was held on the issue based on the report. A similar session was also held at the APA conference in Seattle last spring. The report which was submitted by the Free Speech and the Internet Task Force, once ownership has been established and approved it will be placed on the APA web site. It was suggested that a link be placed from our web site to the report.

AESOP Conference

Both President Rosenbloom and Robin Boyle, conference representative were invited to attend the AESOP meetings in Bergen, Norway this summer. In addition five ACSP Ph.D. students were able to attend the Ph.D. workshop. Three of the students received funding to attend the workshop from Fannie Mae Foundation. All said it was a wonderful experience and found it to be extremely worth while. This year's AESOP conference will be held in Brno in the Czech Republic.

Ph.D. Student Workshop

Given the success of AESOP's Ph.D. workshop, ASCP would like to implement something similar for our Ph.D. students using AESOP's as a model. Sandi Rosenbloom has agreed to continue to work on this after she steps down as ACSP President. AESOP's model involves taking students and a select number of faculty to a secluded location for several days. This provides the students with a great deal of interaction and they cover a number of different topics. What we need to consider is if we could put on something similar that could be supported by user fees (i.e. be self-supporting). Can we put something together for this summer? We all agree that this is an excellent idea, but we need to discuss the logistics concerning financing and organization. Need someone to step forward who would be willing to organize this event. It was decided that the summer setting is critical and that it needed to be held over a number of days, 3 or 4 in order to work. Decided to charge the officers to form a committee to identify the basic feasibility of the Ph.D. workshop. Also need to check with the Chairs at the Business meeting to see if they would be supportive of the idea.

Vice President's Report - Wim Wiewel

President Rosenbloom reported on the 11th Guide to Planning Programs and the institutional data collection. So far data has come in from 50 schools. Valerie Johnson, who is the Editor of the Guide will be at the conference for the next coupe of days and will be available to meet with any Chairs if they desire. Bruce Stiftel and President Rosenbloom met with Frank So in Seattle to discuss whether or not APA would be willing to sell the Guide. He agreed to take 500 copies this time. Previously APA sold 850 copies of the 10th Edition of the Guide. The publication date for the Guide is expected to be January 2000. Canadian Schools may need to accommodate their responses as appropriate. The information contained in the Guide will be put on the web so that the appropriate information will appear.

Data from the institutional data forms will be available shortly to allow for comparison among the schools.

Conferences

2001 Shanghai World Congress - Mike Hibbard

Four organizations have agreed to co-sponsor the World Planning Congress - ACSP, AESOP, APSA, and ANZAP. Each organization has identified an individual to act on their behalf and form a steering committee to organize the conference. The host of the conference is the School of Architecture and Planning at Tongji University. The goal of ACSP is not under-write the financial cost of the conference but to support the conference by encouraging our members to attend and to provide assistance in terms of organizing the conference. The general theme of the "Congress is Planning for Cities in the 21st Century: Opportunities and Challenges" and will be structured in a similar manner to our conferences in that there will be a number of tracks and track chairs who will oversee them. ACSP's Global Interest Group will be working to help organize the conference program. A preliminary budget has been put together which identifies that the local host has financial responsibility for the conference. If the Congress makes money then the surplus belongs to the local hosts, Tongji University. The registration fee is estimated to be approximately $280. Any advertising will be done through the various sponsor organizations.

Bruce asked if we need to sign a memorandum of agreement regarding the financial responsibility. It was suggested to Bruce that as ACSP President he should write a letter to Tongji University to clarify ACSP's responsibility or lack there of concerning financial commitment to the conference.

It must be remembered that this is not ACSP's only conference this year. The target number of ACSP members expected to attend the Congress is 50 to 75 participants.

2003 Joint ACSP/AESOP Conference

The Joint ACSP/AESOP conference will be held in Brussels and the University of Leuven has agreed to act as host. ACSP's representative to the conference is Robin Boyle. It was suggested that regional reps should start notifying schools to make them aware of this up-coming conference and to ask them to support Junior faculty who wish to attend, especially since this will be our only conference that year.

PAB - Lewis Hopkins

Lew presented a status report on the PAB including a budget document. The PAB have not raised fees in ten years and it appears that they will need to do so next year. Currently PAB receives half its funds from APA/AICP. The other half comes from the schools from the fees they pay as well as the costs incurred from a site visit. One of the objectives of this budget proposal is to establish a policy with regard to the PAB budget funds. The PAB proposes to change it fee structure next year, fiscal year 2001. This spring in April at the APA conference the PAB will set a new fee schedule. A letter outlining these changes will be sent out in the fall.

PAB Site Selection Committee - Mike Brooks

The Site Selection Committee accepts applications to the site visitor pool once a year and the deadline is November 1. Letters of application will be made to ACSP. The Committee will review the applications and make recommendations to the ACSP President and the President will then make recommendations to the PAB. Before you can go on a site visit you must receive training from the PAB. You can take your training early, however, it is only available twice a year, at the APA conference in the spring and at the ACSP conference in the fall. You must make a reservation ahead of time in order to reserve a place at the training sessions, with Beatrice Clupper. You cannot just show-up the day of the training session.

Conference Committee - David Amborski

ACSP is expecting a deficit for this conference in Chicago in the amount of $6000-$7000. However, the deficit would have been much worse had it not been for Wim Wiewel who was able to raise $20,000 locally to help fund the conference. However, we do expect to make money on the next two conferences: 2000 in Atlanta and 2001 in Cleveland.

Chris Nelson is the Chair of the local host committee for the 2000 ACSP conference in Atlanta. The conference will be held at the Omni Hotel which is adjacent to the downtown Olympic Park. Planning for the conference is well underway. Yet to be decided is the site of the opening reception, however, we do have access to the hotel ballroom for free.

Pat Gleason and David Amborski travelled to Cleveland this past summer to examine two possible hotels for the conference in 2001. Negotiations are still continuing, a contract has not been signed as of yet.

The 2002 conference will be held in Baltimore. It is expected that site visits to the various hotels will take place next summer.

This year some new track chairs have been introduced. Track chairs hold their positions for three years and the idea is that every year 1/3 of the track chairs will be replaced so that a consistent turn-over of duties takes place. A co-chair is needed to help with the Fannie Mae Housing track since it is becoming so large and someone is also needed to take over as Chair of the non-Fannie Mae Housing and Community Development track. A new track has been proposed on Regional Planning.

Some changes have been proposed and approved by the Officers and the Conference Committee to the conference for next year. The biggest change will involve on-line submissions using an on-line registration service and the introduction of a $25 submission fee with your abstract. The $25 submission fee will be non-refundable. The purpose of the changes stem from a need to improve abstract management, cover costs when people withdraw papers, and streamline the review process. The fiscal impact of the $25 fee is expected to be revenue neutral. Other changes associated with the conference next year include participants will not receive a printed preliminary program. All of these changes need to be communicated to the membership.

 

JPER - Mickey Lauria

Mickey introduced Managing Editor Katherine Hart and sent regards from Bob Washington who was unable to attend the conference. Mickey presented his report. He also announced the winner of the Chester Rapkin award, vol. 18 is Subhrajit Guhathakurta for his article "Urban Modeling and Contemporary Planning Theory".

New JPER Editor - Chuck Connerly

The Committee to select the new JPER Editors have met and have a recommendation to the Executive Committee. The transition period for the Journal will begin in January 2000 and they will take over actual publication of the journal as of July 2000 and they will serve a four year term as editors. Three submissions were received from the University of Oregon, University of Cincinnati and Georgia Tech. The Committee recommends that the University of Oregon's submission by Michael Hibbard and Edward Weeks in the Department of Planning and Public Policy be selected.

Motion: to accept the Committee's recommendation of the University of Oregon, Michael Hibbard and Edward Weeks as the next JPER Editors. The motion was made by Chuck Connerly and seconded by Dennis Gale. The motion passed without dissent.

Motion: to thank Mickey Lauria, Bob Washington and Katherine Hart for their hard work and excellence performance. The motion was made by Marcia Marker Feld and seconded Dennis Gale.

The Officers have decided to pursue exploration with commercial publishers to see if there would be any interest and what costs would be associated with such a venture. As a result an RFP has been issued to examine options. The results of the RFP will be brought forward to the Executive Committee in the spring.

UPDATE and ACSP website - Nancy Frank

Nancy has been busy making improvements to the website, including improving linkages and adding JPER information. She will continue to improve search engine access to locating the ACSP website.

Student Representatives - Jennifer Dill and Caitlin Waddick

A draft report of the survey results was handed out. The survey was administered by email to Master's students located throughout the country. The number of responses received was 350. The questions focused on career decisions and school choice. Any comments on the survey should be submitted to Jennifer Dill. It was suggested to put the results of the survey on the web site. It was suggested that the executive summary of the report could be placed in UPDATE. The information will be useful to schools. If possible it would be a good idea to make the actual data from the survey available to others who would like to conduct further analysis.

Students would like to establish a Ph.D. email list since students cannot be placed on Planet. The email list would be done at Berkeley and policies have been established regarding its operation. Concerns focus on maintenance of the listserv and the need to take responsibility for it in the future. The consensus of the Executive Committee was to approve the establishment of a Ph.D. student listserv.

FWIG - Barbara Becker

The FWIG Membership is growing. FWIG recently published the 11th Edition of the resume book and will be starting to work on the 12th edition shortly. The Margarita McCoy award will given this year. The FWIG luncheon will be held at the Art Institute this year and one of the topics for discussion focuses on the fate of the FWIG reception.

Global Planning Educators Interest Group - Ruth Yabes

The interest group has developed a listserv which allows them to communicate with each other. They are taking an active role in planning the 2001 conference in Shanghai and they are sponsoring a breakfast session at this conference. They are also working on a special issue of JPER on global planning.

Canadian Liaison - Tom Harper

Concern focuses on the lack of professional outlets for scholarly publication. The major journal PlanCanada has tended to focus more toward the practical side of planning at the expense of more academic pursuits.

Another concern focuses on the relationship between the Canadian Institute of Planners and planning schools. Planning schools are accredited by the provincial affiliate of the CIP and a typical site team consists of one academic and two practitioners.

Third concern focuses on ACSP awards and the eligibility of Canadian schools for such awards. The matter has been turned over to the Institutional Governance Committee and a decision will be forthcoming.

President-elect's Report - Bruce Stiftel

Bruce outlined that he had contacted some of ACSP's sister learned societies to see if they would be interested in cooperating with us on items of mutual interest. The one area of interest that came up concerned the Association of Public Policy and Management concerning the issue of minority fellowships. This will be explored in the future.

Latin American Schools of Planning are interested in creating an Association of Schools of Planning. They wanted some information about ACSP and wanted to know if we would be interested in providing them with some assistance and council in forming their association. Bruce said that we would provide what assistance we could and Bill Siembieda will be attending a conference in Caracas in early November to help advise them.

The Review and Appraisal Committee was formed to advise the President on ACSP activities. Three papers have been developed concerning Planning as an Art, Planning as a Science and Planning as Education. Part of what the committee has done is identify possible future ACSP activities. Issues that have been identified from the papers concern the positioning of the institution and disciplinary growth. The luncheon discussion focused on possible solutions for improving institutional position and disciplinary growth.

Academy and the Profession - Wim Wiewel

The purpose of this committee is to help schools deal with and hopefully avoid external and/or internal threats. The committee has recently focused on a more proactive approach. One of the activities of this committee has been organizing the Administrator's conference which was held in Chicago in May. The next Administrator's conference will be held in 2001. Gary Hack will be taking over as Chair of the Committee. The next objective of this committee is to produce a manual to develop strong planning programs.

Link with APA/AICP - Norm Krumholz and Glenn Coyne

There are several joint APA/AICP/ACSP events in Chicago including a session concerning Planning Practice and Education. The deadline for nominations for AICP fellows is November 12. The deadline for applications is December 15 for submissions concerning joint projects partnering an educator and a practitioner. One of the areas for joint cooperation between the two organizations concerns mandatory AICP continuing education. AICP is moving toward mandatory continuing education and AICP will be looking to ACSP to help provide that education.

Diversity Committee - Daphne Spain

The main objective of the committee is to provide assistance to schools to recruit minority students. The committee has provided a variety of different materials to help schools to recruit minority students. The Committee would like ACSP to send a letter to each Ph.D. schools suggesting that they use these materials to help them to recruit minority students. Perhaps we should approach minority schools and tell them about the profession of planning and encourage them to consider sending interested students to our programs. This type of effort could be done once the recruitment brochure is completed.

Ph.D. Committee - David Conn

The website for the Ph.D. Committee is housed at Virginia Tech and is linked to the ACSP website.

Mentoring Junior Faculty Committee - Randy Crane

The Committee is sponsoring a session at the conference.

Institutional Governance Committee - Patty Pollak

The Committee has produced a draft set of bylaws for ACSP that will be made available. The bylaws will replace the constitution and help to define ACSP's operating procedures. The committee will be meeting during the conference. It is hoped that the new bylaws will be ready review in the spring 2000 and adoption in the fall of 2000.

Nominating Committee - Bill Siembieda

Nominations are now open for the spring election. Nominating forms are available in your conference packets. Elections will be held for western region and south central region representatives. Remember it is schools that vote not individuals.

 

Reassessing Scholarship - Checkoway Report

Last year the Reassessing Scholarship Committee produced a report that re-examined ACSP's guidelines for Promotion and Tenure especially concerning service and outreach. While this document accomplished a lot it did not go far enough. Therefore more work will be done in the next year or so with this report to fully develop guidelines for promotion and tenure which will eventually brought forward to the Executive Committee for their approval. Sandi Rosenbloom and Norm Krumholtz as well as others will assist with this.

Strategic Communications Committee - Nancey Green Leigh

The Committee developed a survey which they have sent out and received information back. Approximately a 60% response rate was achieved. The survey consisted of six open-ended questions. The objective is to develop a strategic communications plan for departments that will help to increase the visibility of the profession. The results from the survey will be available in the spring.

Technology Committee - Bill Page

The Technology Committee has been working on establishing standards for ACSP web sites and it has offered advice on institutional data collection. Another area that the Committee will examine is distance learning.

ACSP Awards

President Rosebloom charged a task force last year to examine ACSP awards. One of the outcomes of that task force was the development of the Jay Chatterjee Distinguished Service Award. Also it was recommended that ACSP awards be standardized. However, some items are still left unresolved, such as how do we establish awards, how do we name them, how are they to be funded and who qualifies for awards. Need to develop a consistent set of guidelines regarding awards. Bruce brought forward a proposal concerning eligibility for awards. This could fill-in as ACSP policy until the Institutional Governance Committee brings forward their recommendations next year.

Motion: all student ACSP awards will use the following criteria: they will accept all student award nominees who are current or recently graduated planning students of an ACSP member institution (i.e. full, affiliate or corresponding member) exceptions could be made by the ACSP Executive Committee upon recommendation of the appropriate award committee. The motion was made by Bruce Stiftel and seconded by Gen Giuliano. The motion passed without dissent.

Motion: Faculty applicants or nominees for ACSP awards must be currently affiliated with an ACSP member school. Members for these purposes are defined as including individual, full, affiliate and corresponding schools. It was decided to charge the President-elect, Bruce Stiftel, to send this issue to a committee who will come back to the Executive Committee with a proposal regarding qualifications for ACSP awards.

PAB Diversity Language in Accreditation Document

Concerns were raised last year over the new diversity language incorporated into the PAB Accreditation document. As a result of these concerns President Rosenbloom convened a committee which has developed some new language.

Motion: to approve new language proposed for section 1.8 of the PAB accreditation document. The new language is as follows: The program's goals shall reflect the program's intent to achieve and maintain diversity in its student body and faculty and to incorporate into its curriculum the knowledge and skill needed to serve a diverse society. Consideration shall be given to a broad definition of diversity including race, ethnicity, sex, disability, sexual orientation, economic status and other factors pertinent to the program's mission. The program shall describe how its diversity goals relate to its mission and to the mission of planning education in general. (Note: steps taken and progress toward meeting these goals are addressed in Criteria 5.3, 9.4 and 11.3). The motion was made by Sandi Rosenbloom and seconded by Dennis Gale. The motion passed without dissent.

Motion: to adjourn the meeting was made at 3:05 pm.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

Susan L. Bradbury, Ph.D.

ACSP Secretary/Treasurer