After returning from Leadership, Chapter Presidents Council, and the APA Board meetings at the National Conference in San Antonio I have lots of exciting national news to report. But first, an Illinois APA item…

I am sure that all of you have noticed that there is no Illinois APA State Conference this spring. However, it is our turn to host the Upper Midwest (“Four State”) Conference this fall and preparations are underway. The conference will be held at the Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles, a far western suburb of Chicago, on October 4-6, 2006. This location affords us the opportunity to provide a high quality and affordable conference in a location near to interesting planning case studies in the western suburbs of DuPage County, Kane County, and along the Fox River. Details on the program content will be available in the next News Blast!, but circle October 4-6, 2006, on your calendars and plan on attending.

Rob Kowalski of the City of Champaign and Phil Bus in Kane County will serve as co chairs of the Four State Conference. Both will be looking for volunteers to help out with the conference in a variety of tasks. Please contact Rob or Phil, or the chapter’s administrator (John Paige) to work on conference organization.

At the national level, many exciting things are happening. The leadership meetings in San Antonio focused on the accomplishments of the last year, the goals of the next two years, and how to make the planning profession more relevant and recognizable. Regarding the goals, APA is ahead of pace to meet the goal of adding 15,000 members over 10 years. Efforts continue to grow the membership by adding members from big city planning departments, plan commissioners, students, and citizen planners. Much discussion occurred regarding increasing the diversity of APA membership so that it reflects the changing demographics of our nation and planners’ constituency. Continuing education/continuing professional development is also a hot topic with strong feelings both for and against mandatory requirements. The results of a national survey of planners regarding continuing education should soon be posted on the APA website. This topic relates to planning professionals and plan commissioners, as six states have now adopted requirements for plan commissioners to participate in continuing education programs. Finally, there is a goal to increase the membership in AICP and the number of planners achieving recognition as meeting these professional standards.

Finally, all Illinois APA members should be proud that two of our members were inducted into FAICP. Lee Brown, AICP of Teska Associates and Paul Farmer, AICP, Executive Director and CEO of the American Planning Association, were inducted into the AICP College of Fellows in San Antonio. They are extremely deserving of this honor that was conferred based on a lifetime of both achievement and service to the profession. If you run into Lee or Paul in the next few weeks, be sure to congratulate them on this achievement.