New Hampshire Planners Association
Executive Committee Meeting Minutes
Office of Energy and Planning
December 11, 2008, 10:00 am

Present: Jen Czysz, Ben Frost, Tim Thompson, Kerrie Diers, Sarah Marchant, Christa Koehler (by phone), Mikaela Engert (by phone), Clay Mitchell (by phone)

Absent: Pierce Rigrod, Jim Campbell

1. Minutes

Minutes for the October 23, 2008 meeting will be ready for review and approval at the January 2009 NHPA meeting.

2. Election – Executive Committee Results

Tim Thompson, interim NNECAPA Ex-Officio, read the results of the ballots for NHPA positions (did not include C. Mitchell’s ballot, which was not received prior to the meeting).

After discussion, Kerrie graciously agreed to retain her position as PDO, allowing Mikaela to replace Becky Hebert as secretary.  J. Czysz made those appointments as enabled by the association by-laws.
 

3. NNECAPA Update

a. CPC Grants/Density Project Funding Proposal
B. Frost updated the group on the Vermont Planners Association’s request that NNECAPA submit the proposal. After review by the NNECAPA Executive Committee, it was determined that the proposal would require some changes in order to broaden its scope to include representation by the entire membership (NH and ME). A revised proposal was quickly put together. However, in the process it was determined that the deadline to submit had been inadvertently missed. The new deadline to submit the proposal is in January and NNECAPA is prepared to submit the revised proposal then. 

b. Officer Recruitment
Tim Thompson volunteered to carry out the remainder of Mikaela’s term as NNECAPA NH State Director. Tim clearly stated that he would not seek election to the position after this term expires. Therefore, another person will need to be identified to place them on the ballot at the next election in September/October.  Kerrie will ask John Edgar, Community Development Director in Meredith, if Angela LeBrecque would be available to fill this position. The Committee agreed that Angela’s enthusiasm would be appreciated in the position and she would be a welcomed addition to the group. Committee members were asked to brainstorm other folks they thought would be interested as well.

c. Other Updates and Business
No other updates. Mikaela suggested that the group continue to track NNECAPA’s decision on how to utilize technology for meetings.

4. NHPA Annual Meeting

a. Follow Up

The meeting went well with good attendance at both the professional development workshop and the reception. Kerrie will compile the evaluations for discussion at the January meeting.

5. NHPA Annual Conference

Sarah and Becky are getting started on planning for the conference and will be meeting next week. Potential locations will be identified. Currently, the COG is thinking that the conference will be held the 2nd to last week in April, 2nd week in May, or perhaps late May/early June, depending on the other conferences that are going on. Christa and other committee members expressed the concern that the April date would follow closely to the APA National Conference (April 25th -29th), which may impact the ability of people to attend. Mikaela added that the ICLEI regional conference is scheduled for mid-May and that the months of March, April and May for some reason are always overbooked with conferences and that it may be a good idea to push it back a bit. Others agreed and other dates will be reviewed. The COG is planning on having the first day comprised of sessions and the second day focus on being in the field.

6. Officer Updates

a. Public Information Officer
Sarah reported that the KSC survey that went out to the membership resulted in 21 responses. Jen suggested to Sarah that the membership dues letter could go out soon and then discussion ensued about any changes to the membership form. Ben raised the question of changing the areas of interest and suggested that we definitely do this since it has been talked about every year at this time and no change has yet occurred. Jen agreed and it was decided that it would be looked at and suggestions for changes would emailed to the Committee for their comment.

b. Treasurer
Ben reported that this was a light month, with expenditures of $506.38 and revenue of $1,585.  He said that NHPA has done well this year to date with overall expenditures of $18,418.34 and revenues of $22,137.67. NHPA’s checking account balance is $4,555.36. Ben reported that NHPA took a slight loss on the annual meeting reception, but the professional development workshops made a few hundred dollars, which made the entire event profitable. With the current budget revenues being ahead of expenditures, we have the leeway to absorb the costs of producing the Directory. Discussion ensued in regards to the format of the Directory and whether on-line posting was more appropriate. Collective institutional memory indicated that there were issues surrounding distribution of the Directory via an on-line format; one being archiving of an actual document and the other being the ability of LGC’s server to host it. Jen suggested that perhaps this should be revisited with LGC since the technology may have changed since the last time it was discussed. Kerrie made a motion to accept the treasurer’s report. The motion was seconded by Sarah and unanimously approved. 

c. Legislative Committee
The committee will consist of Clay, Ben, and Kerrie. Jen will ask Rick Sawyer and Scott McPhee if they would be interested in serving on it as well. Ben asked Clay if we should seek the introduction of any legislation. Clay responded that the issues identified by the membership were already introduced in legislation sponsored by other groups. Ben asked if legislation needed to be formulated to modify the energy revolving loan fund so that these could be utilized effectively by municipalities. Clay indicated that he thought this was already submitted. It was determined that this may not have been formulated and Ben offered to create some language and then email it to Clay and Christa.

d. Professional Development Officer
Kerrie indicated that NNECAPA was pursuing on-line professional development opportunities. Ben provided clarification and background on this. Apparently, 13 of APA’s chapters are co-sponsoring monthly webinars that were advertised as being free to APA members. The information was circulated to NNECAPA members and after doing so, someone from the Ohio Chapter contacted NNECAPA and basically said that NNECAPA has to pay $87.25 to have members participate. Peg Elmer and Ben are crafting a response to that demand, and in the meantime, NNECPA voted to appropriate the funds, so NNECAPA members will have access to the webinars.

Kerrie mentioned that an ethics session should be formulated and offered this year. Ben indicated that he has been working with NNECAPA assistant PDO’s to utilize APA’s Ethics toolkit to create a presentation that could be offered in all three states throughout the year.

e. Newsletter Editor
Pierce indicted via email sent prior to the meeting that he is looking for content and that the deadline is December 30th. It was mentioned that an article about the plat law would be useful as well as putting in an article about NHPA Awards nominations.

f. Sustainability Coordinator
Christa indicated that the next step is to adopt the NHPA Sustainability Policy now that the membership has adopted the APA Sustainability Statement. Christa said she would send out the policy again for their review, discussion, and then adoption at the January meeting. Christa is also talking with LGC to get information that will be useful in developing NHPA’s carbon footprint for the exec comm meetings. She can also calculate emissions for the creation and distribution of the directory. Sarah indicated that the RFP for the conference included green criteria. Christa mentioned that the COG should consider offsetting the conference by adding the offset charge to the registration fee. It could as little as fifty cents per person. Christa also mentioned that it would be a great idea to indicate this somehow in the registration materials as a way to educate the membership and illustrate NHPA’s commitment to sustainability. 

7. Old and New Business

a. Membership Directory
Ben is spearheading this initiative with help from Sarah and Jim. It is anticipated that the directory will be distributed at the annual conference.

b. Professional Organization Relationships
Kerrie, Sarah, and Jen went to the Surveyors and Registrars conference. They thought they were there to observe and learn about the issues these folks were concerned about in order to articulate them to our membership. However, they ended up sitting on a panel discussion. It was suggested that a subcommittee be created with representation from the surveyors, registrars, and planners to create a common message. The surveyors and registrars would like to attend an NHPA exec comm meeting. The idea is to keep the lines of communication open for the future. Clay expressed that it is a good conversation to be having.

 Kerrie mentioned that the NHEDA folks are interested in working together and perhaps they would be interested in attending the annual conference or helping to sponsor it.

c. NHPA Awards
Notice should go out to the membership in January. It was suggested that this be mentioned in the Newsletter. The tentative deadline to submit nominations is the end of February. Kerrie and Jen will work on creating the necessary materials.

8. Adjourn

Meeting adjourned at 11:24 a.m.

Upcoming meetings: January 22, February 26*, March 26, April 23*, and May 28, 2009. All meetings are from 10 am to noon at LGC.

Respectfully submitted,

Mikaela L. Engert
Secretary