APA Transportation Planning
Division
March 12, 2001
New Orleans, Hilton Riverside, Steering Room
42 in attendance (sign-in sheet attached)
Chair Whit Blanton called the meeting to order at 5:35 pm, introduced himself and asked for a round of attendee introductions. He passed out copies of the Minutes from the January meeting, the draft Proposal for the Division’s MPO research project, and the new edition of the Newsletter. He announced that APA has asked TPD to generate topics for a fall Portland conference on Transportation and Economic Development.
1.
Chair’s Report: Whit reported that our website
is now established at www.apa-tpd.org,
which he hopes will be used as an interactive means of communication among TPD
members. We have asked APA for a link
from their website to ours. Whit wants
to create a Website Committee to develop and review options and recommend
enhancements. Bobby Sills volunteered
to work on this. Others who are
interested should email Whit at wblanton@citiesthatwork.com. We are working on an updated brochure and mission statement as well as a logo. The objective is to attract membership and
highlight the Planners Advisory Council.
Peggy Drake offered help in the area of brochure graphic design. Whit plans to hold a competition for the
logo with monetary prize.
Whit presented a list of recommendations from the
APA Divisions Task Force concerning ways to assist “struggling” divisions
within APA. Among several recommendations, APA will likely be preparing
membership directories for divisions, and the APA Divisions Council has some
funds available for division improvement. Eligibility is to be determined.
Sept. 27 will be Planners Day on the
Hill, and members are encouraged to participate to visit members of
Congress regarding APA’s agenda.
Contact Whit for details. APA will create a new membership category for
former students in their first two years after school, called New
Professionals. The purpose is to retain student members as APA members after
they leave school. APA is encouraging divisions to allow New Professionals to
join divisions at the normal student rate ($10 for TPD student members). It was
moved, seconded and approved for TPD to allow New Professionals to join the
Division for $10, the student rate.
2.
Awards: Whit next described a program to make TPD awards for best
practices in our field. After some
discussion, Peggy Drake and Edith Ngwa volunteered to work on this.
3.
Conference Sessions: Whit described our two by-right sessions on Multi-modal
Corridors, organized by Rick Willson, and on TEA21, organized by Whit. They are summarized in the new newsletter.
4.
TEA-21 Reauthorization: Whit reported that about 10 members have already expressed
interest in working on a Task Force to generate TPD recommendations for
Congress’s upcoming reauthorization, due in the fall of 2003. Others can still express interest to Whit by
email. The relationship between this
and APA’s Transportation Policy Guide (which needs revision), environmental
justice, streamlining, and public health were discussed. Whit will coordinate this, although someone
else may chair this effort. He hopes to
have a revised transportation policy guide by September.
5.
Research Proposal: Feedback on the MPO draft proposal is sought. This will be submitted to the Division
Council Executive Committee in hope of obtaining some funding . Coordination with ITE and the TCRP Synthesis
programs was suggsted.
6.
Planners Advisory Council: A list of about 35 names of volunteers to offer their expertise
in various areas has been established.
More are solicited. Whit hopes
to get this active by attracting and fielding specific requests for advice this
year.
7.
Student Paper Competition: Working
with a standing committee, Bob Czerniak will chair this annual activity for one
more year. There will be two awards for
2001/2002.
8.
Treasurer Joe Marking reported that
we finished 2000 with a balance of about $5,400.
9.
Newsletter: Whit reported that editor Amy Van Doren seeks material for the
next issue by mid-April. Whether or not
to save printing and postage in the future by sending the newsletter electronically
or web-basing was discussed. This can
be explored by the Website Committee.
10.
Professional
Development: Whit asked Rick Willson to
form a Committee on Education and Professional Development. One objective is to create a track of
transportation-related programs for the 2002 national conference. Another would be to provide information to
regional or statewide APA conferences and non-APA conferences.
11.
MPOs: Sheldon Edner reported that results of the 2000 Census indicate
that there will be about 30 new MPOs.
Other MPO areas have moved over 200,000 in population into TMA
status. This will require new resources
and staffing. New funds are not
available for this increase for the first year, placing additional pressure on
TEA-21 re-authorization.