Interview with Dennis Andrew Gordon

Q: One of the initiatives in the APA Development Plan is "revising continued education programs." Specifically, what are these program revisions intended to accomplish? How can they help planners?

Gordon: APA is working toward developing education programs that will utilize the expertise held by its huge membership. There are 25 divisions in APA's organizational framework-focusing on everything from economic development to transportation and everything in between. By slicing across these divisions, APA can put together a noteworthy session or an entire workshop on just about any topic that may be of interest to our members. The Board is hoping to have the blueprint for this program ready for approval at next Spring's Seattle conference.

For example, say a chapter or a local planning agency wants to put on a workshop on GIS. The planners putting together the agenda contact APA, which puts the planners in contact with GIS experts who have put together a packaged program, complete with available speakers. The chapter or local planners then work the experts to schedule the packaged session. The two groups, not APA, determines the agenda and proceeds to fill the need.

This is the first time APA has used the demand side approach to continuing education programs. From my perspective, this approach addresses the specific needs of local planners better. We used to approach this from the supply side with APA setting up conferences and training workshops that dealt with the perceived needs of our membership. That process got to be terribly expensive.

This demand side approach is an example of the increasing emphasis on customer service APA with a better return for dues paid.

Gordon: Working with elected officials in the political arena is an ability many planners lack. But increasingly, the pressure is on planners to convince these officials why planning is important. At the national level, APA is active and working hard to help local planners by developing the next generation of state planning legislation.

Several years ago, APA was the catalyst with other organizations in initiating a program called Growing Smart. Its aim is to formulate model enabling legislation that will replace the statutes used by most states today. It also aims to establish a long-term capacity to assist chapters with bringing about this statutory reform. APA staff is working with other professional and state organizations in developing the products that will be necessary to take local planning into the next century.

Gordon: The Web is probably the best example of what the Board of Directors is trying to accomplish - increase customer service to our members. When I began my four-year term, APA didn't even have a Web site. We now have a site that's being used heavily for a number of things. Planners can register for the national conference, order books, subscribe to Planning, scroll through research publications, and find out information about the AICP exam. The latest figures show our site is receiving about 450,000 hits per month. That's amazing.

We're hoping to have our directory of APA and AICP members available soon. This will allow quicker access for members to seek and share information. There are also plans to expand Jobs On Line and consultant advertising on the Web, which provides revenue to the APA.

Quicker access to our representatives in Washington is another focus of our presence on the Web. Alerting APA members of pending legislation, or other issues that affect local planners, is now only seconds away with e-mail.

Gordon: Yes, by unanimous action, dues were increased recently. Even though inflation is admittedly low these days, it does take its toll. The increase to members ranges from $4 on the low end of the salary scale to $8 at the top. From my perspective, however, the real story isn't that dues were increased. Rather, it's that during the past two years services provided to members have increased by 16.5 percent. That's happened because the Board has placed member services as the highest priority and has been willing to reallocate within the budget to assure this is the case.

As for the proceeds of this increase, the $90,000 is improving service in three areas.

Over the past year, we've begun to migrate our membership records from several stand-alone computers to one centralized system. For a 30,000-member organization, transferring this information is no easy task. But, the end product will provide a system where each member has one file which will provide everything the association needs to know about the person. It will also decrease the mass mailings APA utilizes to sell its various services. That's been a real pet peeve of mine. Because we'll be able to target these efforts, they'll cost less and be more effective.

As our national conference continues to grow and excel, additional staff assistance is needed to keep us moving ahead. We're expecting our conference in 2000 to exceed 5000 participants. Growth in this area provides a number of advantages, but they've got to be managed to assure we don't lose quality.

We'll be putting another full-time person in the Washington office to assist with policy issues and public relations. There's little question that federal legislation affects the local planning process. We need a strong presence in Washington to look out for APA."

Gordon: The APA budget for 1999 is $11.3 million. Without question, the association is growing and is financially strong. APA membership is stable and growing. The AICP portion of our membership is exploding-growing at a rate of close to 1000 per year. Attendance at the annual conference-APA's largest moneymaker-is growing steadily. Sales of our products are strong. Use of the web site for Jobs Online and ConsultantSearch is increasing.

As it relates to the reserve fund, it's important to note this line item is not paid by members. All membership dues go to the operating budget. Only profits from APA products and services go to the reserve fund. The purpose of the fund is to protect APA from sudden downturns in the economy. The planning profession is obviously dominated by people in the public sector; a downturn in the national economy could impact the organization quickly. Our goal is to have 25 percent of our annual budget in reserve to buffer APA against this sort of downturn. We currently have about 23 percent on hand.

Gordon: I don't know of anyone successful who doesn't want to set themselves and their career apart from everyone else. The AICP certification on a planner's resume says this is someone who has met the challenge in the educational and professional arenas. The fact that AICP certification is voluntary speaks volumes about the people who have passed the rigorous requirements of the exam. I know that AICP membership has helped me.