ACSP/AICP Conversation on Core Competenci es Lee M. Brown, FAICP AICP President

1. ACSP/AICP Conversation on Core Competencies Lee M. Brown, FAICPAICP President

2. What is Planning? What do Planners need to know to be effective? • Are there answers that will stop us from reexamining these questions? • Isn’t it healthy to periodically check whether our standards for planning, as an activity, as a course of study and as a profession, are high enough?

3. 6 Themes from the Anchor Points The Strategic Marketing Committee of the ACSP -- 1997 • Planning focuses on improving human settlements, • Planning focuses on interconnections among distinct community facets, • Planning focuses on the future and pathways of change over time, • Planning focuses on diversity of needs and the consequences of distribution in human settlements • Planning focuses on open participatory decision-making, and • Planning links knowledge and collective action.

4. Is there a difference between what planning is and what planning should be? Or, what planners do and what they should be doing?

5. Job Criteria • Knowledge of a Delphi • Problem-solves like Einstein • Speaks like Dale Carnegie • Draws like da Vinci • Writes like Shakespeare

6. Visiting Japanese Planning Educators • What do planners need to know, and what do they need to be able to do? • What distinguishes a Certified Planner? • How do Planner’s remain Certified and relevant?

7. Sources for an answer: • PAB Accreditation Criteria • Ethical Principles in Planning; and, the AICP Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct • AICP Exam Eligibility Criteria; study guide and reference material • Job Descriptions • Anecdotal Evidence: Satisfactory Outcomes

8. The AICP Commission’s One Goal: Assure that the AICP credential is worth achieving and worth maintaining. • Set high standards for ethics and professional behavior and enforce them • Provide training and access to professional resources • Provide opportunities for planners to meet their ethical obligations to give back to our communities through volunteer services • Recognize our most accomplished members and encourage their contributions to success of emerging professionals • …

9. …and, oh, yeah,the Exam and the requirements to maintain certification through CM credits.

10. AICP Certification: Our measure of professional competence • Members, Employers and Communities want to be confident that there is a difference

11. Certification Requirements Planning Education Planning Experience Passing the Comprehensive Exam

12. Certification Requirements • Passing Exam • Certification

13. 4 Criteria for Demonstrating Experience • Applying a planning process appropriate to the situation • Apply and appropriately comprehensive point of view • Involve a professional level of responsibility and resourcefulness • Influence public decision-making in the public interest

14. Hypothetical Growth Curveof Planning Knowledge (as seen by a Planning Director)

15. Hypothetical Growth Curveof Planning Knowledge (as seen by Emerging Professional)

16. Hypothetical Growth Curve of Planning Knowledge (as seen by AICP Commission after CM requirements)

17. One Set of Core Competencies? • What are the skills and knowledge necessary to get a job in planning? • What are the skills and knowledge necessary to be eligible and to pass our AICP exam? • What do we expect to be the skills and knowledge commensurate with the work of Principal Planner or Director • What are the categories of planning competence, and where do we anticipate most planners gain this competence...as knowledge-based or experience-based sources? • Are the skills at any of these levels consistent over time, or are there trends that make certain skills relevant or come into necessity.

18. Advanced Specialty Certification

19. Planning KnowledgePlanning Practice

20. Recently Adopted PAB Criteria Required knowledge, skills and values of the profession: The Program shall offer a curriculum that teaches students the essential knowledge, skills, and values central to the planning profession. These required components will be taught in such a manner that it is possible to demonstrate that every graduate has studied them. Ordinarily, this means that they are included in core courses required of all students, although other approaches are possible. Specifically:

21. General planning knowledge: The comprehension, representation, and use of ideas and information in the planning field, including appropriate perspectives from history, social science, and the design professions.

22. General planning knowledge • Purpose and Meaning of Planning: appreciation of why planning is undertaken by communities, cities, regions, and nations, and the impact planning is expected to have. • Planning Theory: appreciation of the behaviors and structures available to bring about sound planning outcomes. • Planning Law: appreciation of the legal and institutional contexts within which planning occurs.

23. General planning knowledge (cont.) • Human Settlements and History of Planning: understanding of the growth and development of places over time and across space. • The Future: understanding of the relationships between past, present, and future in planning domains, as well as the potential for methods of design, analysis, and intervention to influence the future. • Global Dimensions of Planning: appreciation of interactions, flows of people and materials, cultures, and differing approaches to planning across world regions.

24. Planning skills: The use and application of knowledge to perform specific tasks required in the practice of planning.

25. Planning skills • Research: tools for assembling and analyzing ideas and information from prior practice and scholarship, and from primary and secondary sources. • Written, Oral and Graphic Communication: ability to prepare clear, accurate and compelling text, graphics and maps for use in documents and presentations. • Quantitative and Qualitative Methods: data collection, analysis and modeling tools for forecasting, policy analysis, and design of projects and plans.

26. Planning skills (cont.) • Plan Creation and Implementation: integrative tools useful for sound plan formulation, adoption, and implementation and enforcement. • Planning Process Methods: tools for stakeholder involvement, community engagement, and working with diverse communities. • Leadership: tools for attention, formation, strategic decision-making, team building, and organizational/community motivation.

27. Values and ethics: Values inform ethical and normative principles used to guide planning in a democratic society. The Program shall appropriately incorporate issues of diversity and social justice into all required courses of the curriculum, including:

28. Values and ethics • Professional Ethics and Responsibility: appreciation of key issues of planning ethics and related questions of the ethics of public decision-making, research, and client representation (including principles of the AICP Code of Ethics). • Governance and Participation: appreciation of the roles of officials, stakeholders, and community members in planned change. • Sustainability and Environmental Quality: appreciation of natural resource and pollution control factors in planning, and understanding of how to create sustainable futures. • Growth and Development: appreciation of economic, social, and cultural factors in urban and regional growth and change. • Social Justice: appreciation of equity concerns in planning.

29. AICP Exam Study Materials • History (15%) • Plan Making and Implementation (30%) • Functional Areas of Practice (25%) • Spatial Areas of Practice (15%) • Public Participation and Social Justice (10%) • AICP Code of Ethics and Professional Practice (5%)

30. History, Theory and Law • History of planning • Planning Law • Theory of planning • Patterns of human settlements

31. Plan Making and Implementation • Visioning and goal setting • Quantitative and qualitative research methods • Collecting, organizing, analyzing, and reporting data and information • Demographics and economics • Natural and built environment • Land use and development regulations • Application of legal principles • Environmental analysis

32. Plan Making and Implementation (cont.) • Growth management techniques • Budgets and financing options • GIS/spatial analysis and information systems • Policy analysis and decision making • Development plan and project review • Program evaluation • Communications techniques • Intergovernmental relationships • Stakeholder relationships • Project and program management

33. Functional Areas of Practice • Community development • Comprehensive or long range planning • Development regulation or administration • Economic development and revitalization • Economic analysis and forecasting • Educational, institutional, or military facilities planning • Energy policy • Food system planning • Growth management

34. Functional Areas of Practice (cont.) • Hazard mitigation and disaster planning • Historic preservation • Housing • Infrastructure • Labor force or employment • Land use • Natural resources and the environment • Parks, open space and recreation

35. Functional Areas of Practice • Planning law • Policy planning • Public services • Social and health services • Transportation • Urban design

36. Spacial Areas of Practice A. Planning at national level      B. Planning for multi-state or bi-state regions                                C. Planning for state D. Planning for sub-state region E. Planning at county level F. Planning for urban areas G. Planning for suburban areas H. Planning for small town I. Corridors                                  J. Neighborhoods  K. Waterfronts L. Historic districts or areas M. Downtowns

37. Public Participation and Social Justice A. Public involvement planning B. Public participation techniques C. Identifying, engaging, and serving underserved groups D. Social justice issues, literature, and practice                         E. Working with diverse communities F. Coalition building

38. AICP Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct

40. Outcomes of the Initiative • Confidence in the correlation between the AICP exam and what planners should know; • Relevant and useful Study Guides and reference material; • Refinement of the separation of core competencies and advanced specialties competencies; • Confidence in the match between our training/education offerings and the needs of members to advance their careers; • Dialog and exchange of perspectives between planning educators and planning practitioners on the skills, knowledge and experiences that lead to greater success of planning school graduates, and better planning outcomes; • Increased academic interest in assuring success of graduates as practicing planners; • Assure that the AICP credential is worth achieving and worth maintaining.

41. AICP’s Core Competencies Initiative Lee M. Brown, FAICP AICP President

42. http://goo.gl/CuCi05 Lbrown@TeskaAssociates.Com