International Association for Public Participation - USA
Dear IAP2 Members,
We hope you are having a great month! Please take a look through our newly formatted newsletter to learn more about all the great opportunities and events available for you to participate in. And, remember: Don't wait, Participate!
Best, IAP2 USA
From the President:
As I’ve mentioned before, the IAP2 board is a working board. But there’s working, and then there’s WORKING. Your 2014 board met in my hometown, Portland, Oregon, refining its workplan and generally helping each other with challenges on the initiatives we are pursuing this year.
What’s sometimes lost in the organization’s structural changes over the last three years is that we now have more members in North America than we have ever had. It’s slow, but steady progress.
I’m happy to report that you have an outstanding board with great ideas and tremendous energy toward keeping and improving what we have, and also continuing building services that our membership wants. Among these we hope to see this year: additional training and networking opportunities, services to our existing and budding chapters, more webinars, continued cooperation with IAP2 Canada to develop products and services jointly where it makes sense and a certification program that can set the standard for professionalism in our field.
I will reiterate that if you’re interested in participating in any of these ventures, there’s a place for you. While the board’s efforts might set the pace, the extra hands from our membership will help us thrive. Let us know the areas in which you would like to be involved. We’ll plug you in.
Plan to join us Tuesday, May 20th, from 10:00am-10:30amfor the IAP2 USA AGM.
The AGM will provide an opportunity to reflect on 2013 and learn more about what is planned for 2014 and beyond.
This AGM will be held via a webinar - to attend this meeting please register here.
IAP2 USA is pleased to be introducing a series of videos which speak to questions that we have received from our members. The first one in this series is"What does IAP2 mean to me as a professional?"
At this time we would also like to sincerely thank all those members that participated in the making of these video clips. We hope that you enjoy what you see and would welcome your feedback as well as future questions.
Member Spotlight
Chapter News
Member spotlight: Michael Huynh
Michael Huynh is a Public Involvement Manager at Southern California Edison (SCE), where he manages a team of P2 professionals responsible for developing and implementing public engagement strategies for the utility’s major electric infrastructure projects. He has been working in public relations, outreach and government affairs for the past decade, and has been involved in numerous projects in the transportation, real estate and energy industries.
Michael took some time from his busy schedule to provide some additional details to IAP2 members about his life, work career and involvement in public engagement.
Tell us some more about yourself.
I grew up in a Los Angeles suburb, majored in international relations in college, and studied abroad in France, Vietnam and Belgium. I got my first professional job at a public affairs firm, and the rest is history!
What attracted you to IAP2?
After practicing public outreach for several years, I was very surprised to learn that there was an actual organization dedicated to public participation. I was really drawn to IAP2 after going through the certificate program, because the values and concepts I learned from there have helped me better understand and appreciate my role in designing and implementing public participation programs.
Intermountain Chapter Conference builds on Salt Lake success
On March 28, the Intermountain Chapter hosted a one day conference in St. George, Utah, for practitioners in the region to explore one fundamental technique of public participation: the public meeting. The topic of the conference was “Re-Imagining the Public Meeting.” To read more click here.
Cascade Chapter PI Network focuses on “collaborative governance”
About 40 attended Cascade Chapter’s PI Network on March 20 at the offices of Harper Houf Peterson Righellis Inc. in Portland, Ore.
Sam Imperati presented “Collaborative Governance: turning conflict into resolution”... To read more click here.
Registration open for “PI Works” conference in Oregon
Registration is open for 2014 PI Works! June 19 and 20. This day and a half of skills enrichment in beautiful Bend, Oregon, presented by Cascade Chapter of IAP2 USA is the signature event for public participation in the Pacific Northwest. Presenters are P2 pros who are making a mark. All proceeds support scholarships for growing excellence in our profession. To register or to learn more, go to: 2014 PI Works!
IAP2 NorCal: April 24 Event “Broadening Participation with Digital Engagement”
The IAP2 NorCal chapter looks forward to their first in-person event of the year Thursday, April 24 at the Metropolitan Transit Commission in Oakland, CA. Sarah Rubin, Institute for Local Government (ILG), will co-present findings from a forthcoming report on local government use of digital engagement. For more info, click here.
APA in Atlanta Get Together The American Planning Association (APA) will kick off their 2014 National Planning Conference in Atlanta, Georgia later this week. On Tuesday, April 29 at 5pm, planners and facilitators from APA, IAP2 USA and NCDD interested in bridging the fields of public participation and planning will get together over drinks to get acquainted and talk about how we can do stronger, more productive public participation. For more info, click here.
Youth, Students, & Emerging Practitioners
IAP2 North American Conference
Emerging Practitioner Updates
The New Open Source Way to Run for Office
Students may apply for scholarships to attend the IAP2 Cascade Chapter’s signature chapter event, the one and only PI Works! Conference in beautiful Bend, OR June 19-20. Applications are due May 15th. See how to apply here: http://slidesha.re/1ivbbIp
IAP2 USA – Educator/Student Outreach
The Membership Committee is collecting nationwide higher education contacts as an outreach effort to inform and recruit students and staff to become involved in IAP2 USA. We are asking all members to send any contact names along with their email addresses to us by July 2014. We will be finalizing an outreach/marketing effort for this fall. As this effort develops, we will present members with more information. Contact Anne Thompson at anne@yourprojectmo.com if you interested in helping develop this outreach effort, or would like to forward contact information for our database.
The next North American Conference is in Winnipeg, Canada from September 28th-30thfor more information please visit here.
The IAP2 USA Core Value Awards application process is coming in May. Please think about submitting your winning entry. All information, including the Applicant Kit will be available on the IAP2 USA website the week of May 5th.
As a lead up to the Core Value Awards IAP2 Canada and IAP2 USA devoted the March and April webinars to winners of Core Values Awards in 2013.
The April webinar brought two more winners: Tyrone Reitman of Healthy Democracy Oregon, the other co-winner of IAP2 USA Project of the Year at Salt Lake City for The Oregon Citizens' Initiative Review; and John Lewis of Intelligent Futures in Calgary, who received International Project of the Year in the Member-at-Large category for OurWascana, a visioning project marking the 50th anniversary of Regina's famous park. Here is a video on the OurWascana process.
Matt Leighninger, Cheryl Hilvert, John Godec, Mike Huggins will run an ICMA workshop on "Engaging Your Community: It's more than three minutes at the microphone!" in the Chicago area on May 1st- ow.ly/upe8K
How to sustain engagement through a blend of high tech, high touch, budgeting, and beer (recipe from Decatur, GA) - ow.ly/vn45U
How can communities reduce poverty by engaging citizens? Key stories and resources from Everyday Democracy - ow.ly/vcmaI
2013 IAP2 USA President Larry Schooler
The third video from the September 2013 North American IAP2 conference features an IAP2 Talks presentation provided by the 2013 IAP2 USA President Larry Schooler. Larry proposes intriguing ideas about how to recruit and train volunteers to facilitate public conversations...
IAP2 USA has several committees to become involved with. Please review the committees below and sign up to get involved.
Chapter Relations– providing support to existing chapters and mentoring new chapters
Communications– developing key messages and a strategy for effectively communicating to our many publics
Membership– creating new membership campaigns to increase membership
North American Conference– assist with 2015 NA Conference in USA
Professional Development– implement programs to further the practice of P2 such as training, webinars, communities of practice and much more
Strategic Alliance– collaborate with other organizations and participate in the Open Government Initiative and Partnership
Members-Only Section
Visit www.iap2usa.org, sign in and click on the "Members-Only" tab to gain access to the monthly webinar recordings, printable IAP2 materials for meetings and more!
Membership Certificate
To receive a free, printable membership certificate from IAP2 USA with your current membership information, email info@iap2usa.org
and we'll send one right over!
Job Postings
To post a job on our website, email info@iap2usa.org with the organization name, job title, closing date, brief job description/highlight and any other relevant information.
Let's build the ultimate P2 resource list!
Wouldn't it be nice if there was a list of all the best public participation resources out there?
Let us know if you have any thoughts or ideas of resources to be included on this list by emailing us at: info@iap2usa.org.
Who We Are
IAP2 USA on Social Media
IAP2 USA advances public participation in the United States by providing its affiliate members with tools and information to conduct high-quality public participation processes, by providing government, industry, non-profit organizations and participants with educational resources to increase the quality and value of their participation in such processes, and by advocating for quality public participation programs based on our Core Values and Code of Ethics. Learn more about us here.
