Save the Date

The American Society for Public Administration, Michigan Capital Area Chapter invites you to attend its statewide conference on November 13, 2015. This conference is intended for public administrators interested in expanding their networks and knowledge base. City managers, public service professionals, non-profit managers, department directors, legislators, legislative staff, executive staff, academics and students are encouraged to attend. This conference will feature interesting speakers and panelists from academia and public service who will discuss what Michigan public administrators are doing to improve their communities. We want you to be part of this important discussion. The conference will be held at the Grand Valley State University Eberhard Center.

To register for the conference visit the webpage at mipaforum.org

MiCAP 2015 CONFERENCE CONTINUES LONG TRADITION

Although the upcoming 2015 MiCAP Conference is billed as our fourth statewide conference, it continues a long tradition that goes back much earlier.

For many years Michigan was in ASPA’s Region VI, which consisted of the Great Lakes States. A regional conference was held every year in October, including Flint, Toledo, Cleveland, Columbus, Louisville, Lexington, Chicago, Indianapolis, Springfield and Madison.

In 1990, MiCAP hosted a very successful Regional Conference at what was then the Holiday Inn (now the Marriott). Our keynoters were then Lansing Mayor Terry McKane and then Senate Majority Leader John Engler. We were also honored to have with us the ASPA National President Morris W. H. Collins, Jr, who I believe was at the University of Georgia. I do clearly remember that he issued a standing invitation to visit him at his home where we would be treated to catfish pizza made from fresh catfish from his own ponds! As I recall, the Conference Chair was Ed Quenby, the Chapter Chair at the time. Unfortunately, the Regional Conferences died out in the 1990s, and Region VI has since been reconfigured, but I remember that there were two more conferences in Grand Rapids after that organized by faculty from Grand Valley State University.

In speaking about Chapter legacies, I would also add that MiCAP has had three of its members serve on the ASPA National Council within my memory, Larry Beckon, Lynne Croxford, and Don Weatherspoon.
George Orban

Meeting Minutes

Present: KP, Dave, Tyler, George, Veronica, Davia, Dion’trae, Chad

Excused: John K.

Absent: George P, Sandy

AGENDA

Friday, November 21^st at noon

University of Michigan Lansing Service Center

Call to Order:

1. 1. Due to the fact that we are down one member, a plurality was present at the meeting, however Veronica and remaining board members will need to make a motion to vote on adding a new member at the next board meeting.
2. Approval of Agenda: APPROVED
3. Approval of Minutes of October 31^st, 2014: APPROVED
4. Treasury Report: No change from last month’s report. APPROVED
5. Membership Report: 1 new member during last month, 74 total membership.
6. 2015 Conference Planning
   1. Report of Program Chair, Program Development:
      1. Dion’trae has asked all board members to please get any names and emails of potential panelists. If you like, updated can be added to Master Planning Conference Sheet (invites have been sent to everyone’s email addresses) at this address: https://drive.google.com/open?id=11GZ7Vj4T9HniueBEYS7yzZhZt0KzsFB5RfVx8Tdynxs&authuser=0
      2. Conference discussion considered a new program format. Instead of 6-8 panel we discussed having only four panels limited to: Placemaking, Citizen Retention and Citizen Engagement, Local Sustainability Efforts, and Economic Development. In the morning we would have GR centered people and in the afternoon we would have mid-Michigan and East Michigan panelists speaking on the same topics.
   2. Logistical Planning Discussion (Food, Pricing, Advertising, Keynote Speakers):
      1. Dave reported that AV equipment is not provided gratis so we may want to discuss the cost of adding that to our conference registration prices and/or find a AV sponsor, or pay for it out of our conference budget.
      2. KP: Discussed adding a new sponsorship level of $750 for new potential sponsorships. Chad added the idea that we look into table and/or lunch sponsors as well. I have shared my sponsorship information with KP to be updated to reflect these changes. They can also be found in the shared folder on Google Drive.
   3. Website Development and Updates (Chad and Tyler)
      1. Chad and Tyler will be discussing the rollout of a new website which will incorporate the Squarespace platform. This will allow us to integrate ecommerce for registrations and sponsorship payments instead of linking to paypal which has caused some issues in the past. This should (hopefully) be ready in January to correspond with the newsletter deployment so that we can start getting registrations in.
   4. Conference Speakers (Invites, Panel Descriptions, Day of Scheduling)
      1. George has reached out to Kurt Kimball (still pending).
      2. Veronica has secured Mayor Heartwell as a keynote.

• Any other suggestions for keynote speakers should be sent to Veronica and George to coordinate.

1. Afterglow Event
   1. No announcements.
2. Other Business: MPLP events: February 26^th (dinner) and 27^th (breakfast)
   1. I don’t believe we made a decision on how many tickets would be purchased for this and for what day. Please feel free to send me an amendment for this if needed.
3. Next Meeting – JANUARY 23^rd at noon.
4. Adjournment

Please NOTE: Call in number: 712-432-1500 Access Code – 291234 for those who can’t be in attendance physically.