Laughing and Learning at the 2023 APA PA Conference in Scranton
By Amy Evans, AICP

If you ask planners why they attend the APA PA Annual Conference, you’ll usually hear something about catching up with best practices and colleagues across the state or getting CM credits, those pesky things that AICP-certified planners need 32 of every two years. But really, there’s so much more to it than that!

Here’s what the 2023 Conference was like for one planner in particular …

My husband and I work in very different fields but are both certified planners, so it’s great to be able to do a conference together. Neither of us had been to Scranton before and we were curious about its history and design. The conference hotel is in the historic downtown, so it was an easy walk to most of the “must-see” sights. Now if only the weather had cooperated! Fortunately, Maria MacDonald at Marywood University was our Monday morning keynote speaker, who shared Scranton’s many connections to Jane Jacobs and how her observations and principles have been put into practice locally.

A lot of my day-to-day work lies in helping people impacted by current housing market pressures, so I looked for sessions on solutions built and tested here in Pennsylvania. Across the four I attended that focused on housing, I picked up insights about why the market is the way that it is and why there aren’t any easy answers. I was particularly impressed by a collaboration between the City of Bethlehem, a local nonprofit, and Michael Baker International to locate and fund a permanent year-round shelter for the Lehigh Valley.

Sunday evening means one thing at the conference: It’s time for the Welcome Reception! The reception venues are always intriguing. This time it was the Scranton Cultural Center, a former Masonic Temple with gorgeous Neo-gothic architectural details throughout. This was a great time to catch up with friends and colleagues we hadn’t seen since last years’ conference. We even got to hang out with the municipal manager of our home borough, Columbia.

I am the Chair of APA PA’s Communication & Membership Committee, and our group is currently developing a Communications Plan for the Chapter. At last year’s conference, I attended a session by Steve Thomas in Franklin County, Tim Staub at HRG, and Todd Poole of 4ward Planning about how to manage an RFP process. I put that knowledge to use right away in writing an RFP for communications planning services for the Chapter. We eventually selected Bull Moose Marketing in Meadville PA to do the work. With the plan well underway, of course we were going to take advantage of having so many planners under one roof. Ron Mattocks from Bull Moose joined us in Scranton; hopefully you were able to talk to him! He and I also got to share our work with you during Monday’s lunchtime Chapter Address.

Another conference tradition is the basket raffle on the last day. Each year, our members and their organizations donate fabulous gift baskets, with ticket sales supporting the Chapter’s Scholarship Fund. The competition is fierce. Imagine my surprise at winning the basket donated by the York County Planning Commission, where I worked for the majority of my career. YCPC, you really know how to put a basket together!

After the raffle, there was one final set of sessions. I learned so much from Zach Norwood in Crawford County and Todd Poole of 4ward Planning as they shared their joint work to produce a Housing Plan responsive to varying needs throughout the county. I plan to use several of their approaches in tackling changes to how and where human services are provided here in York County.

What I’ve shared so far is really just a highlight reel. I haven’t even touched on the resources and fun take-aways in the Exhibit Hall, the events and sessions for students and emerging professionals, the excellent plenary speakers, the mobile workshops that get planners out into the field, the Monday night social, or the countless connections I made to fellow planners who are dealing with the same issues and challenges I am. Many thanks to Kim Gusic, our Chapter Administrator, and her team, as well as the Conference Planning Committee and the Northeast Section for putting together another enriching experience.

Next year APA PA will be in Erie; we hope to see you there!