Closing Comments

John Jarvie:

The numbers are a bit smaller this morning than they were over the course of the conference. I just want to remind everybody about the conference in Moncton. If you don't have that information, it's on the Web page. It's going to be held at the Moncton hospital on November 26^th.

Peter and Jenifer were just telling me there's a transcript of all of our sessions being developed so there will be a fairly thorough record of the activities here at the conference. I think the intention will likely to be to put it on the Web page. That'll save a few dollars in terms of getting it out and it'll also encourage everybody to go to the Web page. I would invite you to go there and look for them in a week or two and hopefully you will find some of the notes of assistance that you missed or the ideas that you sort of heard but you didn't quite fully grasp.

Whenever we have these sessions, we have to recognize that it takes a lot of energy and effort to make them happen and I think that sometimes they don't always happen exactly the way we'd like them to but they do happen because people work hard. They work hard in their spare time when their employer will give them a few minutes or they will take time away from their personal lives with their families. Whenever we have these sessions, we should recognize how important it is that as many people as possible contribute and we should also recognize the extra energies that have gone in, in this case, on the part of the organizing committee. I think many of the people are here this morning but I want to mention them and hopefully most of you know who they are: Paul Smith; Hugh Gillis; Rebecca Crewachan; Michelle Green; Megan Holm; Phil Hore; Pat Mango; Michael Polten. That group, chaired by Jenifer Tsang, put together what in my opinion was an excellent conference.

I know some of you are disappointed with the turnout, so am I. We'd always like to get 400 people in the room when we have these things but I think we should be really positive about this. When we go around and talk about this organization does this, doctors do this, these groups do all kinds of things. That's true, they do, but they have a lot more members and a lot more resources. But there are not many of these organizations that get together like we've done over the past couple of days, put the professionals and the students in the same room, talk about how you can work together, and do that in a cooperative and constructive fashion. I put it to you that you've done that. One of the things I've been looking for is what planners and students need to know when they come out of school. Things that we really didn't hear was vision and vision of the future. We are futurists. Planners are looking into the future - that's what is expected of us. I think we do that and when we talk about the future for API, we should be optimistic and positive. I think we did have a good time over the past few days. I think we did talk about meaningful issues. I think it is unfortunate for the people who didn't come - not unfortunate for us, but unfortunate in some ways because we didn't get their input, but most unfortunate for those who couldn't get here and I prefer to look at it from that standpoint - not that they chose not to come necessarily, but it wasn't possible for them to be here.

I'd like to leave you with the idea that what we do is important. The people whom we work for, our employers, and our bigger public do need us. I think you should go away from the conference feeling very positive about your contribution to helping with both the development of the profession and the development of the educational process that brings new professionals into API, CIP, and NSAPP. I would hope when we talk about the numbers not being everything we wanted them to be, they do not overshadow all the good work that has been done over the past couple of days and I'd applaud the people who put the program together. I think the opportunity to talk, to talk to people that we don't talk to enough, is very important and I hope that you all feel very positive about your contributions and I hope that we do this again and do it soon.

Jenifer Tsang:

I'd like to thank the sponsors - Wallace Macdonald and Lively who sponsored two coffee breaks; SGE Group sponsored a coffee break as well; ATI Consulting, EDM, Baseline Business Graphics, and Connor Architects & Planner sponsored a table, and that's helped pay for this. We've appreciated it very much and a big thank you to Barry Zwicker for being our MC and keeping it entertaining and personal.

Atlantic Planners Institute

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This document was last modified on January 11, 2000.