2018 Calendar Coming Soon

Thank you to all the people who volunteered their time on Dec. 8 to help us develop our program calendar for 2018. Stay tuned for an announcement regarding the full calendar and details about our first events of the year coming up in February!

2017 Year In Review

The Chicago Metro Section (APA-CMS) had a record-breaking year in 2017 and we look forward to continuing to provide valuable educational, networking, and professional development opportunities to planning professionals across throughout the Chicago region. We hosted 11 monthly programs where attendees learned about a range of topics including long range transportation planning, urban design, municipal finance, community engagement, autonomous vehicles, next generation GIS, and planning for equity. APA-CMS was also fortunate to have several talented organizers volunteer to provide sessions that covered the both planning ethics and law requirements.

Recognizing that our sunny days are limited here in Chicago, APA-CMS made an effort to host several events outside in 2017. In June we hosted a behind the scenes walking tour of Millennium Park, co-sponsored with the ASLA Illinois Chapter (IL ASLA), to get firsthand insight from the planners and landscape architects that made the park a reality. And in August attendees were treated to a guided bike tour of innovative neighborhood-scale bicycle solutions on Chicago’s northside with complimentary bikes provided by CDOT and Divvy Bikes.

2017 was also a great year for new and expanding relationships with the section’s partner organizations. We held events in partnership with several groups including the Chaddick Institute's Municipal Design Review Network (MDRN), AIA-Chicago, University of Illinois as Chicago, APA-IL Diversity Committee, IL ASLA, and the Government Finance Officers Association. As part of our annual Planners Toolkit series, APA-CMS collaborated with architectural designer Bruce Bondy to host a pair of freehand drawing and visualization workshops, particularly building upon the workshop’s popularity from 2015 and 2016. Collectively, APA-CMS hosted 14 events in 2017 and had more than 600 in attendance as well as several TODrink happy hour events co-hosted with our partners at CNU Illinois.

Thank you 2017 Volunteers!

Each year APA-CMS is very fortunate to have a dedicated group of individuals and partners volunteer to make our ambitious program calendar a reality. We would especially like to thank our monthly program organizers and hosts for their efforts.

Organizers

Drew Awsumb, AICP – City of Highland Park

Dan Bolin – Ancel Glink

Nik Davis, AICP – Houseal Lavigne Associates

Jennifer McNeil Dhadwal, AICP – AECOM

Adam Flickinger, AICP – Solomon Cordwell Buenz

Tim Gustafson, AICP – Alta Planning + Design

Greg Jones, AICP – Ancel Glink

Gabrielle Mattingly – City of Naperville

Jim Meyer – AECOM David Silverman – Ancel Glink

David Smith, AICP – T.Y. Lin International

Steve Wilson, AICP – Gensler

Hosts

APA National

Chaddick Institute

Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning

City of Naperville

Millennium Park Foundation

Village of Mt. Prospect

Thank you Todd and Sara!

APA-CMS also saw two of our officers move on to greener pastures in 2017 and we would like to thank them for their hard work over the past several years. Todd Vanadilok, AICP served in various roles including Chairman for 6+ (!) years and Sara Kopinski, AICP stepped in as Secretary for 2017 (after previously serving in that role in years past). APA-CMS hopes to continue to build on the success that Todd and Sara helped foster and we look forward to a great 2018.

Your 2018 Executive Board:

Brandon Nolin, AICP - Chairman

Drew Awsumb, MPA, AICP - Vice Chairman

Gabrielle Mattingly - Secretary

Ryan Richter, AICP - Treasurer

James Testin, AICP - Past Chairman

Contact the APA-CMS at cms@ilapa.org

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