SPECIAL TRAINING ISSUE
education
The trees are tossing their yellow leaves and schools have flung open their doors to streams of young learners. As the air turns crisp and the pencils are sharpened, we're hoping to sharpen our minds with some upcoming learning opportunities. Our team served on the steering committee for the Indigenous Planning Division Conference, Leading Change: Blending Indigenous and Western Planning Tools. We hope to see you there Oct. 1-3. Take advantage of the Rural Energy Conference, Developing Local and Renewable Energy Resources,” happening in Girdwood, September 16-18. Recreational parks are a valuable resource as well, and pointing out just how important they are is the goal of National Parking Day, Friday, September 19. We'll fill the meter of a downtown parking space for the day and convert it into a miniature park to carve out a little green space in an urban environment – a space that's “livable and loveable as well.” Keep your eyes peeled for Agnew::Beck’s “park-ing space” on September 19, (somewhere in the vicinity of our office at 5th Avenue and E Street downtown).
rural energy conference
girdwood, september 16-18
The Alaska Energy Authority (AEA) and the Alaska Center for Energy and Power at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) are holding the 2008 Rural Energy Conference: “Developing Local and Renewable Energy Resources” September 16-18 at the Hotel Alyeska in Girdwood.
“Alaska stands at the threshold of making sweeping changes in the way we heat our homes, schools and facilities, generate our electricity and provide for our transportation,” said AEA Executive Director and Energy Coordinator Steve Haagenson. “With today’s high cost of energy impacting virtually every Alaskan, I cannot imagine a Rural Energy Conference more important and timely than this one.”
The main conference topics are: Management and Economics, Current Technologies, Forward/Future Technologies and Energy Conservation. More conference information is available by calling the UAF Arctic Energy Technology Development Laboratory (AETDL) at (907) 474-1929 or by visiting their web site: www.uaf.edu/aetdl.
parking day
september 19
On National Park(ing) Day – Tomorrow, Friday, September 19, 2008 – public parking spots nationwide will become public parks. The goals of the event are to celebrate parks and promote the need for parks in America's cities.
Sponsored by The Trust for Public Land (TPL), a national conservation nonprofit, National Park(ing) Day is an annual event celebrating parks. Participants in more than 60 cities nationwide, including New York, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New Orleans, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington D.C. have announced that they will create temporary parks in public spaces.
For a full list of cities participating, maps, and descriptions, you can see the TPL’s website at www.tpl.org/parkingday.
"By turning parking spaces into instant parks, National Park(ing) Day is a creative way to demonstrate the real need to have and create parks in our cities," said Will Rogers, TPL president. "Across America, cities are renewing their investments in parks because our civic leaders have come to recognize that close-to-home parks, gardens, and playgrounds are essential if we are to have cities that aren't just livable, but lovable."
In 2007, National Park(ing) Day spawned more than 200 new parks in more than fifty cities nationwide and around the world! Agnew::Beck believes in the importance of parks (especially since Tomas needs somewhere to throw his Frisbee other than in the hallway) so we're hosting our own little parking space downtown. Look for it!
Indigenous planning conference
october 1-3
We are excited to participate in the American Planning Association’s 2008 Indigenous Planning Division Conference, Leading Change: Blending Indigenous and Western Planning Tools. During the conference, which will be held October 1-3 at the Anchorage Marriott, Chris Beck, Shelly Wade and Heather Stewart will be presenting Incubating Small Businesses in Rural Alaska: the Bristol Bay Tourism Model. Participants will:
- Understand how Bristol Bay Alaska Native organizations are helping to seed and stimulate culturally-appropriate, locally-based tourism development.
- Learn about the “virtual small business incubator” – how efforts to collectively market and support small business development via the Internet is affecting tourism development in remote Alaskan communities.
- Understand the challenges and benefits of this tourism model and how it might be applied to your situation.
Thea Agnew Bemben and Beth McLaughlin will present: Should We Build It? Practical Steps for Evaluating a Facility Project and Creating a Sustainable Community Facility Plan. By the end of this session, participants will have learned the following:
- Clear and concise steps for developing a Community Comprehensive Plan.
- Methods for working with your community (or other communities) to articulate Community Vision, Clarify Goals, Set Priorities, and Implement an Action Plan to preserve community values.
- Tools to ensure a plan is locally driven and broadly supported.
- Ability to use the Community Comprehensive Planning Guidebook to understand the planning process and initiate it in your community.
The conference will bring together community planners, tribal planners, local leaders, and all other community development professionals to share local experiences, planning tools, and indigenous planning perspectives. We hope to see you there! If you would like to register, or find out more about what is being offered at the conference, go here: http://www.leadingchange2008.com/.
Photos courtesy Agnew::Beck Consulting 
