I really enjoyed this week’s class discussions of plans and communications as we reviewed the articles Reading Through A Plan and General Plan Evaluation Criteria: An Approach to Making Better Plans from the Journal of the American Planning Association and The Three Laws of Professional Communication from the IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication. Diving into these articles we discussed what makes a good plan including ways to evaluate a plan from asking questions: Does it articulate the problems of the community? Is the plan comprehensive? Does the plan associate a timeframe for implementation? One of the throughlines from these articles concerns participation, inclusion, and communicating ideas to an audience. In this area we have had some overlap with both the Planning History and Theory course and the Environmental Planning course as we have explored the levels of engagement in the planning process and discussion of environmental justice, respectively. I particularly engaged with the professional communication article because being able to understand the audience, tailor a message, and effectively and concisely communicate a point is something which I have experience and is a necessary skillset for future planners.
Lastly, we had a brief overview of the AICP certification for professional planners. I place a lot of value in professional certification especially given students and edge in the job market, though I am personally hesitant to pursue AICP certification because I already maintain my professional certification for architecture and for LEED, both of which consume time and money for continuing education credits.