April 2025 Presidents Updates

APA NE

March is always a busy month for Nebraska Planners with both the Nebraska Planning Conference and the National Planning Conference. We had great attendance at our state conference despite another year of threatening weather. Those in attendance were able to take advantage of all the CM accredited sessions, network with planners from across the state, and celebrate the award winning planning work at the annual banquet. Similarly, at NPC held in Denver this year, a strong cohort from Nebraska was in attendance including five student recipients of a travel grant from the Chapter. At the joint Nebraska Chapter and UNL Alumni Foundation reception Chapter members reconnected with graduates of the UNL CRPL program.

Looking forward, this summer is an election year for the Chapter and National board seats. Serving as a board member of the Chapter offers a tremendous opportunity to sharpen your skills, expand your network, and work directly to strengthen the impact of the organization. The portal for self-nominations will be open through May 9th here. In addition to National positions, APA Nebraska has open seats for President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary. Reach out if you have any questions on serving in an elected role!

Stephanie Rouse, AICP; APA NE President

NPZA

Spring is near, time for outside experiences, BBQ’s, camping, hiking etc.  The weather is treating us very nicely and looks like the Spring and Summer months are shaping up nicely.  Our Annual 2025 Joint Planning Conference was a huge success, and I hear from a number of individuals how awesome our conference was (and always is).  It was a great time to learn new things in the planning field that have happened and are possibilities for the future from selected session presentations and communicating with others across the state in the planning realm.  Planning always comes with new challenges and learning new creative ideas to tackle any obstacle comes in handy.  

As always, the next few months will entail reviewing what we can do better for the upcoming conference and what sessions we should provide for the NPZA Fall Digital Workshop.  Again, we will be offering a digital workshop for those you may not have been able to attend the annual spring workshop.  The past few years we have been bringing a snip it of the conference in a digital format and will continue to do that in the future.  Keep your eyes open for announcements of the upcoming digital workshop, it always proves to provide great educational opportunities for all involved.  For more information on the upcoming digital workshop or on NPZA itself, please check out the NPZA website or follow our activities on Facebook and Twitter as well.

Judy Clark, MPA; NPZA President