2025 Presidents Updates

Looking back on 2024, APA Nebraska continued to offer exceptional learning opportunities including the spring conference and fall workshop. We held quarterly virtual book clubs, many pints with planners events, our annual meeting, and continued to release biweekly episodes of Booked on Planning. We could not have done any of this without the commitment of dedicated volunteers who make our Chapter a success. We may be on the smaller side of chapters, but we are competing with the larger staffed chapters in terms of program offerings. Looking ahead to 2025 we are excited to announce the receipt of a Chapter Presidents Council Administrative Grant that will help us buildout a suite of materials to support chapter members in conducting youth engagement across the state. In additional, we will be able to overhaul our financial system to increase efficiency and make it easier for an all-volunteer board to manage. We are also looking forward to engaging our membership through the Legislative Committee during this year’s legislative cycle, with more timely updates and opportunities to engage with our state legislators. Soon we will begathering for our first winter holiday event, another opportunity to celebrate the work we do as planners. As we close out another great year of planning to embark on another, as Chapter President I want to thank all our members and volunteers for supporting the work we doin our communities.

Stephanie Rouse, AICP

APA NE President

Happy New Year 2025! Hoping all of you had a wonderful holiday with family and friends and took time celebrate and reflect on the previous year while looking forward to the new year filled with new ideas for the future.2024 was a great year for the Nebraska Planning and Zoning Association and as we all are aware, planning always comes with new challenges and new creative ideas to tackle any obstacle in front of us. The Nebraska Planning and Zoning Association (NPZA) and the Nebraska Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA-NE)have scheduled the 2025 Nebraska Planning Conference for March5-7 at the Younes Conference Center North, in Kearney, Nebraska. Registration is out and the hotel block is open so make your arrangements and we can’t wait to see you there! You can check the NPZA Website for all of the relevant information. We are looking forward to another great conference with a broad range of sessions with topics that are sure to appeal to everyone. Hope to see most of you at the conference in March and wishing you all a great start to 2025!For more information on the annual conference, 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