Ball State Student Planning Association

• We started out the meeting by talking about the upcoming Indiana APA Conference held here at the University. Ellen passed out agendas for the conference, and the internship fair at the conference was discussed.

• We then discussed the CAP Admitted Students Day and who will be representing SPA there: Chelsea, Taylor, Charlie, Adam, and Bryant.

• Charles and Ellen then brought up Exec Board elections which will be held the week following Spring Break. Third year positions are President, Vice-President, Treasurer, and APA student representative. Secretary is a second year position, and the studio representatives are open for each year.

• Brock introduced Nicole from the Communication Studies Department to talk to the student planning debate team.

• We started out the meeting by talking about Dance Marathon this past weekend. It went very well and we are thinking about potentially teaming up with another CAP student organization next year.

• There are many conferences coming up and deadlines for those applications. Indiana APA is $35 and students need to register by the end of this week, February 28th. The national APA conference is also coming up very soon, as well as deadlines for that.

• There is another potential Habitat build this weekend. If you want to participate, you can contact:

• When it comes to the P.S.O. status, everything went well, and we are now considered a Planning Student Organization.

• Brock gave more details on the student planning debate team. The session will be occurring at the Indiana APA conference during studio time. Students interested in being on the team should contact Brock and let him know by this Friday.

• The Admitted Students day is coming up, and SPA will have a booth. We will just be talking about what we do as an organization and what planning is to the incoming freshmen.

• One of our goals for this year was to bridge the gap between different years in planning, so we are looking for another fun activity to bring everyone together. Potentially another movie night, or touring a design firm, etc.

• Charles talked about how some international students are interested in talking to the SPA, so we are planning on meeting with them in the future.

• Professor Lisa Dunaway, our guest lecturer, mentioned how we can apply to work the registration desk for the National APA conference and potentially get our registration fee waived.

• We ended the meeting with resume’ and portfolio reviews.

• We started out the meeting by talking about the new SPA website. The URL is ballstateSPA.wix.com/spa. We are going to post the minutes from every meeting for people who couldn’t make it.

• The Habitat for Humanity Build this past weekend went very well. We are thinking about making this a monthly thing for members who are interested.

• Ellen then talked about the several conferences and events that are coming up: The Indiana APA chapter is meeting here at Ball State again. Students need to register at IndianaAPA.org very soon to get a discount on the price.The National APA conference is in Atlanta this year, and Scott Truex is taking a group down. The trip costs $270 (plus the money required for registration). You can go to the APA website to register for the conference. Anyone who is interested needs to talk to Christine Rhine.

• Ellen is running for a regional student position for the National APA. She will be sending out a link soon so we can vote.

• The campus master plan committee will be attending CAP for an interactive session next week. We encourage everyone to attend and participate.

• Charles and Ellen then introduced Zach Lutz and Giang Tran, last year’s president and vice-president, to talk about their internship experiences last summer. Zach talked about his experience with Anderson’s Planning Department.  Giang is currently an intern at Muncie Downtown, which is a non-profit organization that focuses on economic development in the downtown area.  After Zach and Giang talked about their internships, there was an opportunity for questions.

• At the end of the meeting, Charles announced that we would be having a meeting next week and the week after that. We will be going over portfolios and resume’s.

• Charles opened the meeting with talking about the shirts that came in and our status as a PSO chapter. Taylor will be our representative for moving forward with that.

• Ellen talked about how we will be participating in a Habitat for Humanity project on February 15th from 9 until 3. We would like as many people as possible to come.

• We are looking to have an internship panel at an upcoming meeting with students who have had internships. We also want everyone to contact their Just Lunch person so that we can potentially have everyone talk about their experiences.

• We also discussed Dance Marathon, which is coming up soon. The deadline for everyone to sign up is this Friday January 31st.

• Another upcoming event is a movie and pizza night in the near future.

• Ellen welcomed everyone to the meeting. Stated that we are wanting to get all years to know each other this semester, so for the callout meeting we are making gingerbread houses.

• Charles then gave updates on current and future happenings in the group: (1) A Habitat build this Saturday and next with EGB  (2) The Just Lunch program is still going on, several professionals have stated their interest. (3) The Indiana APA conference is happening here again, but in the Alumni Center. (4) The National APA conference is coming up and is in Atlanta, Michael will write permission slips to attend the conference and miss classes here.

• Possibly participating in Dance Marathon as a group. $30 entrance fee but the SPA will pay for $10. We are looking to become officially recognized by the APA as a PSO (Planning Student Organization)

• Brock announced an APA debate team that is in the works. He will send out an email with further information.

• The meeting started out with a callout for planning student proposals for the Student/Faculty Symposium.

• Charles and Ellen made an announcement on our status as a PSO chapter. The website where we can register is down, but we have all of the information.

• Our SPA Dance Marathon team has 5 members, and they have raised $150 so far.

• Vera has approached us about pairing us up with APA members for lunch when the Indiana Spring APA conference is here.

• For the Just Lunch program, we want to put several experiences together in an article and Chelsea will be coordinating that effort.

• For a future meeting on internships, we talked about potentially getting someone to come in from the Career Center and go over our resume’s.

• Brock has been working with Vera about potentially getting a student planning debate team together, and potentially working with Ball State’s All-American debate team.

• An idea was suggested to potentially bring in 4th years to talk about their past experiences with internships.

• Another idea came up about maybe having a portfolio workshop in a meeting.

• The last item on the agenda was the Habitat Build on Saturday. We are taking two cars and are meeting in the east parking lot next to CAP at 8:15 a.m. on Saturday morning.

• After announcements, the group had pizza and watched the movie Urbanized.

News and Updates

• Thanks to everyone who showed up to Dr. Kelly

• Next weekend downtown clean upNovember 18th Guest Speaker Philip Farrington

• Last meeting of the semester is November 20th. We will be discussing upcoming events for next semester.

• Burris mentorship program. They are meeting every Tuesday and Wednesday from 3-4. You need to fill out a mentorship form before you go and volunteer.

• Just Lunch Program. It is up to you to approach your Just Lunch person. If there are any other members who are interested in this program they need to let Charles know.

• The next Indiana APA meeting is coming up, so studio reps need to talk to Brock about what the different studios are up to.

• Chelsea got a quote from the T-shirt company. The cost is included in our dues.

Guest Speaker: Cheryl Crowder from DWNTWN

• What she discussed:

• The first phase of the project was to rebrand the downtown area.

• They also utilized a marketing firm to come up with a new logo and a series of advertisements.

• New billboards will be coming up soon

• We watched the campaign’s new video

• The website is a good place to go in order to get more information.

• The effort began in the early 2000’s when the current mayor decided that the problem needed to be fixed. It started with the area of Canaan Commons and Walnut Street.

• The campaign is funded in part by the city, from revenue received from events, and from their partnerships with other companies.

• They have done great with Walnut Street. There are only 3 vacant spaces left now.

• She provided an opportunity for members to ask her questions about the campaign.

• Charles opened up the meeting with a welcome back to everyone from Fall Break and an introduction of Dr. Kelly and his presentation on Finding a Job/Internship.

• Dr. Kelly spoke about how to go about searching for jobs and internships.

• We passed around a thank you letter for the class of ’68.

• Everyone who signed up for the Just Lunch program was given slips of their paired Planners.