Planning Committee Annual Report 2023

submitted by Sonia Archer-Capuzzo

Current Roster

  • Sonia Archer-Capuzzo, Planning Officer, Chair (2024)
  • Houman Behzadi, Assistant Planning Officer (2025)
  • Veronica Wells (2024)
  • Ray Heigemeir (2024)
  • Angela Pratesi (2025)
  • Blaine Brubaker (2024)

List of Previous Goals and Progress Made

  • Continue working towards initial implementation of Strategic Plan.
    • Applies to no specific goal. Groundwork being laid to help MLA parties effectively share information and work towards common goals. – continuing project
    • Finish setting up initial public-facing page that will allow interested parties to easily see work being done towards various parts of the Strategic Plan. – initial website created
  •  Help setup initial Committee Management Team. – completed. Committee Management Team is currently working on a process.
    • Objectives 2.1 and 3.3
    • This new team will aid in more equitable and inclusive appointments to committee memberships and chairs by creating a universal application to signal people’s interest in serving on various groups. The team will make appointment recommendations to the President, who is ultimately responsible for committee makeup.
  • Collaborate with IDEA Committee on how to deal with microaggressions. -continuing project
    • Objective 3.6
    • Initial talks have surrounded having an external ombuds to help neutrally deal with these issues. – research into hiring a contract ombudsperson has been done. Not decisions have been reached.

List of Future Goals

  • Continue working toward implementation of Strategic Plan.
    • Objective 4.3
    • Continue refinement of public-facing page, including linking more closely with annual and possibly quarterly reports and creating a table/spreadsheet view of data.
    • Create guides for committee chairs and others to create goals that align with the strategic plan and track progress.
  • Continue to work with the Committee Management Team to create processes.
    • Objective 2.1, 3.3
    • Roll out communication, forms, and other tools to get membership involved with new processes for joining committees and/or otherwise becoming or continuing to be involved with MLA.
  • Collaborate with IDEA Committee on how to deal with microaggressions.
    • Objective 3.6
    • Explore options beyond an ombudsperson, such as listing resources on the MLA website, creating a suggestions/complaint form, or other ways to engage membership.
  • Create micro-grant opportunities to allow committees and others in MLA to access funds for projects throughout the year.
    • Objective 2.3
    • Explore what funds are available, create guidelines for application, create an application process, create a rubric for evaluation of applications, investigate how those who receive funds might report on the funded project