From the Editors
Mary Kihl, AICP	© & Author Info

Greetings

Planning is Approaching the Millennium with greatly expanded sources of information, enhanced opportunities for access, and increased dedication of communication both among professional colleagues and among the public at large. This first CD-ROM version of APA annual conference proceedings is symbolic of the expanded sources of information and the determination to share ideas, reflect on best practices, and stimulate informed discussion.

For the last two years, thanks to the determination of Bruce McClendon, AICP and Bill Pable, conference participants had the option of purchasing printed copies of the proceedings. With relatively small press runs, however, the copies were sold out long before the conference was over and other planners tried to scavenge any remaining copies.

Thanks to the tireless effort of Ray Quay of the City of Phoenix Planning Department, the 1997 and 1998 conference proceedings were made available on Internet, but, unfortunately, the Internet address was not widely distributed and only a limited number of planners visited the sites.

Communication is essential if planners are to learn from experience, be attuned to current issues, and test new ideas. All those attending the 1999 APA annual conference will want copies of the proceedings as will others who are unable to attend. This CD-ROM will make that possible.

The CD-ROM includes all conference papers that were submitted to the editorial team before the Seattle Conference. A number of additional papers will be presented in Seattle, but were not ready in time to be included on the disk. These additional papers will be made available on the Internet. You will find this updated set of papers at the following Internet address: http://www.asu.edu/caed/proceedings99.
Hot Links on this disk will carry you directly to items of interest. It is not possible to capture either on the CD or the Internet, informal presentations that do not include written text support.

Given the amount of space available on the CD-ROM, the editorial team has included a number of features in addition to the 1999 proceedings. Copies of the 1997 and 1998 APA annual conference proceedings are included for those of you who have not yet had access to them. The CD-ROM also includes a copy of the outstanding article and the outstanding feature article from volume 64 of the Journal of the American Planning Association. In addition, you will find a copy of the recent APA Growing Smart Report.

The electronic publication of the Proceedings of Approaching the Millennium has indeed been a team effort. The editors gratefully acknowledge the efforts of the program participants in developing quality papers and rushing them to us in time to be included in this publication. The panel moderators played a key role in coordinating the efforts of their panelists.

We certainly appreciate the continued support of Roger Hedrick, President of the AICP Commission and the reinforcing energy and enthusiasm of Karen Fernandez of the AICP Multi-Media Task Force. Kent East of APA Publications was most helpful in facilitating the business side of the project while Sally Lambertson of the APA staff deserves special recognition for her effectiveness in marshaling this effort through to completion. Bill White and Michael Baker of Intergraph have been a regular source of technical support and encouragement. The editors join the APA in acknowledging the major contribution of Intergraph in producing the CD-ROM disks for the conference.

We appreciat the resources the City of Phoenix lent us, including allowing Ray Quay to work on the proceedings during some of his "regular" hours.

The project would not have been possible, however, without the capable, dedicated effort of William Kasson, planner and an editor with the Herberger Center for Design Excellence of the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at Arizona State University. The Herberger Center is the publication arm of the College and is known for the quality of its print publications. We were pleased to accept the opportunity to publish the proceedings of the 1999 APA Annual Conference. Publication of the CD-ROM, however, offered new challenges for the Herberger Center staff. With Bill Kasson at the helm personally reformatting each of the papers, associating images with text files, and preparing the HTML files, the effort moved along with minimum of difficulty and frustration.

Much of the credit for spearheading the electronic publication of the proceedings belongs to Ray Quay with the City of Phoenix. His talents as on-line editor in building web sites, publishing on the Internet, and in creating the pilot CD-ROM disk have been invaluable. Ray worked many hours, much of it on his own time to guide and help us with preparing the disk and then personally installed the 1999 Proceedings on the Internet. Ray's motivation for this amazing effort is his personal dedication to furthering communication among planners and enhancing the quality of our profession. The APA is indebted to this talented, dedicated planner.

Sincerely,

Mary Kihl, AICP
Director of the Herberger Center, Arizona State University