Graphic design courses -- What do you want to learn and how?

Tradition, digital or tradigital?

Free-hand, mechanical dwg or color rendering?

CAD, Sketchup, Photoshop or Rhinoceros?

Online course, learning lab, hybrid or on-site?

Bloustein Online Continuing Education Program (BOCEP) would like to know your preferences  for graphic communication courses.

Please take our 5-minute survey

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Leading from the Middle can help you become a better leader -- and a better placebuilder

The Leading Institute's Leading from the Middle program, which starts in late January is designed to help you learn better ways to manage conflict and be more persuasive.  You can also learn a number of skills that will help you in making places stronger and more sustainable.  These include:

*Values-based planning -- a model that helps you make decisions even when you have too little information, and helps you adapt better to unforeseen conditions.
*Cost-effective evaluation -- an approach that gets you to focus on the most important measures of success in your work.
*Cultural competency -- a critical skill set for anyone working in a community or organization that is getting more diverse.
*Team and alliance building --  An important skill set for sustainability.  Behind every successful plan is a group of leaders who are committed to making it happen.

The most successful placebuilders are not just technicians.  They are transformative leaders who can shape how community stakeholders think about places and persuade them to act on their new beliefs.

Leading from the Middle starts January 28, 2011 in New Brunswick, NJ.  Some seats and scholarships are available. Questions? Contact Leonardo Vazquez, The Leading Institute Director, at vazquezl@rutgers.edu or 732-932-3822, x711

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January BOCEP Deep Learning courses to start January 12

The first set of Bloustein Online Continuing Education Program Deep Learning courses in 2011 will start January 12 and end February 19.  (They had been scheduled to begin January 5) This change helps give busy professionals more time to catch up from the holidays before class begins.

Even though the classes start a week later, it's better to register early.  You're more likely to get a scholarship (up to $145 for some classes).  If a course is postponed, you will get to take another course free while waiting for your other course to begin.

See the list of upcoming courses 
Updates on scholarships are announced on the Professional Development Institute newsletter.  Subscribe to the free newsletter.

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Community Development Tips: Better field research

I was a trainer in a program to help college and graduate students become more effective housing and community development professionals.  Here are a few tips I shared with them, as well as a few more.

• Get a sense of the community by using a site or free program that uses aerial photography, such as Google Maps or Bing Maps (Formerly Microsoft Live Maps).
• Do land use, building condition and related surveys early in the morning.
• For safety and efficiency, surveys should be done by at least two people together.  Never do a windshield survey by yourself.  
• If you are working in a dangerous area (such as one with drug or gang issues), wear clothes that make you stand out.  You will be seen as less of a threat if you're trying to be visible.  Dressing like a municipal employee, or wearing an identity card around your neck also can help you look more conspicuous. 
• When passing auto-oriented uses, check the ground for oil and and other toxic chemical spills.  If the floor is dirty, there's a good chance the ground is to.  In other words: Likely brownfield.
• When doing density surveys: doorbells-mailboxes-meters.  These are your best field measures to determine how a building is subdivided.  Note: In locations with illegal apartments, a landlord may feed one meter into multiple units.  Also look for what seem like overly-large parking areas, compared to similar structures in the area.
• Every so often, give your eyes a rest and listen and smell.  What parts of the neighborhood are noisiest?  What parts smell the cleanest?
• If you are watching how people interact with the build environment, look like you have a reason to be standing around watching.  Buy a coffee or drink when you're sitting or standing outside.  Then you look like you're waiting for someone.  
• If you are asked what you are doing, avoid the word "redevelopment" (unless it is part of the formal name of your project.)  When people hear "redevelopment," they tend to think "eminent domain" and it can get a bit ugly after that... 
• Trust your feelings.  If you feel uncomfortable, get out of the area as quickly as possible.

Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP
Have a professional development tip? 
Share it.  Send your tip to Leo

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Cultural planning conference can help you build more sustainable communities through the arts

The Arts Build Communities Leadership Program is designed for civic and cultural leaders who want to be more effective in building sustainable communities and local economies through the arts.

Participants will get expert advice in building customized and more cost-effective strategies for their communities.  The Leadership Program has two parts.

It begins February 11, 2011, with an all-day conference on arts-based community development and economic development.  Experts will share their advice and experiences, and be candid about the benefits and challenges of this work.  The conference, at Rutgers University's Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, is open to everyone.  The cost is $50, which includes meals and a free electronic resource guide.

The next part of the program runs from March to July 2011.  In this part of the program, community-based teams will plan custom strategies for their communities.  The teams will get technical assistance and coaching from experts in cultural planning, community and economic development, leadership and organizational development, and public policy.

All conference participants will be invited to participate in the second part of the program.  Up to 10 teams will be selected, and each team must have at least one elected official (or high-ranking public administrator) and a cultural professional.  Each team can have up to 10 members.

In September, the teams will return to Rutgers for a one-day convocation to share their experiences.  The convocation will be open to the public.

Register for the February 11 conference
Applications for the full program will be available by January 2011.
For more information, please contact Deborah Schulze at 732-932-3822, x635 or schulze@eden.rutgers.edu

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Renowned land use attorney Lora Lucero joins Bloustein Online Continuing Education Program

Lora Lucero, an urban planner, land use attorney, and adjunct professor of law at the University of New Mexico, will be teaching planning law and ethics courses in the Bloustein Online Continuing Education Program.

Those who follow land use law issues should be familiar with Lora’s work. She edited the American Planning Association’s legal journal - Planning & Environmental Law - for many years, and coordinated the filing of amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) briefs for APA in state and federal courts in many important planning law cases over the past 10 years.

She is co-editor of a leading text on the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act - RLUIPA Reader: Religious Land Use, Zoning, and the Courts (Planners Press 2009) and has authored numerous articles on water, climate change and planning law issues.  Lora is also editor of the American Bar Association - Section of State & Local Government Law’s quarterly newsletter.

Lora will be teaching Current Trends in Land Use Law, from January 5 to February 12, 2011. One of the more popular courses in BOCEP, this class helps participants better understand and prepare to address hot topics in planning law today. She will be teaching Ethics in Planning and Land Use Regulations in 2011 .

With more than 30 years experience, Lora brings both a practical and academic perspective on planning, environmental and land use law to BOCEP. She began her career as a public sector planner in California. Following law school, she moved to New Mexico and quickly established herself as a strong advocate for reforming that state’s planning statutes.  She has worked with both urban and rural communities, drafting impact fee ordinances, zoning regulations, and community plans. Most recently, Lora has turned her attention to the emerging field of climate law.

BOCEP and the Professional Development Institute are delighted and honored that Lora is joining our pool of instructors. 

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PDI partners with American Planning Association divisions to make quality continuing education more affordable

To strengthen their mutual commitments to the planning profession, Rutgers University’s Professional Development Institute is providing scholarships of $100 to Deep Learning courses to members of some divisions of the American Planning Association.

Members of these divisions will pay only $195 for any Bloustein Online Continuing Education Deep Learning course.

*Gays and Lesbians in Planning

*Latinos and Planning

*Planning and the Black Community

*Planning and Women

*Private Practice

PDI is also working with the Private Practice Division to develop Deep Learning courses and Learning Labs that better meet the needs of its members, many of whom work in or own planning consultancies.

Deep Learning courses, which are entirely online, give learners practical knowledge and skills to help them in their work and career.  Designed for busy professionals who want more than they get in conferences and short training sessions, Deep Learning courses are convenient -- there are no required meetings -- and interactive.  You can share ideas with professionals from around the United States and other countries.  Courses cover a wide variety of topics, including: community development, economic development, leadership, planning law, professional practice, and urban design.

Almost all Deep Learning courses are eligible for 14 AICP Certification Maintenance credits.

The normal fee for a Bloustein Online Continuing Education Program Deep Learning course is $295.  With the scholarship, members of partnering organizations pay $195 (a discount of more than 33%).  Those pursuing a Certificate of Completion, Master Practitioner or Expert Practitioner Certificate pay an additional $50 per course.

Members need a promotion code to get the scholarship. 

• GALIP members, please contact Linda Amato
• Private Practice members, please contact Ramona Mullahey
• If you are a member of any other participating division, please contact your division chair or a member of the division’s executive committee.  Some divisions are making the promotion code available through email or in their newsletters.

The scholarship and promotion applies to all Deep Learning courses through July 2011.

Learn more about BOCEP and upcoming classes.

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Did BOCEP help you in your work or career? Let us know...

The Bloustein Online Continuing Education Program is looking for graduates of BOCEP courses to find out how their experience helped them in their work or career.

Did what you learned in a BOCEP class lead you to do something differently than you would have otherwise? Did your experience have an impact in how you approached your work or your career?

Please let PDI Director Leonardo Vazquez know.  Feel free to email him or call at 732-932-3822, x711.

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Bloustein alumni can get $100 discount on BOCEP Deep Learning classes

Anyone who graduated from Rutgers University's Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, or its predecessor, is eligible to receive a scholarship of $100 toward any Deep Learning course offered by the Bloustein Online Continuing Education Program.

This means that Bloustein alumni would pay only $195 per course.  Alumni can apply the scholarship to any Deep Learning course. Alumni need to get the promotion code before registering to get the discounted price.  To do that, they can send an email to Programs Manager Swena Gulati.  (Please indicate your graduation year and program.  After confirming that you are an alum, we will send you the promotion code by email.)

BOCEP Deep Learning courses provide high-quality, practical and convenient learning for professionals who want more than they usually get in a typical training or conference session. All courses are completely online, and there are no required meetings.  But they are interactive -- you can learn from and share ideas with other professionals and experts through discussion boards and videoconferences.  BOCEP offers courses in a wide range of subjects, including:

• Arts-based planning
• Community development
• Economic development
• Environmental planning
• Leadership and management
• Planning and land use law
• Urban design

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National leader in creative community building to join Cultural Economic Development Studio

Tom Borrup will be with ABC's  Cultural Economic Development Studio course the week of September 27 to October 3.  Learners in the course will have a week to ask questions and share ideas with Tom. 

Tom Borrup

He is author of the influential book The Creative Community Builder's Handbook and Principal of Creative Community Builders in Minneapolis. Tom is an expert in strategic planning, community transformation, partnership building and program evaluation.

Cultural Economic Development Studio is an online BOCEP Deep Learning course that can help participants:

• Build practical skills for arts-based economic development.
• Better influence officials, community leaders and developers by showing them how the arts can strengthen their community's economy.
• Promote greater support for the arts among businesspeople.
• Understand better the connection between sustainable economic development and the arts.

In this course, you learn by doing:  Learners will explore the feasibility of making Somerville, NJ an arts destination.  You'll be surprised at how much you can learn -- and do -- in a BOCEP Deep Learning course.

The course is convenient and interactive.  It is completely online and there are no required meetings.  But you can share ideas and ask questions of a variety of urban planners and cultural professionals, such as Tom.

The course runs from now through October 30.  Registration ends September 29. 

Course fee is $295, and scholarships of $50 are still available. Use promotion code BGBBS.

This class is part of a set of courses that you can take to get a Bloustein Professional Certificate in Cultural Planning and Development.

Cultural Economic Development Studio is produced by Arts Build Communities in partnership with the Bloustein Online Continuing Education Program.  Both initiatives are produced by the Professional Development Institute of Rutgers University's Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.

Questions? Feel free to contact the class instructor, and ABC Director, Leonardo Vazquez by email or at 732-932-322, x711

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How you can build your leadership skills through BOCEP Deep Learning

Most planners and public affairs professionals are like beige wallpaper -- pleasant and easy to ignore.

The Bloustein Online Continuing Education Program is designed for people who would rather help make decisions than just give information.  Besides giving you practical skills, how do our Deep Learning courses help you become a more effective leader?

• The "anytime, anyplace" format of the discussion boards challenges you to manage your time more effectively.  Leaders have to have good time management skills.  Leaders are often catalysts and have to commit to missions for the long-term.  If you can't manage your time well, you won't be able to manage projects or lead people.
• The discussion boards encourage you to be a better communicator.  When you are challenged to write down your ideas in concise formats, you can become more organized in your thinking and more strategic about your language.  It's not ideas that make leaders successful -- it's how good leaders are at communicating them.
• The 5.5 weeks of class give you time to think, act and reflect.   One of the key differences between a mere technician and being an effective leader is that technicians do things right, while leaders do the right things.  In a BOCEP Deep Learning course, you learn more than practical skills.  You learn to think more deeply about your work, so you can be more creative and innovative.
• The classes encourage you to be more culturally competent.  Our classes are open to anyone who has a commitment to improving communities.  There are planners, engineers, and non-professionals.  Some have dozens of years of experience; others are fresh out of school.  BOCEP learners live throughout the US.  Effective leaders learn from everyone they can.   Those professionals who think they can learn only from people like themselves sustain enormous blind spots that will keep them from innovating.  If you keep having the same conversations with the same people, you're going to get the same answers.  In a dynamic and diverse world, that's a recipe for obsolescence.
• Anyone seeking a Bloustein Professional Certificate is eligible to receive free monthly leadership development sessions. These group peer learning sessions can help you learn more innovative ways to deal with project, group, organizational or community challenges.

--Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

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The Bloustein Online Continuing Education Program offers Deep Learning classes in community development, cultural planning, economic development, land use law, leadership, professional practice and urban design.  Classes run between September and July.  Learn more or find courses.

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Questions about BOCEP or Leading from the Middle? Learn more at a free info session

We are hosting a free online information session on upcoming courses and initiatives on September 7, from 2 to 3 pm eastern.  You can learn more or ask questions or about:
*Bloustein Professional Certificates
*Upcoming Bloustein Online Continuing Education Program Deep Learning courses
*Upcoming Leading from the Middle programs
*Leadership coaching
*Upcoming Learning Labs
*Arts Build Communities initiatives and our work in places such as Trenton and Essex County, New Jersey
*The Leading Institute's technical assistance work in places such as Garfield and Linden, New Jersey


PDI and TLI Director Leonardo Vazquez will host the meeting and take your questions and comments.  If you have a webcam or computer microphone, you can speak your questions.  Otherwise, you can type in your questions or comments.  Or just listen in.


Register for the information session

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Free leadership development sessions return in September

The Leading Institute offers free one-hour leadership development sessions to help good professionals become effective leaders.  The free sessions will be on the third Wednesdays and third Fridays of the month, beginning September 22, 2010.  Participants can attend in person, by phone, or through videoconference.

The sessions will include peer coaching and group problem solving, discussion of current topics and their connection to leadership, and other activities to be determined by participants.  The sessions will be facilitated by Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP, Director of the Professional Development Institute and The Leading Institute.

These sessions are designed to help you think in new ways about the connections between leadership, management and professional practice. You can become more creative, confident and more able to tackle difficult challenges.

You are eligible to participate in one session per month if you are:
*Pursuing a Bloustein Professional Certificate and are registered in a BOCEP Deep Learning class or an upcoming Leading from the Middle class.
*A graduate of or coach in Leading from the Middle.

PDI/TLI will send eligible participants location information, call-in information, and login information at least a week before hand.

Questions?  Please contact Leo Vazquez by email or at 732-932-3822, x711

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Want good ideas for urban planning and development in your community? Become a BOCEP studio client

A university studio course is a good, cost-effective way for communities to get information and ideas to help them deal with specific planning and development issues. Imagine if the students in the course were a diverse group of practicing professionals, who could bring a wide range of expertise and insights to an issue.


That's what you would receive if your community became a client for a BOCEP Deep Learning studio course.  You would get the attention of up to 20 professionals who bring their knowledge together to help you address almost any issue connected to community development, economic development, planning law, leadership, sustainability or urban design.



Previous courses have developed form-based codes strategies in Arlington, Virginia; strategies for connecting the arts and community development in Bisbee, Arizona; transit-oriented urban design strategies in Perth Amboy, NJ; and draft environmental regulations for several communities in the United States.  All courses are guided by seasoned practitioners who are experts in the subjects they teach.

In addition to the attention of planning and development professionals, BOCEP studio clients receive a deliverable (plan or study, depending on the issue) at the end of the class.

There's a small fee to be a client:  $1,500.  This fee ensures that the class has the resources it needs to run and that you will receive a quality deliverable at the end of the class.


Almost any course offered by BOCEP is or can become a studio course.  You can choose from a scheduled course, or we can customize a course to fit with your schedule.  Learn more about BOCEP courses.


For more information, please contact PDI Director Leonardo Vazquez by email or at 732-932-3822, x711.

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Earn a Bloustein Professional Certificate in planning law and legal issues

If you are not up to speed on current land use laws at the federal, state and local levels, you risk promoting ideas that will fold under the pressure of savvy opponents.  The Bloustein Online Continuing Education Program can help.


We offer a set of courses that can help you get smarter about planning law and legal issues, so you can be more effective and influential.  Earning a Bloustein Professional Certificate shows colleagues and employers  you don't just "know about it" -- you know it.

Between September 2010 and June 2011, we are offering at least five courses related to land use law:
*New Jersey Planning Law, September 29 to November 6 
and again from February 23 to April 2

*Ethics in Planning and Land Use Regulations, November 3 to December 18
*Current Trends in Land Use Law, January 5 to February 12
*Law and Sustainability Studio, April 13 to May 21 
*Environmental Planning Law, May 25 to July 2



These courses are practical, interactive and convenient.  They are designed to help you choose better strategies for connecting the arts with community and economic development.  The courses are for busy people who don't have the time or resources to commit to many meetings, but want a lot more than they get in conferences or one-day workshops.   There are no required meetings, but you get the time and opportunity to share ideas with professionals and other smart people from around the United States.

In a Deep Learning course, you learn in several ways -- engaging in online discussions with other smart professionals; getting guidance from the instructor, a seasoned professional who also leads the conversations among classmates; taking quizzes to test your learning; or in some classes, working on real projects for real clients.  In previous urban design studio courses, learners have created a form-based code for a commercial corridor in Virginia and a transit-oriented design plan for Perth Amboy, NJ.

Learners who pass at least three courses can earn a Bloustein Professional Certificate of Completion, and earn hours toward a Master Practitioner or Expert Practitioner Professional Certificate.

Every land use law course is also eligible or will be submitted for 14 American Institute of Certified Planners Certification Maintenance credits.

BOCEP is produced by the Professional Development Institute of Rutgers University's Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.  Bloustein is one of the top schools and leading centers of planning knowledge in the United States.

For more information on urban design or any other Deep Learning courses, please visit the Bloustein Online Continuing Education Program or contact Program Manager Swena Gulati by email or at 732-932-3822 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              732-932-3822      end_of_the_skype_highlighting, x636.

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