ASP Planning Studio Cleanup

Today the ASP conducted a clean up of the Riverpoint Planning Studio beginning at 11 AM. Attendees were Karl Almgren, Jeremy Kulm, Brian Sayrs, and William Simpson.

The room has been rearranged. Several pieces of broken or obsolete equipment have been moved out, and the tables have been rearranged to better utilize wall space. The room is now considerably more spacious than before. Most of the old posters have been removed, and several newer ones have taken their place, and arranged more topically.

There is more work to be done. There is an orange file cabinet which must be cleaned out, and the map boxes and flats should be cleaned out. There are many old projects (including several iterations of the Isabella Springs project) in the flats. Additionally, there is an effort underway to acquire a couch and low-maintenance plants to improve the environment and add new functionality to the room. The need for stools for the drafting and light tables is more apparent now, so this could be a new initiative for the ASP.

We hope that the changes to the room make it more useful and supportive of all students' efforts as the spring quarter comes to a close. Please show your appreciation to Karl, Jeremy, and William for the work they performed for our benefit.

Studio PCs / ASP Tech Committee

From: "Jeremy Kulm" <jkulm@hotmail.com>

I did some troubleshooting on the studio PCs: All the PCs are operational however only 2 of the monitors are functioning. It appears that the non-functional monitors have power supply faults - the stand-by power indicator light on the power button does not come on, therefore no power is delivered to the LED screen. I spoke to Howard (EWU Riverpoint IT Guy) and asked him to do some more troubleshooting and switch out the monitors with any spare ones he had.

All the studio PCs are circa 2005 – Pentium 4, 3.2 GHz (single core) with 1 GB of DDR1 RAM (can be upgraded), 150 GB Hard Drive, running Win XP (Service Pack 3). In the short term, I recommend upgrading the RAM on at least 4 of the PCs and purchasing at least one "newer" PC to be used exclusively for class/community projects that require use of GIS/graphics software and printing to the plotter. Upgrading the RAM on existing PCs will allow for more effective use of the virtuallabs.ewu.edu remote applications functionally.

Additionally, I/we (ASP Tech Cmte.) can conduct VirtualLabs short workshops to introduce its functionality (such as connecting a local printer, wherein, a student in the studio or at home can print to the studio or home printer while using VirtualLabs). I have observed and heard students desire "laptops stations" in the studio, myself included. The majority of students have laptops, though not all bring them to school. One curious thing that I observed in the studio is that the drafting tables don't have any stools. With a few stools, the tables along the walls (adjacent to power outlets) can be used as laptop stations.

I would like to evaluate the GIS Lab PCs as well and develop some recommendations for upgrade or replacement. Additionally, I would like to develop a procedure to allow for more student access to the lab, perhaps a group of "trusted key-holders" like the ASP Officers and ASP Tech Committee who sign a key-holder agreement and pay a key deposit.

In the next few weeks the Tech Committee will develop a Tech Needs Survey for students and faculty in order to evaluate current and future technology needs.

Electric Vehicle Presentation Event

Cascadia Inland Branch - LUG - Electric Vehicle Presentation
Thursday, May 12, 2011 from 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM (PT)
The Lincoln Center
1316 N Lincoln Street
Spokane, WA 99201

Please go to the following site for more info and to register for the event.  The event is free but RSVP is mandatory, as seating is limited.  It would be great if you could pass information on to your friends, co-workers and companies you interact with that you feel may be interested.

Treasurer election

Ballots for the ASP Treasurer position have been emailed via Rose Morgan. Ballots may be submitted in one of the following two ways:

• In person at the ASP meeting on Tuesday, May 10 (11:45 A.M. in the Riverpoint Planning Studio)
• By email no later than 11:45 A.M., Tuesday, May 10, to Brian Sayrs, ASP President, at sayrs.brian@eagles.ewu.edu.  The president will ensure (A) that the source of an emailed ballot remains confidential and (B) that the ballot originated from an enrolled planning student's email account.

Candidates for treasurer position are invited to make two-minute presentations at the May 10 ASP meeting.  Election results will be publicized at the end of the meeting; therefore, late ballots will not be counted.

Should you have questions regarding the election process, please do not hesitate to ask.

Brian A. Sayrs
ASP President

Renewable Local Energy Webinar

The Inland Empire Section, Washington Chapter, of the American Planning Association invites you to join them for an APA Webinar entitled "Renewable Local Energy" on Wednesday, May 11, 2011, 1:00 P.M. – 2:30 P.M. in Conference Room 2B of Spokane City Hall at 808 West Spokane Falls Boulevard.

ASP Meeting Announcement

The ASP will have a meeting on Tuesday, May 10th at 11:45 AM in the planning studio.

Call for Nominations

Last week, ASP Treasurer Chris Boghokian resigned. Pursuant to bylaws section 6.2, ("Should a vacancy in the office occur, there will be a nomination and election for the vacant office held at the next general meeting.") we are obligated to hold an election on May 10, 2011. The description of the position is included below.

For the sake of expediency, we will accept only self-nominations. The association president will second all authorized names received into nomination. Written or emailed nominations are due by 5 PM Thursday, May 5, 2011. Please include your name as you wish it to appear on the ballot, and your phone number so that the association secretary can verify the nomination. Ballots will be sent on Friday, May 6, 2011. Please deliver your self-nomination to ASP Secretary Ali Kara (akara@eagles.ewu.edu).

Thank you for your willingness to contribute to your Association.

On behalf of the Executive Board,

Brian A. Sayrs
President, ASP

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From the ASP Bylaws:

4.4 Treasurer
4.4.1 The Treasurer shall prepare an annual budget with the assistance of the Executive Board.
4.4.2 Shall receive and disburse Association funds.
4.4.3 Shall prepare a financial report for each Executive Board meeting, to include a current balance sheet and an income statement reflecting the preceding month of Association.
4.4.4 Shall perform such other duties as required by these Bylaws or customary to the office.