Services

Project Management for Planners - A Practical Guide

After practicing planning for 20 years in the public and private sectors Terry A. Clark, AICP, PMP, Owner and Lead Consultant for StaffConnections, LLC, became frustrated with regularly seeing professional planners providing excellent and visionary planning services but having mixed results in completing projects on-time and within budget. Because of this, Terry decided to write a book focused directly on how planners can successfully manage projects.

The book, entitled Project Management for Planners - A Practical Guide, was published by the American Planning Association (APA), Planners Press in 2002. Nearly 2,000 copies of the book have been sold and it is still available for purchase by clicking here. Soon after publication of the book APA asked Terry to facilitate half-day project management seminars based on his book at six APA national conferences in the 2000's. In addition, Terry has delivered numerous project management training sessions for public, private and nonprofit organizations around the U.S.

Project Management Solutions

Project management solutions provided by StaffConnections, LLC include:

Hands-on project management,
Managing diverse consultant and client teams,
Preparing project status and progress reports,
Designing and delivering project management training, and
Coaching junior and senior level professionals.

Planning

Planning services are provided by StaffConnections, LLC primarily in the areas of local and regional water supply planning, basin assessment planning, local government comprehensive plans and regional environmental resource planning. Clients have included local, regional and federal government, private land owners and nonprofit organizations.

Facilitation and Stakeholder Engagement

StaffConnections, LLC has extensive experience facilitating groups and public meetings to arrive at consensus in a way that participants feel a sense of participation and ownership in the final products. This results in the stakeholders supporting the plans when they are ultimately brought to decision makers for approval. Below are examples of facilitation and stakeholder services provided by StaffConnections, LLC:

Public Input on Planning Projects
Strategic Planning for Organizations and Work Units
Lessons Learned/Project Closeout Meetings
Stakeholder Engagement Needs Assessments and Implementation Plans
Neighborhood Public Forums

Government Relations

Government relations services is becoming more important to StaffConnections, LLC clients. In some cases it is a matter of helping public sector organizations understand the motives and goals of other public sector organizations. In other cases it is assisting a private landowner through complex water supply and land use entitlement process. We have also assisted nonprofit organizations prepare complex grant applications required by government agencies.