CNU starts a new chapter

For years, CNU members have sought ways to customize the organization so that it can serve specific geographical areas. Up to now, CNU has not had a method for supporting chapters. Consequently, members’ mutual education and networking remained informal. Today, chapters are on the way. At its September meeting, CNU’s board took several steps to open the organization to increased member involvement. It created three voting ex-officio board positions, approved the creation of student chapters, and carefully moved forward with professional chapters. Designated for the new board positions will be the leader of the Task Force chairs, a representative of the new chapters to be formed in various regions of the US, and a representative of the student chapters. Before the additions can be made to the board, the student and member chapters will have to be formed. Student Chapters on Fast Track The first new chapters will be for students. Groups called Students for New Urbanism (SNU), though lacking any official connection to CNU, are already recognized by the University of Georgia, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Brigham Young University. All three of those groups have formed over the past year. Students, along with faculty advisors (and long-time CNU activists) Lucy Rowland at Georgia and Emily Talen at Illinois, have called for a more formal connection between CNU and the groups. These groups help students meet one another, link up with future employers, and debate the principles and techniques of New Urbanism. Professionals in the field will have a point of contact for reaching students once the campus organizations are connected to CNU. The goal, both for CNU and for the students, is to facilitate teaching and learning about New Urbanism. CNU intends to roll out its formal contract, or charter, for new student chapters at the January 2003 meeting in Chicago of the American Institute of Architecture Students. That meeting will be chaired by Zach Borders, a CNU member and co-founder of SNU at Illinois. Professionals Get Together For practicing professionals, CNU is moving toward creating geographically based chapters, which will complement the interest-based Task Forces already in operation. The board endorsed the idea of chapters for metropolitan regions, recalling that the Charter calls the region “the fundamental economic unit.” To allow flexibility, however, chapters will also be allowed at the regional, state, or multi-state level. The first chapter will be statewide, in Florida. It will carry on the momentum from CNU X in Miami Beach, while allowing three board members — Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Jim Murley, and Andres Duany — to take part. CNU Chapters will: • Start as educational and networking organizations that may have newsletters, topical meetings, lectures, and other events. They will not be allowed to use the CNU name to endorse or oppose specific projects, at least until CNU has a formal method of judging projects’ urbanism (see “Certifiable Urbanism?” opposite page). • Be independent nonprofit organizations, bound to the parent organization through carefully written contracts. • Set whatever dues they believe are appropriate, covering at least CNU’s support costs. • Elect a representative to CNU’s board of directors. CNU, as parent organization, will help chapters incorporate, offer templates for newsletters and other materials, and otherwise help chapters get off the ground. Some areas that still need to be worked out are how CNU’s central organization will pay for staff to support chapters, whether and how to maintain quality in chapter products, and how to periodically recertify the groups as active chapters. Once the parent organization has worked with the Florida chapter long enough to iron out basic legal, financial, and administrative issues, we will open the door to more chapters. Hedging Against Risk While CNU has high hopes, chapters come with some risks. The biggest concerns are political advocacy and design work. We don’t want a situation where chapters promote objectionable designs, compete with members for design work, or contradict the parent organization in public positions. To start slowly, CNU chapters will refrain from taking political positions or supporting particular projects. Nonetheless, the birth of chapters is already driving the parent organization to debate and clarify its position on state, regional, and municipal regulations and on our standards for projects. CNU hopes chapters can become sources of new members, new leaders, and new ideas, bringing New Urbanism to the local and regional levels. For now, please be patient as CNU begins this exciting new endeavor.