Meet Our Amazing CSC Summer Interns: Ross Peizer

Ross Peizer CPW Community Planning Workshop,  OPDR Oregon Partnership for Disaster Resilience

What is your name?   Ross Peizer

Alias?   No alias but my girlfriend’s name is Rachel so when we introduce ourselves together, fans of the show Friends have fun with that one.

Where were you born and where do you call home?   I grew up in Seattle but have lived all over the country since I first left to go to college. Even after living and becoming a part of communities in Boston, Sydney, Tucson, New Orleans and Montana I still call Seattle home. You know you’re from Seattle when your closet looks like an REI catalog!

What are your big summer plans?   This summer I’m looking forward to going hiking and camping around Oregon and Washington including Crater Lake and possibly some of the National Parks in Washington as well. I am also looking forward to going up to Seattle for a good friends wedding and Portland for a concert at the Oregon Zoo.

Name of the last movie you saw and give it a rating:   I watched Jobs a few weeks ago. The movie about Steve Jobs and Apple Computers. I’d give it 2 stars. I think my expectations were too high for this one. The story line was interesting to learn more about behind the scenes of Apple but the acting was pretty bad and it left me asking a lot of questions and wondering how much they embellished relationship issues to make a more interesting movie.

In which graduate program are you enrolled?   I am going into my second year of the Community and Regional Planning program. My focus area is Sustainable Cities. I am particularly passionate about sustainable transportation and excited to be the incoming President of LiveMove – UO’s Transportation and Livability student group.

What CPW project did you worked on during the academic year?   This past year in Community Planning Workshop I worked on the natural hazard plan integration project in Madras, Oregon. Our team worked to integrate the Jefferson County Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan (NHMP) and Madras specific addendum into the City of Madras Comprehensive Plan. This involved revising the natural hazards chapter of the Comprehensive Plan. The project was important because the current natural hazards chapter did not address all of the hazards Madras faces and the NHMP is not a regulatory document whereas the Comprehensive Plan is regulated by the Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD).

What is the most critical skill you learned from being engaged in CPW this past year?   All the important details of a planning project from public outreach to memo and staff report writing to working on a team and with a client.

What about CPW made you smile?   Definitely our road trips to Madras and back. We got pretty addicted and competitive about auto bingo as mentioned in a previous blog post.

What is your favorite quote?   “Turns out not where but who you’re with that really matters.” I don’t listen to Dave Matthews Band as much as I used to but I still love this quote from one of their songs.

What is your ‘best-kept secret’ you’d recommend?   I created a Seattle to do list for friends who visit when I’m not there so they can show themselves around. It’s hard to pick but I think my #1 recommendation on that list would be to rent kayaks from Agua Verde Paddle Club and then go to their café for lunch.

Where can we ‘cyber-stalk’ you? LinkedIn: http://lnkd.in/UQnbGg

Effective Meetings Take Preparation

photo source: http://www.german-business-etiquette.com/30-efficient_meetings.htm
An example of what we do NOT want our meeting to look like!

Our Community Planning Workshop (CPW) team is currently preparing for our first meeting with our client and Technical Advisory Committee (TAC). It will be the first time we meet our client in person as well as the first time the TAC is convened.

Our primary goals for the meeting are to explain the project to the group and to set expectations of what they will get from us and what we are expecting to get back from them. I am purposely not mentioning our project because it does not matter what the content is; preparing for a meeting like this will be the same regardless of the project.

Leading up to this meeting, we have had just three weeks to wrap our heads around the project. This included figuring out who all the different players involved are and hashing out our game plan for this meeting and the next two terms. An important realization for us was that we are going to continue learning about all of these elements and tweaking things right up until the end of the project. Acknowledging that fact has already helped our group as we prepare for this meeting.

Our first step was to determine the purpose of the meeting. Once that was determined, we needed to decide on the elements, length of each section and who was going to present each part. The attendees at the meeting, including ourselves, will have a varied level of knowledge of the subject matter, so starting with the basics is essential so everyone is on the same page with the content. We have created multiple drafts and have run through the presentation four times. I think we’re to the point where anyone of the five of us could present each other’s parts.

Even so, we are certainly a bit nervous about facilitating the meeting. Some good advice was given to us from our project advisor to simply remember the one point that cannot be forgotten in each section and on each slide.

Other important logistics to consider which are sometimes forgotten include:

  • What will be the layout of the room and do we have any control over the set up of tables and chairs?
  • Is the order of the presentation and meeting elements logical?
  • Are the activities appropriate and culturally sensitive to the audience?
  • Do we have all the materials checked out and are they available?
  • Are our presentation skills perfected and professional? We don’t want to be like the guy in the cartoon above who has his back turned to the audience.

This is our first of three meetings with the TAC but an important one since it sets the stage for the project. By having a clear understanding of the information and running an effective meeting we aim to leave a good impression with the group. We intend to be honest about who we are (first year graduate students) while proving that even though we are not seasoned consultants, with the support of the CPW faculty, staff, and the University of Oregon, we intend to deliver a product worthy of an expert.

UPDATE: Our meeting had to be postponed due to the current snowstorm in the Willamette Valley and mountain passes during the week of February 3, which means we will not be able to safely get to the meeting. I know I did not mention the topic of our project earlier but I’ll mention now that it is related to natural hazard planning so it is ironic a natural hazard cancelled our meeting!

Ross-Peizer CPW Community Planning Workshop Madras Hazard Plan Integration

About the Author: Ross Peizer is a first year Community and Regional Planning Graduate Student at the University of Oregon. Originally from Seattle, Ross had been living in New Orleans the past three years prior to moving to Oregon. He is interested in sustainability related to transportation and natural disasters.