Planning Meeting in Maryland - Essay Example

A planning report is about a local government planning meeting in Maryland specifically in the City of Bowie. The meeting is entitled The Prince Georgie’s County Planning Board meeting. The main agenda for the meeting was to strategize on how the city could update or improve on the 2002 Prince George's General Plan.

The meeting took place on November 1, 2012, and the main subject of the meeting was the County General Plan Update Briefing. The meeting took place in the Council Hearing Room, County Administration Building, and Upper Marlboro in Maryland. The Prince Georgie County Planning Commissioners are the ones who participated in the meeting.

Accord relative to the agenda
Relative to the agenda, an accord was set forth. For example, all items that were listed under the Consent Agenda were distributed to every member of the Planning Board for review. All items are also considered to be routines and will be acted upon by the Board in one motion. The main agenda for the meeting was to strategize on how the city could update or improve on the 2002 Prince George's General Plan and this agenda was followed to the letter. The items of the meetings include the administrative item, consent agenda including the subdivision section items, and regular agenda which includes the country-wide planning division and specific design plan all of which are aimed at arriving at the main agenda of the meeting.

The atmosphere of the meeting
The atmosphere of the meeting was cool and quite participative. This is because the meeting created a room for the participation of all members and also stimulated creativity among the members. This can be attributed to the central location of the meeting which did not make any member feel inconvenienced. The seats in the meeting room were arranged in a circle in a way that all the members could see each other. This encourages participation in the meeting and makes every member feel part of the meeting. The meeting was well coordinated with a leader and all members had their names written on their seats and this is to enhance participation and identification. Water provided to the members provides a nice touch to the meeting and the round table used in the meeting helps to prevent all barriers of communication.

What was discussed in the meeting?
All the strategies necessary for the improvement of the Prince George's General Plan were discussed during the meeting the agenda of the meeting (Beatley, 2005). A discussion of the county-wide planning including the James Rowley Training Center in the United States Secret Service was discussed together with the Campus master plan update and the proposed development. Improvement of the Kreative Kids Child Care Center was also discussed in the same meeting. The proposed designation of the three Prince George County Historic Sites was also discussed in the report as part of its county-wide planning division (Levy, 2012). The improvement on Beech Tree, South Village as part of the specific design plan of the meeting was also discussed during the meeting. A detailed site plan of all the projects proposed for improvements was also discussed. Generally, the meeting discussed all strategies that can help the county in the improvement of the 2002 Prince George General Plan.

Surprises from the outcomes of the meeting
The meeting approved the General Plan which will help the county in addressing the changing, existing, and new priorities like sustainability, public safety, and transit-oriented development. Nothing was quite surprising from the outcomes of the meeting as it was bound that the meeting would either approve or disapprove of the General Plan. For example, the meeting or the board approved the sector, functional and master plans like the 2009 Master Plan of Transportation as well as the 2005 Green Infrastructure Plan all of which were on the main agenda.

Lessons from the meeting
From this meeting, one can learn a multitude of lessons. For example, the importance of a cool and serene environment when it comes to meeting environment as this stimulates participation and creativity. One also learns the importance of setting the agenda of a meeting before the commencement of the meeting as this gives the direction of the meeting and the topics to be included in the discussion.

Relate some of the meetings to the textbooks
The creation of a cool and serene meeting environment relates to the content of the textbook where the texts require the atmosphere of the meeting to be kept positive all through the meeting to accommodate all members. The textbooks require all barriers of communication to be broken in any meeting and encourage the use of round tables and this is what has been done in this particular meeting.

Conclusion
It is very important for a meeting to have an agenda to drive the meeting. The agenda gives purpose to the meeting and helps the members to come up with what to discuss in the meeting. Any meeting usually ends up with an outcome or a recommendation which is usually regarding the set agenda. Communication must be enhanced in the meeting and that is why round tables should be used to break all barriers of communication and to make the members feel part of the team.