Illustrating one of the ten tips: Attend & Participate. The accompanying text discusses why the commission and the community suffer when members fail to regularly attend commission meetings. The text also stresses the importance of being an active participant in discussion of agenda items and other commission work.

The first half of the Guide is organized around 10 key tips for new members. The second half introduces new commissioners to some of the most important players in the planning universe -- starting with a look at the role of the planning commission itself.

The Guide for New Members is 40 pages long and incorporates carefully selected excerpts from past PCJ articles and columns. Illustrations by cartoonist Mark Hughes help highlight points made in the text. At the end of the Guide you'll also find an annotated reading list of books of particular interest to new commissioners.

In conversations we've had with Planning Commissioners Journal subscribers, we've heard many planning directors and long-time commissioners express the desire for a publication that could be handed to new planning board members to give them a "head start" on the role they're stepping into.

We've tried to meet this need in our Guide for New Members.