After hosting the 2006 PLACEMATTERS conference in October, the Foundation staff reflected on the people we met and topics discussed. Participants came from all walks of life, from volunteers working to guide their communities’ futures (i.e., beloved citizen planners and leaders) to highly experienced, technically-savvy practitioners. Conference topics ranged from demographic trends and amenity growth pressures to the challenges of engaging citizens, using technology effectively, and charting futures in an increasingly complicated and frenetic world.

During the two days I was inspired by the diverse, passionate and respectful conversations that constantly evolved and expanded. Nearly all came down to a focus on how best to protect or enhance the places in which our participants live and work…the places that get “under our skin,” as Pam Houston describes them in her essay here. Other pieces in this issue of Scenarios talk about “favorite spots,” a place’s “very essence or character,” “community values,” “community vision,” “aesthetics and livability,” and the importance of “building in context.” All of these phrases evoke the elements and values that we believe constitute a community’s “heart and soul.”

The Orton Family Foundation is dedicated to assisting small cities and towns in planning by first helping them to explore and articulate their important and unique heart and soul characteristics—the physical and emotional reasons underlying people’s choices to live where they do or, as Pam relates, where they want to be buried. We then assist these communities with actually protecting or enhancing what they find so special through the painstaking and difficult— but absolutely essential— process of incorporating common values and visions in planning documents and community decisions.

The folks who attended the conference share our passion for place and for the “intuitive brains” that help us connect with place (as Pam would say). We also know that there are many more people laboring away to make their communities better places to live. I invite you to read on in this issue, join us in this important and lasting work, and attend PLACEMATTERS07, scheduled for next October in Burlington, Vermont. Watch for a “Save the Date” email in January, and please share with us any ideas you have for the event.

Thank you.

Bill Roper
President & CEO