Principal City Planner City of Minneapolis CPED-Plng Dept Minneapolis, Minnesota
What do all land use planners have in common? Staff reports! Having well-organized staff reports increases the chances that your audience will be able to read and digest the most relevant information for the projects that you are analyzing. Creating easy-to-use staff report templates also saves time for those of us preparing or reviewing reports.
This presentation explores the fundamental components of a staff report and offers key best practices for taking advantage of the tools available in Microsoft Word. Using the example of staff reports that are prepared for the Minneapolis City Planning Commission, presenters offer several ideas to tweak (or overhaul) the formatting of staff reports to improve aesthetics and user-friendliness, while also reducing the time it takes to create lengthy and often highly technical reports. Applying these best practices, tools, and tips will make it easier for commissioners, applicants, staff, and the public to understand the basics of the project and the staff recommendation, regardless of their planning expertise.
Learning Objectives:
Recognize the basic objectives and elements of an effective staff report.
Create a system of staff report templates that maximize readability, consistency, and document navigation.
Speed up the process of writing staff reports by replacing long pages of text with tables, bullets, images, drop-downs boxes, and other tools available in Microsoft Word.
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