Members' 25-Year Reminiscences

Bruce G. S. Wiggins, AICP

City Planning and Development Department
Kansas City, Missouri

I joined ASPO and AIP in Philadelphia in the early 1970s. Philadelphia was a wonderfully exciting place to be. Ed Bacon had recently retired as Director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, after 23+ years. He was — and probably still is — the only planner ever to be on the cover of Time magazine. Richard Bickel, who also has also written a reminiscence here, was involved on our AIP board.

Beside the merger (which Richard wrote about), one of my clearest memories is the debate about moving to the written exam for certification. Quite a few who had passed the old verbal exam were opposed to the written exam. How could anyone ever put down on a multiple choice test all the nuances and variations and knowledge and skills one needs to know or have as a planner? Yet everyone recognized the downside with the oral (interview) format — how you did could depend on how well you could speak or present yourself, and who was on your panel. In addition, it was hard (impossible) to have consistent standards from year to year, much less from one part of the country to another.

I am still not sure we have the certification process right, even though many smart people have spent lots of hours on the exam — debating what body of knowledge should be tested, getting the questions right, calibrating the exam, etc. It is tough to use a written exam to cover planning skills and knowledge, and a multiple choice test does measure test-taking ability as much as anything else.

Maybe it's like Winston Churchill's comment about democracy (I think it was Churchill, and this is my paraphrase): It's the worst form (of government) — except for any other.