The Association of Wisconsin Planners (AWP) was a private, professional organization founded in 1952 to promote closer contact among practitioners of urban and regional planning in Wisconsin and to educate the public about environmental problems that planners attempted to solve. Members of the AWP committed themselves to a statewide focus at their third general meeting in 1952 when they adopted the title Association of Wisconsin Planners in preference to alternative titles that associated the group with the Milwaukee area. The AWP worked to accomplish its goals mainly through frequent meetings of the membership and periodic general conferences organized around a particular theme. Beginning in 1967 the AWP also sponsored regional chapters to coordinate and publicize local professional activities. For the same purpose, the meetings and conferences of the state organization were held at various locations around the state.
A focus of the AWP's activities was its work to influence state legislation through the Joint Legislative Committee of the AWP and the Wisconsin Chapter of the American Institute of Planners. This committee occasionally supplied the membership with reports on legislation relating to land use and development. It also took public positions on proposed legislation and worked to convince legislators of the value of planning development strategies.
The specific projects of the AWP that received the greatest public notice were its gradual development of principles of water resource management and its publication in 1973 of a volume of conference papers on urban growth centers in Wisconsin, Growth Centers: What Are They?
During the late 1970's the association experienced increasing problems with delinquent membership fees and increased debt. In 1981 William A. Brehm, Jr., was elected president as the head of a slate that held joint membership in the AWP and the WAPA. Under his leadership, AWP proposed a merger of the two groups. After reconciliation of the differences, in 1982 the annual conference of the AWP voted to disband, with the remaining organizational treasury being donated to the planning libraries at the University of Wisconsin and the UW-Milwaukee.
A more extensive history of the AWP was published in the last issue of the organization's newsletter which is contained with the historical material in the first folder of this collection.
