The Rural Planning Caucus of Virginia (RPCVA) is an organization dedicated to identifying, publicizing and satisfying the unique planning needs of small towns and rural areas. RPCVA implements many goals and objectives which assist with the special planning needs of its membership.

2018 40th Anniversary - October 16-18, 2018

RPC Announces New Life Membership Option!

RPC Administrator - 6/4/2018

The Executive Committee of the Rural Planning Caucus of Virginia is pleased to announce a new Life Membership option for long-time members of the organization.

The Executive Committee has set the following eligibility requirements for Life Membership:

The individual has served more than one full three-year term on the Executive Committee (min. 4 years) OR

The individual has at any point in the last 40 years, been a member for at least ten (10) consecutive years OR

An individual outside of these rules may also qualify on a case-by-case basis upon approval of the Executive Committee.

38 individuals are currently eligible for Life Membership and 18 have become Life Members. A listing of these people can be found to the right. If a name has an asterisk (*) by it, we need your help in finding contact info for the individual - please email Andy Sorrell if you can provide info!

In order to become a Life Member, all you need to do is to respond to Andy Sorrell letting him know you are interested. We will sign you up and you will get an email confirming your membership. After you receive that email, you will be able to sign in and pay your one-time $25 Life Membership dues online or print off an invoice and mail a check. If you are already a member by attending a recent conference, then there is no fee.

Life Members will never need to renew membership - they are always an RPC member and as such they automatically get a reduction of the conference registration rate of whatever the annual membership fee is - currently that fee is $25 so for our 2018 conference, the conference registration rate is just $100. Note this does not include food and lodging which is handled by Mountain lake Lodge ($171 per night which includes meals, lodging and gratuity, taxes are additional).

While you do not need to come to the conference to become a Life Member, we would love to have you join us and we plan to recognize all Life Members at our Annual Awards Ceremony on Thursday night, October 18, 2018. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Andy Sorrell or RPC Chairperson, Christy Straight.

Note: Current members of the Executive Committee who may qualify for Life Membership are not eligible until no longer a member of the Executive Committee.

Eligible Life Members

as of August 2, 2018
Those in green text have accepted Life Membership.

1. R. Gary Allen *

2. Nora Amos

3. Benjamin W. "Ben" Blankinship

4. Gregory L. "Greg" Brittingham*

5. Dennis Carney

6. V. Wayne Cilimberg

7. David A. "Dave" Clabo

8. Darren K. Coffey

9. Sam Crickenburger

10. Joseph M. "Joe" Cross, Jr.

11. John C. Dooley

12. William E. "Bill" Duncanson*

13. Kenneth D. "Kenny" Eades*

14. Deborah Kirk Flippo

15. Marybeth Glaser

16. Robert A. "Bob" Hammond

17. Shea Hollifield

18. Edward L. "Larry" Jennings

19. Deborah S. "Debbie" Kendall

20. Robert "Robbie" Love

21. Gerald V. "Jerry" Lovelace

22. John W. McCarthy

23. Ted McCormack

24. Elizabeth J. Moran

25. George E. Morrison, III*

26. Gary M. Oliveri

27. M.L. "Pete" Ransone

28. Rodney S. "Rod" Rhodes

29. Jeff Scott*

30. John E. Sheffield, Jr.*

31. Wayne G. Strickland

32. William H. "Bill" Strider

33. Sherry Swinson

34. Kris C. Tierney

35. William L. "Billy" Vaughn

36. Stephen K. "Steve" Whiteway

37. R. David Whittington

38. Timothy L. "Tim" Wilson

* If a name has an asterisk (*) by it,
we need your help in finding contact
info for the individual - please email
Andy Sorrell if you can provide info!

2017 Conference

A Big Thank You from the RPC

39th Annual RPC Conference: A Great Success!

Networking, Skill-building Mark Rural Planning Professionals Conference

By: Andy Sorrell

T	he 39th Annual Conference of the Virginia Rural Planning Caucus was a great success; again bringing together rural planners, consultants, local government administrators, elected and appointed officials and other friends of rural planning over an exciting three-day event from October 18-20, 2017.
	Some 75 attendees from Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina met in a spirit of friendship and professional development at the Berry Hill Resort & Conference Center in South Boston, Virginia.Three days of great educational programming included a guided tour of the Town of Halifax, conference sessions on showcasing your community's local assets with examples of Meadow Event Park, Fields of Gold and ways to reinvigorate house museums via new technologies. Thursday sessions were also held on solar facilities in rural Virginia, working with RLUIPA and permitted assemblies in agricultural areas, working with nimby-ism and how public facilities are sited for infrastructure and transportation projects. Friday included sessions on rural planning ethics, recent court cases and rulings impacting rural Virginia, understanding civil versus criminal enforcement actions and proper ways to testify in front of a court. The conference concluded with a legislative update of 2017 legislative and a review of upcoming 2018 legislation potential impacted rural Virginia.
	A special thank you to all of our sponsors including Gold Sponsors: VHDA, Dominion Energy, The Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission, Hunting Creek Vineyards and Devil's Backbone; Silver Sponsors: Berkley Group, Draper Aden Associates, Housing Virginia, Hurt & Proffitt, Land Planning & Design Associates, EPR PC, the Virginia Association of Counties and the Virginia Dept. of Housing and Community Development. The strong support of our sponsors helped make the conference possible.
	RPC provides educational and professional development opportunities to rural, small and mid-sized town and county planning professionals to help them understand the bottom-line about new legislation, share innovative ideas and gain more efficient planning tools and techniques to accomplish everyday tasks.
	To learn about future RPC conferences, please visit the website at: www.rpcva.org.
	*Click below to view a copy of our 2017 conference presentations (must be logged in):* 2017 Conference Presentations *Click below to view photos from our 2017 conference (must be logged in):* 2017 Conference Photos To register you AICP CM credits from the 2017 conference please click the link below: Click Here to Log Your 2017 AICP CM Credits!