Fundraising Consultant Inducted Into Consulting Alliance

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Abbie J. von Schlegell, CFRE, principal of A. von Schlegell & Co., in Williamstown, MA, was accepted for membership in the Consulting Alliance, an association of the Capital Region’s leading independent consultants focused on learning and business development.

Ms. von Schlegell is a fundraising and general management consultant for nonprofit organizations with an emphasis on major gifts, capital campaigns and women's philanthropy. She assists with volunteer and Board training, nonprofit start-ups, mergers and affiliations and professional development for nonprofit staff.

Ms. von Schlegell holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Stanford University. She is a Certified Fundraising Executive and a frequent participant and presenter at professional conferences on all aspects of philanthropy and fundraising, women’s philanthropy, nonprofit governance and planning.

She is a member of the Board of Visitors of Miss Hall’s School in Pittsfield, MA; a member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the Girl Scouts of Central and Western MA in Longmeadow, MA; a member of the Associates, Gould Farm in Monterey, MA.

The Consulting Alliance is a key resource of expertise to businesses and organizations in the Capital Region and worldwide. The Consulting Alliance helps its members build upon their successes through an array of skills development, resource sharing and networking opportunities, while working together to maintain the standards and reputation of the consulting profession. Find more information about the organization at www.consultingalliance.org.
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Williamstown Planning Board Narrowing in on Subdivision Bylaw Changes

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Planning Board late last month discussed specific features of what it plans to pass as a new subdivision control bylaw this year.
 
The board long has discussed the complex set of regulations as being out of date and cumbersome to both potential developers and the board itself, which has needed to hear requests for waivers of outdated rules for the handful of residential subdivisions that have been proposed in town in recent years.
 
This spring, the town engaged consultants from Northampton's Dodson and Flinker Landscape Architecture and Planning to go through the existing bylaw, compare it to more contemporary regulations in other communities and help craft a revised bylaw.
 
Unlike the zoning bylaw, where amendments require approval of town meeting, the subdivision control bylaw is a creation of the Planning Board, which can make changes on its own after a public hearing process it hopes to complete this year.
 
At a special Planning Board meeting on May 26, Dillon Sussman of Dodson and Flinker and his colleagues walked the board through a dozen different decision points that the board must resolve — either by leaving the bylaw as is or making a change — and offered suggestions based on best practices.
 
All of the issues are technical and ranged from the fundamental, like how the bylaw will define types of subdivisions, to the highly specific, like what turning radii will be required in new streets that are constructed to serve planned developments.
 
One example of a topic that came up in the recent approval of a four-home subdivision off Summer Street is stormwater management.
 
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