"conceptual plans"

[Chris Waigl]

Arnold Zwicky wondered about the "concept" in "conceptual plan":
>I came across this puzzling expression in the Palo Alto Daily News of
>6/16/05, in "High school plans unveiled" by Luke Stangel, which begins:
>
>-----
>Conceptual plans for a new $17 million performing arts center at
>Menlo-Atherton High School were unveiled to the public last night at
>a meeting planned for gathering feedback.
>-----
>[...]
>
>-----
>Conceptual plans are home designs that have not yet been
>finalized. ... Each of
>the conceptual plans includes a "copyright release" that gives you
>and your ...
>www.conceptualhouseplans.com/faqs.shtml
>-----
>
>I would have used "preliminary plans" here, but I suppose that
>architects and designers prefer to present themselves as dealing in
>*concepts*.
>[...]

I was sure I had come across the notion recently, most likely in French.
Google shows that "conceptual plan" is a technical term in Canadian bureaucratese.

Here <http://www.aji-cwi.mb.ca/eng/Phase4/background.html> is a page about
some sort of reorganization of the child welfare services that Manitoba
provides for *its First Nations and Metis communities. We don't find out what
the problem was in the first place, and what the actual content of their
initiative is, but the bureaucratic steps are made clear; they involve a
number of different types of plans:

*    * Phase 1 – September 2000 to December 2000
      Proposals and recommendations for an initial draft plan
    * Phase 2 – January 2001 to July 2001
      Completion of the AJI-CWI Conceptual Plan
    * Phase 3 – August 2001 to April 2003
      Completion of the public feedback process, development of the Detailed
      Implementation Plan (DIP), and transition into Phase 4
    * Phase 4 – February 2003 to March 2005
      Plan substantially implemented
    * Phase 5 – April 2005 to October 2005
      Stabilization of changes implemented
*
Note that "Conceptual Plan" and "Detailed Implementation Plan" are capitalized;
the latter even gets an abbreviation.

Chris Waigl

--
Back from a two-month separation from my mailbox. Apologies to everyone I owe a message.

*