Professional planning practitioners generally fall into four categories as follows: those employed by public agencies such as cities, towns, regions, and the Commonwealth; those whose principal activity is the teaching of planning at the graduate or undergraduate level; those employed by private organizations in a professional planning role; and those employed by, or engaged as, private planning consultants.

The Massachusetts Association of Consulting Planners is comprised of individuals and firms whose staff, or a major division thereof, are engaged in private professional planning consulting. By joining the Association, members subscribe to both a Code of Professional Objectives and a Code of Professional Conduct.

Its members subscribe to the following Code of Professional Objectives:

• To provide competent and objective professional guidance to public and private clients in furthering the improvement and/or protection of the human and natural environment.
• To improve the quality of private professional planning services generally available to public or private clients.
• To encourage an open and structured procedure in the selection of private planning consultants.
• To carry out a program of public education which clarifies the role of the private planning consultant.
• To respond to legislative or other public issues potentially affecting the practice of planning.