After a decade of experiences visioning, dialoguing, collaborating with communities in a multitude of planning situations, the lessons  assembled here emerged chronologically, by locations, stops and then, serendipitously, by parallel recall of other venues’ significant points.   As a practicing architect and educator in the field, work with communities reconfirms what a crucial role the architectural dialoguing and visioning can play in addressing the unique needs of all communities as they confront planning. During my career as private practitioner, and then as a professor of studio and professional practice in academia, I have had a stream of experiences and dialogues with cities, suburbs, communities and rural towns about a wide array of architectural and planning challenges and opportunities.  These experiences taught me the importance of understanding such processes as: (1) Observation  (2) How to Communicate to and Visualize the Plan to the Community: Scaled Physical Model as Best Modality (3) Pre-work Dialogue (4) Phases of the Architectural-Community Processes  (5) Grant Strategizing  (6) Participants and Stakeholders (7) Hindsight While working with different municipalities has made me realize that a “one size fits all” approach does not work, my journey convinces me that certain core issues arise in each architect/planner community exchange.  In what follows I describe a suggested “basic tool kit/treasure chest” of strategies and observations for successfully working and communicating with diverse communities.  From my academic perspective, I hope it demonstrates at the same time why architects and the work we do is vitally important to the quality of our lives.