Derived mainly from publications by the League of California Cities, this guide to social planning for small cities presents the following: (1) social planning definitions; (2) a checklist of social planning concerns (provision for: adequate income and economic opportunity; optimal environmental conditions for basic material needs; optimal health care; adequate knowledge and skills; optimal personal/social adjustment and development; adequately organized social instrumentalities); (3) Abraham Maslow's need hierarchy presented as an alternative checklist for social planning; (4) the effect of recent emphasis on local government accountability as reflected in the New Federalism legislation (General Revenue Sharing, Rural Development Act of 1972, and Housing and Community Development Act of 1974); (5) the increasing demand for social services by small city citizens; (6) strategies for initiating a social planning effort with limited resources (restricted procedures dealing with only one or two areas of concern; acquisition of resources from other agencies or groups; and cooperative planning programs); (7) common social planning procedures (collection of statistical data, use of professional advice, and use of community surveys); (8) brief profiles of the social planning efforts of three small cities (concerns, initiation, responsibility, program, cooperating groups, consequences, and advice). (JC)