AIA Austin Advocacy

Today I'm introducing the topic of AIA Austin’s advocacy approach. I have included the rough draft of our statement below which will likely continue to evolve over the next few months as we look to connect the meaning of advocacy with our members and seek to best define and explain our role as a resource in the community.

I encourage feedback from the entire membership to help us understand how a coordinated advocacy strategy (such as what do we think “ongoing efforts” means in our strategy – what are members willing/wanting to contribute). We believe our advocacy plan can be balanced between a grassroots effort from individuals/firms/committees and a coordinated strategy thru our leadership. However, the effectiveness of any form of advocacy is dependent upon your input as we begin to formalize our message(s) with our PR firm, Giant Media, as it evolves for editing by membership/leadership, and as it rolls out to the entire community.

Please comment on the Advocacy Foundation Statement below…

AIA Austin Advocacy:
AIA Austin will actively promote the expertise of its membership to influence and shape the beauty and sustainability of the designed environment.

The Chapter will direct ongoing efforts to focus the dialogue in the community on the value of architecture.

With Michael Cowan, our President-Elect, I'll be explaining our potential strategy in greater detail at upcoming Luncheon Meetings.

Questions for City Council Candidate Forum

The Government Affairs Committee met last week to finalize a list of questions that the AIA will be asking the Candidates invited to the upcoming Forum on April 8th. We've got a pretty good list in the works, but of course we'd love to get some additional ideas for questions for other members.

If you have a question you'd like for us to consider asking our Mayoral or Place 1 Candidates, please comment here or email myself (soliver@designopa.com) or Richard Weiss (richard@weissarc.com).

Also please join us on April 8th at the Center for Architecture at 12th and West to see the Candidates respond to questions that deal with our profession and the built environment.

Recent Conversations at the Center for Architecture

Here's a short list of what's been happening around the AIA office...

1. Be looking for a survey in the upcoming weeks from our President-Elect Michael Cowan regarding how members are or can be involved in Chapter Activities, what networking opportunities exist within our own membership, and how we as a Chapter are getting involved in the larger Austin community.

2. The Chapter has brought on board Giant Media, a Public Relations and Marketing firm, to assist in our efforts to connect the value of so many of our activities with the Austin community. In doing so we anticipate being able to broaden the audience for design discussions and subsequently increase the exposure of our membership with the public. As this is a first time effort for our Chapter, I hope to hear some feedback as we begin these strategic efforts.

3. Be sure to check the calendar for Birth of the Cool, Design Awards deadlines, the Gala and the Mayoral/Council Candidate Forum.

4. We'll be launching a "Partnership Forum" this summer where we will be taking applications from members interested in learning more about firm ownership and partnership issues from seasoned local leaders. Space will be limited as we aim to create a close knit, confidential environment for this new annual program. Feel free to email me directly if you would like more information.

March and April will some of our busiest months. Looking forward to seeing you all involved.

Laying out Ideas for Membership Feedback

Having recently returned from D.C. where I was attending the AIA National Grassroots Conference, I am excited to see many new (and renewed) efforts from our Committees and Board well underway. Three of our newer Knowledge Committees are raising the bar for participation and activity, no doubt a reflection of the motivated participants tapping into information that everyone wants access to, or creating actions that people want to be a part of.

• Design Voice is rapidly gaining members as they seek to be the "enabler" in the architectural community in connecting and collaborating design professionals with affordable housing advocacy efforts. I urge all of you to learn more about their activities, join their forum to stay in tune, and become part of the 1% Solution Chapter-wide effort. Their page should be up soon on the AIA website.
• Architecture for Health Committee Meetings have become such a hot item, that if you don't sign up early, you can't get in. Maybe we need to explore the Webinar world to give members greater access.
• Elliot Johnson, as chair of the Residential Committee, was the first chair I can recall seeing to layout a full year's worth of events on the calendar...before the year even started. The Residential Committee is connecting their respective topics to location visits and creating a truly interactive committee structure.

As part of our efforts to increase communication with the membership, I will be utilizing this blog as way to reach to the membership to gather feedback for myself, the board and staff on activities, ideas, issues in what I hope to be a very proactive dialogue. Let me know what you think and let's continue to elevate the exposure of our membership to a wide range of issues as well as elevate the relevancy of the AIA within the Austin community.

Sincerely,
Stephen Oliver, AIA
2009 President