Annual meeting notice
The annual meeting of the Institute will be held on Saturday, May 19, 2001, at the Colorado Convention Center during the AIA national convention.

The importance of your vote
Allocation of votes: Delegate votes are allocated to each chapter based on the number of Architect and Associate members in good standing. The AIA Corporate Secretary will send delegate cards (one card per vote) to the chapters in March for distribution by the chapter to assigned members.

Selection of delegates: The chapter bylaws may specify how delegates are selected. If not, there are several ways to do this. Delegates can be selected at a chapter meeting, by the chapter board, or by an officer such as the chapter president. The chapter can give all the cards to a single delegate or distribute them among some or all members of the chapter attending the convention. The chapter or its board should consider carefully whether it is in the best interest of the chapter to have a single delegate with all the votes or to distribute the cards among several members. Delegates must be available for voting Thursday, May 17, or Friday, May 18.

Any member of the chapter who wants to be sure that delegate cards are distributed in a particular way should discuss this with the chapter leaders or raise the issue at a chapter meeting. It may be necessary to amend the chapter bylaws to change the current distribution method. The corporate secretary of the AIA can help draft the language.

Accreditation: However your chapter chooses to select convention delegates, all delegates must have a delegate card to be accredited to vote at convention. To be able to vote, all delegates must first become accredited, a process separate from registration that takes place at the AIA Member Services Center at convention.

After accreditation closes, the chapter’s total votes will be distributed evenly among the accredited delegates. For example, if your chapter has nine delegate cards/votes, which it distributes to three individuals, each individual’s vote would count as three votes. If only one delegate is accredited from the chapter, only that person can vote and one vote counts as nine votes from your chapter. (If you have been accredited and do not vote in the election of officers, your chapter loses that portion of its voting power.)

Voting dates: This year, both accreditation and voting take place concurrently on Thursday, May 17, and Friday, May 18.

If necessary, runoff voting will take place on Saturday.

Copyright 2001 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved.