AIA President Gordon H. Chong, FAIA, began Friday's session on a high note: he reported that the group raised more than $29,000 for ArchiPAC yesterday! He called order to the session by telling all that it was "Component Leadership Day," an opportunity for participants to acquire knowledge about the issues and sharpen leadership skills. Under that banner, he said, "It is more than fitting that we recognize a local component whose actions since September 11 have been nothing short of inspirational and nothing less than profoundly compassionate."

Chong described the AIA New York Chapter's response to the terrorist attack by galvanizing their members, local architecture firms, and their partners in New York's design and construction industry to reach out to everyone who was afflicted by this tragedy. He mentioned in particular the chapter's co-sponsoring with the New York Building Congress the "World Trade Memorial Fund," which became the recommended recipient of financial assistance from architects everywhere. Chong presented the citation to President-elect George Miller, FAIA; Past President Margaret Helfand, FAIA; President Leevi Kiil, AIA; and Executive Director Frederic Bell, FAIA. It reads in part, "Out of the ashes of a great tragedy, they have given voice to the hopes and concerns of all of us and brought together the energy and vision of the design professions and community leaders to honor the memory of those struck down by fostering bold and still unfolding acts of creativity."

State of the Institute
Executive Director Norman L. Koonce, FAIA, reported that the Institute is stronger in many ways than it was a year ago. We currently have more than 72,000 members, the great level of membership in our history. "Plus, we are not struggling with data base and dues collection system, and AEC Direct is now history," Koonce said. "We created good relationships with all the partners, and the loss was far, far less than anticipated."

Treasurer Douglas L Steidl, FAIA, added that although finances have been a concern, especially last year with the dissolution of AEC Direct, "I have the privilege of presenting a positive financial report."

Steidl explained that according to the three-year plan developed last year, the Institute was supposed to raise projected net assets from -$5.6 million to -$3.0 million. At the end of 2001, however, projected net assets stood at +$1.4 million, due to: an AEC closeout with total cost of $2.1 million (much less than expected), extension of the Architectural Record magazine contract that gave the Institute $1 million more than expected, and an operating budget that spent $60,000 less than expected.

"The 2002 budget will bring assets up to $2.5 million, a year ahead of budget," Steidl explained. "We're on the right track financially. It's been a tough track for the last two years, and will be in 2002. We're now optimistic about the future."

Koonce said that he felt like the Institute for the past two years has been "playing not to lose. I think we can play the Year 2002 to win." He cited significant collaboration between the CACE Executive Committee and the AIA Management Council as a key ingredient in the turnaround.

Some of the positives to chalk up include:
1. Creation of a job board (visit the Career Center) Job bank.
2. A renewed partnership with the McGraw-Hill Construction Information Group
3. New benchmark research being conducted through the national ad campaign, which will tell us about the current public perception of architects
4. The Associates Committee is charting a new course for participation by associate members, the fastest growing component of AIA
5. A new research agenda, spearheaded by John Eberhard, FAIA, will focus on how the mind responds to physical form; as well as redesigning the workplace.
6. Response to the 9/11 crisis included development of an internal security working group to help other architects and clients.

Points the Institute needs to work on, Koonce said, include:
• Scholarships: Although the investment market has reduced our ability to give scholarships, the program is back on target, thanks largely to an outpouring of support from state and local components. They offer $300,000 in scholarships through 29 programs. There is a telephone meeting slated for next week to coordinate these efforts, Koonce said.
• AIA contract docs: Increased market competition and an electronic documents program are two factors that have the Documents Committee leading discussions on a new product might be researched, developed, marketed, and teamed with a docs education plan. A new task force on use will be formed in the near future.
• Inclusiveness: We need to pursue inclusiveness with other members of the building industry, Koonce said, "beyond the issue of membership or membership categories."
• Extensive sharing of Best Practices: "We need to develop attitudes of sharing," Koonce said. He concluded with a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt: "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

(Click here for the current financial report)

A national conversation
"I would like to introduce the vision of a National Conversation; a conversation about the issues and the opportunities; a conversation whose goal is the attainment of a preferred future for our profession, our clients, and the public we serve," Chong. He introduced a half-hour video presentation, which will be shared with all components. The video features AIA President-elect Thom Penney, FAIA; Koonce, and Chong discussing the preferred future for the architecture profession. Some of the topics they covered include:

• How do we accommodate the rapid pace of change?
• How do architects satisfy the client's request for expanding services; how do we develop timely and concise information to help our members do their jobs?
• Do we need a new business model for project delivery? Our challenge is to find common language and define our objectives.
• How do we promote collaboration across the building industry—including owners—so necessary
• Do our documents address these issues adequately?
• How do we develop a culture of sharing?
• Do we as a profession need to pursue certification of specialties? How does that affect the small practice?
• How do we begin to frame our role in creating livable communities?
• Does use of the generic use of the word "architect" diminish the role of licensed architect? How do we define our profession? Do we need to hold onto our standards of what a registered architect is?
• Where does the architecture academy need to be going? How do we as a profession attract, reward, and maintain the best and the brightest?

A national conversation: Coming soon to an AIA chapter near you
AIA President-elect Thom Penney, FAIA, and CACE board representative Janet Pike, Hon. AIA, then asked the component leaders to facilitate a "national conversation" at their local chapters before May 10, with the promise that the national component staff will review and synthesize the information and send it back to every component by the end of June. The information will become a resource for informed debate about our future at every level of the Institute, Penney said.

Pike told the group that she believes that the "national conversation is about collaboration, sharing, and synergy. It's about figuring out what we should be doing, who should be doing it, and then targeting resources where they're most likely to prove fruitful," she said. She explained that the national component has assembled a resource kit to help chapters run their own meetings, including a Web-based response form.

Copyright 2002 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved.