AIArchitect, Jan. 20, 2003 - Grassroots Conference Seeks Grassroots Involvement

Grassroots

Grassroots Conference Seeks Grassroots Involvement
YOU Can Help Shape the Institute’s Agenda

In a tradition dating back almost 40 years, local, state, and national leaders of the AIA will gather March 5–8 at the Grassroots Annual Leadership and Legislative Conference (fondly known as “Grassroots”) to share information on specific challenges that relate to their own experiences and enhance their leadership skills through innovative and creative workshops. This year’s event, in the nation’s capital, focuses on the theme of “Sharing, Learning, Leading,” which lends credible definition to what Grassroots is all about.

Sharing: The opening session and awards presentations honor Component Excellence, CES Providers, and National Service Awards, as well as the AIA Trust-CNA-Victor O. Schinnerer Component Grants. The Institute’s annual Open House, and the American Architectural Foundation’s Accent on Architecture gala at the National Building Museum also offer great opportunities to honor great architects and architecture and join in fellowship.

Learning: This year’s Grassroots offers a blend of networking, continuing-education opportunities, and resource-packed displays and exhibits in the new “Knowledge Café” (formerly the AIA Resources Center). This venue allows presidents, presidents-elect, and component executives to network with one another and AIA staff. Best Practices sessions allow members to exchange and share information on specific component programs and activities.

Leading: March 6, Government Affairs Day, offers AIA members the opportunity to get an insider’s view of Washington. Politicians and pundits as guest speakers will frame the political realities of the closely divided 108th Congress, put perspective on legislative priorities, and offer briefings on a wide array of congressional business affecting you and the members of your component. The program sets aside an afternoon for architects to meet with your congressional representatives on Capitol Hill. AIA members and staff will educate and develop relationships with the newly elected members of the 108th Congress while renewing old alliances and reemphasizing the important role AIA architects play in the public realm, from planning neighborhood schools to providing for a more secure America.

YOU can get involved: Even if YOU won’t be attending Grassroots, YOUR feedback counts. For instance, the 2003 Issues Forum, presented March 8, promises to challenge, energize, and enlighten via an innovative keypad response system that provides immediate feedback on YOUR issues. YOU can provide input on AIA initiatives and learn from YOUR counterparts by talking with your state and local leadership and telling them what’s on YOUR mind. YOU can also follow what’s going on in daily AIArchitect updates. For a start on talking points, why not take a look at the results of last year’s Grassroots initiative, A National Conversation. You can also initiate Institute discussion groups and debriefing sessions when your component execs and elected leaders return home. It’s YOUR professional society—it needs YOUR input. Why not today?

Reference

Grassroots: The Members’ Voice Since 1965 “Operation Grass Roots” began as a concept in 1965 with the notion that three two-day meetings be held in the West, East, and Central states among the component presidents, executives, and national-component Board members. “During the ‘Grass Roots’ meetings,” the AIA Board report stated that year, “the attitude of the membership will be sought on such subjects as increase in the rate for supplemental dues, the establishment of a national Professional Associate membership, and such other points of view as may be requested by the president.” The first Grassroots meetings, held in January and February 1966, in Washington, D.C.; St. Louis; and San Francisco were “received so enthusiastically by the participants that they should be established as a basic technique of communication,” according to the report to the Board by AIA Vice President Robert L. Durham, FAIA. The next year’s discussions would be “supplanted by more specific planted questions,” he wrote. “The flow of information from the Institute to the grassroots is as equally important as the flow of information from the grassroots up as long as the participants do not receive the impression they are being ‘talked to.’” And so began the legacy of Grassroots. One notable change occurred in 1985, when the meeting was consolidated into one conference held in the nation’s capital. The principal reason was Government Affairs Day, when AIA leaders from across the country could sit and meet with their congressional representatives to discuss issues pertinent to architects, their clients, and the public.