The Council of Architectural Component Executives selected Elizabeth Mitchell, executive director, AIA Utah/AIA Salt Lake, as the 2004 president-elect at its August annual meeting in Mystic, Conn. In 2005, Mitchell will succeed 2004 CACE President Saundra Stevens, Hon. AIA.

“I am optimistic about the potential of the AIA,” Mitchell says. “With significant experience as a CACE executive and serving the CACE community, I will make an effort to learn what different people in CACE—including new members and those who are quiet—want from the organization, then work with the CACE board, resource networks, and the [AIA national-component] Component Relations group to improve what we’re doing.”

Executive of the Salt Lake AIA chapter since 1988, Mitchell became executive director of AIA Utah as well in 1990. She held office on the CACE Board as a director and secretary in 2001 and 2002 respectively. She served on the membership and public affairs CACE resource networks; is cochair, with AIA Vice President-elect James Gatsch, FAIA, on the Livable Communities Committee; and is on the national AIA Component Affairs/Membership Advisory Committee.

“CACE, like the AIA, provides a structure for us to improve our professional skills, share knowledge, and support each other in our common task of component leadership,” she says. “Just as a new sense of collaboration has developed between national staff leadership and CACE, I think we are now ready for greater collaboration with the ‘knowledge communities.’ These groups are making new connections themselves across their different areas of interest. They want to reach members at the local level, not just as an audience for the occasional conference, but actively in their ongoing explorations. I think CACE is an untapped resource—perhaps even the key—to success in this. As the AIA acts more as a single organism than loosely connected silos, we benefit the practice of architecture in ways we can’t now imagine.”

2004 officers
Also elected at the annual meeting were:

• David A. Crawford, executive vice president, AIA North Carolina, as vice president of CACE Resource Development
• Anne J. Swager, Hon. AIA, executive director, AIA Pittsburgh, as CACE secretary
• Fredric Bell, FAIA, executive vice president, AIA New York, as CACE director
• Amy Kobe, CAE, executive director, AIA Columbus, as CACE director
• Bonnie Staiger, executive director, AIA North Dakota, as CACE director.

An exciting summit by the sea
Set in a Colonial New England atmosphere, this year's CACE annual meeting general session featured a panel discussion on how to recruit and develop emerging leaders in the profession, followed by a series of workshops led by component executives. For the fifth year, CACE Marketplace vendors networked with executives and showcased their products and services.

AIA President Thompson E. Penney, FAIA; First Vice President Eugene C. Hopkins, FAIA; Executive Vice President/CEO Norman L. Koonce, FAIA; AIA Relations Team Vice President Helene Dreiling, FAIA; AIA Communications Team Vice President Chuck Hamlin; and Jamie Rice, chief operating officer for Carton Donofrio Partners, Inc., spoke to the group.

CACE President David Lancaster, Hon. AIA, presented awards to the CACE Executive Committee, CACE Resource Network chairs, and the CACE Bylaws chair. Penney presented presidential citations to Amy Kobe, CAE, AIA Columbus, and Diane Harp Jones, AIA Connecticut, for their extraordinary efforts in bringing the meeting to fruition.

The highlight of the awards program was presentation of the Executive of the Year Award to Janet D. Pike, Hon. AIA, AIA Kentucky, for her accomplishments in consolidating the AIA membership data system, in setting the highest possible standards as the first CACE representative on the AIA Executive Committee, and as the acknowledged standard-bearer of symbiotic component synergy.

Keynote speaker Robert P. Madison, FAIA, recipient of the 2002 Whitney M. Young Jr. Award, gave a rousing presentation on the component executives’ responsibility as leaders in promoting and creating inclusion in the profession. He stressed the importance of helping students, colleagues, clients, and the media to promote opportunities for minorities. The audience affirmed his message with a standing ovation.

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