by Kate Schwennsen, FAIA

You’d expect after the most successful Grassroots ever I’d share some thoughts. And you’d be right. Speaking, eating, lobbying, and laughing with nearly 850 of the AIA’s local, state, national, and knowledge community leaders (plus some Canadians) was fantastic. If I could bottle the experience, I’d do so, pouring out a teaspoonful of the energy whenever I was tired, discouraged, or simply marooned at some airport.

The Grassroots 2006 Leadership Conference was big . . . no, huge. And if I shared everything I saw during those four days, I’d have to write a book. So, with a formatting nod to the folks at the Kiplinger Letter, here’s my report, which concludes with a snapshot.

All rowing in one direction: AIA California Council Executive VP Paul Welch Jr., Hon. AIA, delivered a report on behalf of the Component Partnerships Committee. Paul’s committee makes a number of specific recommendations to move this organization closer to the ideal of One AIA. To date, staff at the national component are already implementing about a third of these recommendations, according to Helene Dreiling, FAIA, team vice president for Community. Also, check out a related story in this issue under . . .

Best Practices, which talks about the power of the tribe and where the AIA fits on a scale of (1) “Life Stinks”/pulling apart to (5) “Wow!”/pulling together.

Proposed Blueprint projects show an amazing range and depth. Grassroots attendees were given the opportunity for consults about their plans for participating in the AIA150 Blueprint project. (The consults were so popular, they had to be double booked.) The chair of the Blueprint for America subgroup, Tony Costello, FAIA, delivered an inspirational (and often funny) presentation, energized by what he was hearing during the conference about local and state component plans already afoot. Although the range of projects seeking funding is broad, their focus is the same:
Leave a lasting legacy of more valuable, healthy, secure, sustainable, and beautiful communities. For more information about how your project may qualify for a Blueprint grant, visit the AIA150 Web site.

Components and Knowledge Communities shared and leveraged unique knowledge. Three, perhaps four years ago a decision was made to do a better job of integrating component leadership and the leadership of the AIA’s Knowledge Communities. Not always easy, but obviously smart: The AIA’s Knowledge Communities are important not only to the success of individual members (because of the knowledge provided), but also to the value architects see in AIA membership.
The components are the natural delivery system for knowledge. At Grassroots, we ate together, learned together, and lobbied together. We’re still not rowing together. But we’re making headway, because . . .
Component/knowledge community partnering is key to our growth.

Sustainability is the door-opener to government advocacy. AIA leaders who visited their congressional representatives on the Hill discovered they received the best hearing when talk turned to sustainability. The side of the political aisle didn’t seem to matter. What counted was the Institute’s credibility as a consistent advocate for sustainability and the training architects have to deliver sustainable design. It didn’t hurt to remind legislators that . . .
Buildings currently consume over 50 percent of the nation’s energy. Sustainability is an issue on which the AIA’s voice and our elected representatives’ ears align.
Here we can be the drivers of a national debate.

Grassroots 2006 brings in record ArchiPAC contributions. Maybe it was the message. Maybe it was national ArchiPAC Chair Mickey Jacob’s rhetorical skills. (No one can make the “ask” more passionately than Mickey.) Maybe it was the prospect of this year’s mid-term congressional elections and the fact that . . .
Our issues truly serve the public interest. Whatever the reasons (and I would include the legwork of our national government advocacy staff), attending members contributed nearly $35,000 in four days of Grassroots to ArchiPAC. But building a war chest, as Mickey reminded us, is just step one. The real work begins back home when we continue the conversation we began on the Hill.
Home-grown relationships are the best way to advance a federal agenda in Washington. Invite your local representatives to your meetings; correspond with their staff.

Chris McEntee scores a knockout: Armed with a lapel mike and her repeated commitment to be a listener, the Institute’s new EVP/CEO was the center of an unscripted Town Hall forum, taking questions from the audience on issues including dues, the value of AIA membership, the relationship between the academy and the profession, licensing, the cost of practice, and diversity. Chris handled herself with real grace, not only making it clear she was aggressively in the learning phase, but also open to both concerns and new ideas.
“A breath of fresh air” is how AIA California Council President John Melcher, AIA, spoke for those present when he described what he was hearing.

Diversity enhances performance and is good business. Dr. Sharon Sutton, FAIA, challenged attendees to look at diversity as an opportunity rather than a problem. Becoming a more diverse and inclusive organization and a profession will add alternative points of view, encourage goal clarification, discourage group think, promote a critical evaluation of solutions, lead to lower levels of risk aversion, and be a source of inspiration.
The emerging diverse client base requires a more diverse profession.

Now, the snapshot I promised.
A young member and I were part of a group that went to the Hill to meet with a senator who had requested the AIA help him draft sustainable design legislation. Over lunch, this young member talked about how she first joined the AIA with few expectations other than networking opportunities and continuing education.

Then she went to her first state convention, where she was inspired and energized. So she got involved at the state level. Then she went to her first national AIA Convention and was amazed at the breadth of discussions and knowledge, as well as the depth of passion and values she saw exhibited there.

Then she came to this Grassroots and, after speaking with this senator, understood that we together, One AIA, really can make a difference. Here we were, the two of us, having a sandwich in the Senate cafeteria, being asked to help shape public policy in a meaningful way. Life is great!

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