VICE PRESIDENT (two will be elected)

As architects, we are obsessed with design and good architecture, and rightly so. If not us, who? Beauty should be one of the “bottom lines” of our profession and businesses.

I seek the office of AIA vice president and, if elected, will share leadership responsibility for our professional association. In that role we must envision, design, construct, and manage an association that, while maybe not referred to as beautiful, should be viewed and acknowledged as a great association.

To be a great association and a great profession is an aspiration we all share.

I’ve been involved in leadership education and training for more than 30 years. Over the past decade, service-centered, or, transformational leadership, has become the focus of this work. Businesses and organizations with service missions can be transformational leaders. There are attributes and behaviors we can embrace to become a profession and association known for transformational leadership.

We must share a common vision. Our strategic plan is a beginning but it cannot be the national component’s plan and it cannot be mandated for the components. We must share responsibility for its design: a shared vision.

We must challenge the process. None of us aspires to mediocrity or the maintenance of the status quo. But we must not merely seek change (an over-used anthem in these times). We must seek improvement and enhancement.

We must enable others to act. We must not just recognize the diversity of talents and interests among us, but find ways to accommodate, include, and utilize them for the benefit of all.

We must model the way. We have to demonstrate a moral compass that will inspire others to act. We cannot expect to be able to promote a profession that is diverse and inclusive if at the highest levels of our staff leadership we do not model the way.

And we must celebrate. We must personally and collectively acknowledge the good work of members, components, and staff. We must not just celebrate among ourselves but make public the good works and behaviors the AIA wants to be known for.

Finally, in a professional association with a budget approaching $50 million and a staff of more than 200, we must be smart enough and brave enough to seek to employ people who are smarter then we are, provide them the necessary resources and authority, and let them do their work. Together we become a great professional association.

E-mail: jeronimo@umd.edu.