by Russell Boniface
Associate Editor

How do you . . . as components, help your out-of-work members?

Summary: AIA components are providing various services and programs to assist their out-of-work members. Component services and programs include providing a gathering place to talk and regroup, career roundtables, job listings on chapter and partner Web sites, e-mailing of job listings, and social networking on Facebook. Components are also offering training in Revit, interviewing, and portfolio and résumé building. Some offer continuing education classes with complimentary registration and seminars on navigating the economy, while others offer volunteer opportunities and promote outreach and sponsorships. There is even a chapter hosting speed dating-style job interviewing for its members. AIA components all share the common goals of offering encouragement and direct access to their out-of-work members.

An amalgam of programs
AIA components across the country are taking different approaches to help their out-of-work members. AIA New York Chapter and the Center for Architecture Foundation uses a proactive approach to help its members navigate the economy and deal with job loss. “We've been using the AIA New York Chapter's Center for Architecture as a gathering place for unemployed and underemployed architects, including a free lunch on Wednesdays,” explains Rick Bell, executive director, AIA New York. “With corporate sponsorship and participation by our Board members, including chapter President Sherida Paulsen, FAIA, and Board Secretary Abby Suckle, FAIA, we have been doing a lot to provide a gathering place to talk and regroup.” AIA New York also has a Not Business as Usual series that includes enhanced job listings with a new ExchangePlace Web site in partnership with The Architects Newspaper; volunteer opportunities with 23 design-related organizations from Architecture for Humanity to the USGBC (its recent volunteer opportunities fair had over 200 participants); job skills development, including ARE Boot Camp and BIM and LEED opportunities; presentation skills development, for example, a portfolio review session; and advocacy and outreach, for example, the chapter’s recent session with the New York State Energy & Research Development Authority on how unemployed architects can be trained to do energy surveys.

AIA Pittsburgh also holds an unemployed architects meeting group. “I think it’s a real help to our unemployed members,” says Anne Swager, Hon. AIA, executive director, AIA Pittsburgh. “We are also sending job listings out once a week to the same group. The job listings are pretty slim, but there are some. We are also giving them complimentary registrations to all of our events, including Build Pittsburgh, our annual educational conference.” Meanwhile, AIA San Francisco has been hosting a Career Strategy Roundtables every other Monday. The roundtable serves as a meeting ground for its unemployed members and is facilitated by Michael S. Bernard, AIA, principal of Virtual Practice Consulting, a San Francisco-based design management consulting firm. The forum provides an opportunity to network and strategize. “We are about to add a Firm Roundtables on the alternating Mondays starting in April,” notes Stacy Williams, program director, AIA San Francisco. “We also have a few other programs coming up after the Convention. such as Revit skills training, how to navigate DBI workshops, and résumé and portfolio workshops.”

Thinking of new ways to augment programming
AIA Baltimore is trying to do additional economic programming atop its already heavy programming, says Karen Lewand, Hon. AIA, executive director, AIA Baltimore. “Our Refining Your Job Search Skills and Tools is a panel of four firm principals who advise on improving members’ résumé, portfolio, and interview skills. We also have set up a Small Practice Group of small firms and sole practitioners who help each other with networking, teaming, marketing, support, and branching out into new areas. We are also cosponsoring a program with the Society of American Military Engineers to inform members about Base Realignment and Closing (BRAC) development opportunities coming to Maryland. We continue to try to think of new ways to help our members.”

Some components are taking an innovative approach, such as AIA Houston. “Last January we held a one-evening event we called Speed Networking,” recalls Barrie Scardino, executive director, AIA Houston and Architecture Center Houston. “Basically it was a job fair with a speed dating format. It was extremely successful with about 30 firms and over 200 participants. It was a lot of fun, and several people did land jobs as a result.”

Michael Din, director of development and marketing, AIA Los Angeles, says it’s important for components to offer to membership programs that are either free, affordable, or at a cost that the chapter can bear. “Our membership department is fielding calls about payment plans and, of course, we are always open to hearing about those on a case-by-case basis because you want to help the members as much as you can, plus the goal is certainly not to lose membership.”

In addition to offering referrals and social networking through Facebook, AIA Los Angeles offers professional development and a continuing education seminar that addresses the economy that includes its Bull or Bear series. “Whether markets are high or low, we wanted to address what is going on but make it usable so as to make you more competitive in the marketplace. We talked about how architects can take their skills and put them into other industries. We talked with headhunters. So there was a lot of résumé developing.”

Keep in touch with your component; networking
Mary Fitch, Hon. AIA, executive director, AIA Washington, D.C., says her chapter is offering free educational classes, such as the chapter’s lunch-and-learns and an economy series. “We want people to keep up with their continuing education,” Fitch affirms. “But I think the more important thing that we are doing is asking people to contact us when they are out of work. I put their names on a list that I use when I hear of new jobs in and around Washington, D.C., or even overseas. With the list, I can contact those who might be appropriate for a position based on years of experience and get them some contacts. I’ve had about 70 people on this list since November and about 10 have gotten jobs, but there have been more people who have replaced them, so it’s been about 70-75 the last few months. But every couple of days I hear of something, and I send it out. Much of it is long-term consulting work, but at least it is keeping people in the profession.”

Fitch says that there are jobs out there she hears about before they go up on a job board. “I got something from a headhunter looking for 300 people to work on a university in Saudi Arabia. Not everyone wants to go to Saudi Arabia, but there are jobs out there. I recommend that members touch base with their chapter. Having a relationship with your chapter is one more thing you can use to keep looking for a job.” Fitch says it was important to the AIA Washington, D.C., Board that members have direct access to the executive director. “It shows a high priority and that they want the chapter to be helpful on a personal level. People have come in to talk to me or e-mailed. Part of it is cheerleading, but it has actually helped people get employment that they would not have otherwise known about.”

Fitch says that AIA Washington, D.C., has shied away from having members meet. “We think it’s more helpful to them to network with members in the chapter who are working. We haven’t segregated them out into a different group.” Fitch stresses that it’s important for the component to send the message that things are going to get better and that it’s there to help its members.

“We are very good at doing the things that a chapter does but it’s nice to help at this level and making a difference to members where it’s integral to their career and lives. Hopefully this is all going to be over soon.”