Amy Vohs, AIA
AIA Oregon President
Senior Associate, DLR Group
Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you’ve all had the opportunity to spend some holiday time with friends and family—or at least your favorite four-legged friend(s). I was able to read two books while my favorite four-legged friend snored on my lap. I call that a successful holiday.
I am very excited for this year as we welcome new section directors, a new secretary and new section directors-elect. We have been working on programs and communication plans as we address member comments and pursue new efforts to organize committee involvement. As we organize programs, we are focusing on three main areas: sustainability, government affairs through state and local advocacy and equity through design and practice. However, the overall focus connecting our efforts is planning for the future, or at least planning for what’s coming next.
Programs Overview:
You may have read in previous issue of Thursday at Three about the strategic planning efforts we started in fall 2019 and the four initiatives we are focusing on. The strategic planning process led to the idea of developing quarterly themes in 2020 to tie together many of our programs and events. Starting this spring, we will add a chapter-wide event featuring a live broadcast panel discussion and a presentation emphasizing the quarterly theme.
As we complete our budget and plan events, we are also working to finalize the quarterly themes. At this point, we expect the themes will include:
Policy and Advocacy
Emerging Technologies
People and Culture
The Big Move (A focus on sustainability and a long-term vision. Design for Economy, Design for Energy, Design for Equitable Communities. Read more here.)
Our planning work over the next few weeks will solidify the events schedule, themes and 2020 budget.
Krista Philips, Chair of the Programs Committee and staff have been working to organize the calendar of events for the year based on committee program requests and national conferences. Here are a few events planned for 2020:
Quarter One
Code Update Training
2020 Oregon Legislative Session
Quarter Two
Resiliency – Business and Building Planning and Recovery Conference in Portland
Homes Tour in Portland
Quarter Three:
Golf Tournament
Design Justice Panel Discussion
Future Vision Conference
Quarter Four
Sustainability Week
Design Awards
Legislative Advocacy Forum (in anticipation of 2021 legislative session)
These are just a few items on the program calendar for the year. There are lots of opportunities to get involved as we look for volunteers to help for any event. If you are interested, please contact Executive Vice President Curt Wilson, AIA at cwilson@aiaoregon.org.
Steering Committee Callout:
At the holiday parties, we invited members to get involved in your local section Steering Committee to help plan local events. With new section directors and directors-elect, your input is valued to make each section active and locally relevant to members. Please check out the Leadership page on the AIA Oregon website to find out who your local section director is.
Communication:
Our website is constantly being updated with new information. Our goals for this year are to make our website much more user friendly and to add more content on committee work. We’ve recently updated the Resources page to show where you can borrow ARE study materials in each section for Emerging Professionals. You will start to notice other changes on the website over the next few months.
Statewide Programming:
We are excited to test out new strategies for disseminating programs statewide. This Friday’s webinar on the updates in the 2019 OSSC will be the first. So far, almost 200 attendees have signed up. We look forward to your feedback on how the webinar worked for you so we can better tune that process throughout the year. It is our intent to rotate locations where main presenters are located so everyone has the opportunity to attend in person.
I truly look forward to this coming year as we keep moving towards a more cohesive and inclusive state chapter. As always, if you have an idea on how to make AIA Oregon better, don’t hesitate to share.
Happy New Year!
Amy Vohs