Curt Wilson, AIA
Executive Vice President/CEO, AIA Oregon

As look forward to the Memorial Day weekend, I’m reflecting on the impact COVID-19 has had on our chapter, our firms, and our members. Now, more than ever, it is important for us to be mindful of each other, and to make opportunities for engagement for those who have become isolated. With this in mind, I want to highlight our current activities and opportunities to get involved.

Digital Design Series

We started the AIA Oregon Digital Design Series on April 22 with teams from DLR Group and Hacker sharing how they are engaging with their internal project teams, clients, and user groups to collaborate in the design of their projects virtually. This was followed the next week by friends at the Architecture Department at U of O discussing how they are designing and collaborating from a distance. On May 13, Scott Mooney of SRG Partnership and Kyle Keck of Affiliated Engineers presented their work in the OSU Cascades Academic Building 2 in a virtual In-Process Lecture session, and yesterday, May 20, three members shared projects in the first of many AIA Oregon Presents! sessions. See the article in the Newsletter for a recap and upcoming sessions.

All of these presentations share a focus on design, such as tools and techniques with the digital collaboration session, the design process with the In-Process series, or recently completed (or near completion) in the AIAO Presents! series. We are scheduling these events on Wednesdays at 5:00 through Zoom and trying to keep them to an hour. I encourage you to check one out in the next few weeks.

What excites me the most about the Digital Design Series is the opportunity for all of us to share what we are working on in a friendly and informal setting. I want to thank Jim Satzinger, AIA, the Section Director from Bend, for his efforts to bring the AIA Oregon Presents! series to life. Jim has created an opportunity for us to share his passion for design and celebrating the work we do. Ben Arico, AIA, the Director-Elect from Portland, has been leading the In-Process Lecture group for a few years now, and he’s done a wonderful job creating an opportunity for a local architect and a trade partner to discuss something they are working together or in common. We do things because of the efforts of members like Jim and Ben, so thank you!

Design Awards Task Force

The transition to a single-state chapter has forced us to evaluate what we do, and determine if it aligns, or supports what we want to be doing. While we know we want to encourage and advocate for good design, we need to take the time to determine if our current design recognition programs are the best way for us to do it. Please check out the article in the Newsletter and reach out to me if you want to be involved in the Task Force. I want to point out that the task force should wrap up after a few meetings, and there will be more opportunities to organize the events we do this year.

Leadership Roles

I want to thank all of you that are leading our committees, sections, and board of directors. As someone that has been involved as an active member for a long time, I know the effort that it takes to serve as a leader in a volunteer organization while working full time and focusing on family. To honor that commitment, it is important that we support you when it is time to step back from your leadership role, and help support the next leaders.

Many of our current committee leaders have been in those roles for multiple terms, and we need emerging leaders to step forward and step up. My experience on the AIA Southwest Oregon board a few decades ago was excellent training for the role of firm principal I stepped into a few years later. Committee and board leadership is leadership training, and your colleagues and employers not only benefit from it, but they see it first hand!

Please check out our committees on the website and get involved in the committee, or committees, that interest you. We have openings for chair of the chapter Programs Committee and AIA Eugene Section Emerging Professional Committee, and a few other committee chairs are ready to step back when others are willing to step forward.

Our board of director terms are two years; therefore we are also looking for new leaders at the board level at the beginning of next year. Please contact AIA Oregon President Amy Vohs (avohs@dlrgroup.com) or me (cwilson@aiaoregon.org) if you want to learn more about board openings in 2021.

Engagement

The economic impacts from the COVID-19 crisis have forced the Oregon Employment Department to better understand unemployment trends in almost real time so the state can best deliver their limited resources to do the most good. They are updating unemployment data almost every week and breaking out by county and sectors. This page will be updated regularly on their website. From that page, you will find an article that tries to give context to the data.

The chart above can be found within the article and shows that unemployment in the Architecture and Engineering sector is 4%, which is one of the lowest sectors in the economy. 4% is not 20%, so that’s good, but it still reflects that many in our community are out of work. My understanding is that unemployment in our sector pre-COVID was less than 1%, so the increase to 4% is noteworthy. If you’ve been unemployed, or recently unemployed, these are just numbers. Your life is impacted in a way that can’t be described through metrics.

The pandemic has forced us to ask what’s the purpose of a professional association and how can we best serve our members. For many of our members, who continue to work and need to balance staying healthy, supporting their family, and working remotely, the best thing we can do it step back and let them focus on their priorities. For those that aren’t busy with work and family, I worry about isolation, and how we can help them stay engaged. All our events are promoted on the website and open to everyone, and we’ve scheduled a weekly Virtual Happy Hour at 4:00 on Fridays. We recognize that some in our communities need other avenues to engage, but we are struggling to connect with them and help. If you know someone that is not currently working, please stay in touch with them. Encourage them to get involved in AIA Oregon events and/or to reach out to me if you, or they have suggestions for how we can help.

Curt Wilson, AIA
Executive Vice President/CEO, AIA Oregon
cwilson@aiaoregon.org