Sara Bergby, AIA
AIA Bend Director-Elect
Happy Thursday! I’m Sara Bergby, Director-Elect for the Bend Section of AIAO. I’ve been a member of the AIA for about five years, but only started actively participating in the membership last year. My reasoning for that is two-fold.
First, when I initially became a member, it was paid for by my boss at the time; since the membership was free to me, I just coasted along without investing any time or energy into it. However, when my membership came up for renewal after I left that company, I had to make a tough decision: resign as a member or start paying for my own membership. Though I hadn’t been actively involved with the organization I wasn’t ready to give up my membership, but I realized that I could only justify the outlay of the fee if I were to become more involved – just coasting along was no longer an option.
The second reason that I wasn’t active in the AIA until recently is the awkward structure of the organization at the time I became a member. Bend was then a part of the AIA Southwestern Oregon Chapter, so opportunities for involvement were extremely limited. Any personal involvement required driving to Eugene during the work week, a difficult task considering my full-time job and active family life. My change in jobs concurred with AIAO’s change to a state-wide structure and the subsequent implementation of Bend as its own Section. Suddenly, I had an opportunity to become involved right here at home, and my involvement could have a direct impact on how Bend developed as a Section.
My direct involvement as a member was spurred by the Bend Section Director “volunteering” me last spring for the position as Bend’s Emerging Professionals Committee Chair. In that position, I attended the two AIAO planning sessions in Portland that year and realized that the more involved I became, the more benefit I would receive from my membership, and the more impact I could have on the growth of our Section. With that in mind, I decided to run for the position as the Bend Section Director-Elect last winter. Since being elected to the position, I have worked closely with Bend’s current Director, Jim Satzinger, and our steering committee to help develop the AIA Bend Section.
I envision the Bend Section of AIAO becoming a vibrant, engaged group. Key to that is ensuring that our members become more involved as well. As the upcoming Director, I hope to build upon the foundation that Jim has laid to create an AIA community whose members feel valued and heard. I want to be sure that we are putting our resources toward the programs and events that matter most to our members. After all, if the benefits that we provide aren’t valued by our members, members won’t have much more incentive to become involved than I did five years ago. And we need our members to be involved in order to be a success.
The message written by AIAO’s Secretary, Misti Nelmes, a few weeks ago really resonated with me, and I believe it’s applicable here. In my experience, the AIA hasn’t consistently focused on providing the programs and events that resonate with local members. Whether it’s too difficult to obtain feedback from members, or too tough to tailor the programming to so many different visions, I don’t know. I don’t expect that there is a single approach that will work for each of AIAO’s Sections. I expect that each Section will have to work with their own members to evaluate members’ needs and determine the path forward that provides the most benefit to the largest range of members. But I do believe that listening to our members – and to those who aren’t yet members but would consider membership if certain programming or events were more prevalent – is a key to growing a stronger and more collaborative membership. And I believe that the stronger our membership base is, the more benefits we will be able to provide to each of our members.
Whether or not you’re currently a member, I ask that you reach out and let me know which programs, events, and services that matter most to you. You can email me directly at sara@enclavearch.com with your thoughts, or join the AIAO Virtual Happy Hour at 4pm this Friday 8/21/2020 to give your feedback on ways that we can increase member engagement.