Message from the Communications Committee Chair

John Flynn, AIA
AIAO Director At-Large
Chair, Communications Committee

Hello, Colleagues –

This is John Flynn, AIA Oregon Board of Directors (At-Large), coming to you from my dining room table.  My focus on the AIA Board is Communications and I’m writing to give you a bit of an update on our continued work to improve our outreach and engagement with membership across our statewide community.

When I last wrote a T@3 message, I mentioned our Fall 2019 work session – a gathering of architects from a wide perspective of involvement within AIA Oregon – where much of the strategic initiative discussions turned towards two essential member services within our organization:  Programming and Communications.  As we have moved into our new structure as a statewide chapter, we have committed to building a strong and united architecture community across the state.  From a communications perspective, this means improving our means and methods of reaching out to membership with the objective of providing the best services to you.

Have you noticed the recent changes in our website?  We have been responding to member suggestions for more resources and content, more insight into programs and committee work, and a more dynamic interface.  Allow me to highlight a few of these recent changes and preview some of the improvements to come.

Our Resources page has developed into a well spring for professional practice support, educational opportunities, and general information to help you navigate your career.  We’ll continue to provide new resources and links to relevant information as part of our continuing communications efforts.  And yes, there is a substantial Covid-19 resources page specifically crafted to be relevant to the architecture community.

Programming and event planning continue to be a primary vocation for AIA Oregon.  In the Events tab of our website, we’ve added an Event Schedule for 2020.  This graphic is a master planning diagram that functions as an overview for our statewide programming efforts.  It’s a living document that we’ll continue to update as we refine our programs for the months to come.  In our new social-distanced community, events are virtual and internet-connected.  AIA Oregon has responded, through its committees, by hosting weekly “Happy Hours” focused on getting members together around topics of common interest.  The Events page lists the current schedule for these informative gatherings.

We are in the process of reconstituting our website’s home page.  We’ve already made some modest changes and more changes are in the works to create a more dynamic and easier-to-navigate user interface.  Another page that is in development is “Find an Architect” – a statewide resource providing introductions and contact information for member firms.  This page will allow visitors to filter their searches by location, project type, firm size, and several other parameters.  We expect both these pages to launch in the near future.

 Other ideas AIA Oregon’s Communication Committee is pushing: 

• Expanding our website’s News offerings to include more content from Committees and members – look for “Forum” in the months to come.

• Continued refinements to all our weekly missive, Thursdays @ Three

• Expanded coverage of events and programs in our social networking platforms – Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram

Now, I’d like to address the topic of the day-week-month-year.  (I only touched on it briefly above.  Imagine that!)  We’ve paid particular attention to making sure that membership can find, through our communication platforms, relevant information that informs their business practices, professional interactions, and opportunities going forward during the current pandemic.  Who knew, six months ago, that we would be self-isolating, working from home, and video conferencing all day long?  Personally, I’m four weeks into a corona-beard, our daughter’s college commencement has been cancelled, and the highlight of my week is a trip to the grocery store.  This is new common ground for all of us but, as challenging as it is, we will support one another going forward.  For those of us engaged with AIA Oregon, our focus will be on helping to find that path forward.  A shout out to AIA Oregon staff, who have done a terrific job addressing the current pandemic landscape on our communication platforms.

Thanks and best of health to everyone!

Message from the AIA Oregon President

Amy Vohs, AIA
AIAO President

Hello everyone,

I don’t know about you, but I’m working on getting my head around no school till September.  Home school is turning out to be a fairly substantial shift in thinking for me.  I’ve had to learn new programs, new meetup websites while covering the gap in the day when school gets out just after lunch. I am grateful for the many on-line resources out there and looking forward to slipping in some of these programs during the summer..SHHH.  I’ll tell them it’s life-long learning. It should never stop right?

The staff has been busy over the last several weeks uncovering and expanding resources as well for members to better deal with current practices during this pandemic.  We get updates from National at least once a week and sometimes daily to get out information on how to help financially, educationally and emotionally. 

These resources and updates are located on our Resources page https://www.aiaoregon.org/covid-19. 

On Wednesday we discussed how to stay safe on the job site. There are articles and templates on how to communicate to owners and continue Architectural services during Construction Administration safely, how to create your own business plan for emergency preparedness and more. These will also be on our resource page.

Please let us know if we can help connect you with other chapters when you have projects in other states that require regular site visits. Partnering up with other local firms can help ease the pressure to travel while assuring you’re not missing something from a Facetime video walk.

Virtual Happy Hours

AIA Oregon is hosting two happy hours a week. We don’t just drink in front of our computers. These are meant to be informational and assist with responding to questions we are getting on a regular basis.  Tuesdays we are focusing on support for individuals and Fridays we are focusing on support for business leaders.  Please attend as you see an interest. Topics will be posted prior to the events.  In many cases we include attorneys and insurance carriers to provide any support as needed.  We are open to topics that concern you to assist with continuing the practice of architecture and related work.    

In an effort to continue with our quarterly topic of Emerging Technology, we’d like to get a happy hour started to discuss how your firms handle the digital move working with clients from a distance and keeping the design process moving. Please let us know what your favorite platforms are.  Email Curt Wilson at cwilson@aiaoregon.org. 

Virtual Education Programs

AIA National has made several webinars free during the next few months to assure that we are providing enough credits for licensure. Many of these are shown on our Resources page under Professional Development.  We are also adding several that are dealing with virtual design programs as firms share just how they are maintaining the design process at a safe distance from others while not getting Zoom bombed! This finally happened to us Wednesday and it was interesting, to say the least.

Chapters across the country are sharing access to their educational programs as well. When we hear of good ones, we post them to you. Here are a few coming up:

Action Now: Accelerating Pathways to Decarbonization  April 21, 2020 8:30 to 5:00 (6.5 LU/HSW) https://www.aiaseattle.org/event/action-now-2020/ Cost is Free.

Living Future Conference is going virtual as well. May 7 – 8, 2020 https://www.aiaseattle.org/event/action-now-2020/

U of O HOPES Conference  April 15 – 17, 2020  HOPES website

AREs and Emerging Professionals

As most of you who are testing are aware, NCARB is giving a 90 day extension to those currently testing.  We are looking for additional ways to provide on-line study courses for you as well since all those travel plans are on hold. We hope to have more information for you in the next few weeks.

Chris Lewis, the AIA appointed NCARB Licensing Advisor, was present at the EPC happy hour on Tuesday to offer his services and information on NCARB.  Please feel free to contact him with any questions you might have if you missed the happy hour.

There is a lot going on right now and most of it is virtual so remember to take a break from the screens. Get outside now that spring is here (at a safe distance that is). My yard is getting some much-needed attention and my dog is getting more walks.  Remember to be patient with each other as stress has a funny way of popping up once in a while, surprising us all. 

I look forward to seeing you soon,

Amy Vohs

AIA Oregon President

Message from the AIA Oregon Executive Vice President

Curt Wilson, AIA
Executive Vice President / CEO

According to the New England Journal of Medicine, an outbreak of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) was first reported in late December 2019.  The CDC confirmed the first diagnosed case in the United States  on January 20, 2020. The first confirmed case in Oregon occurred on February 20, 2020 according to the Oregon Health Authority. An outbreak east of Seattle occurred in early March.  The University of Washington was the first US college to close campus for the remainder of the term on March 8.  The NCAA cancelled the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments on March 15.  Restaurant dining rooms were closed in Oregon on March 16.  Governor Brown issued Executive Order 20-12 on March 24 which included Stay at Home orders.  The federal government passed the third COVID-19 related law referred to as the CARES Act on March 27 with more than $2 trillion in funding and $350 billion for small business loans title Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans.  The application period for PPP is expected to open tomorrow April 3, 2020. 

Not only is the scale of the pandemic unprecedented in modern history, but the pace of events is more rapid than anything we’ve seen.  All of you, all of us are dealing with this issue.  Not only do we need to keep ourselves and our families out of harms way from the virus, we need to maintain our sense of well-being as we are isolated from all but our immediate family members.  Add on top of the that the need to protect our livlihoods, help our children continue to learn, and provide assistance to those that have less.

The focus of today’s Thursdays@Three is to provide support and timely information about CARES Act programs.

Virtual Happy Hours

AIA Oregon leadership wants to make sure our members have an opportunity to engage, connect, and share experiences with others.  Virtual Happy Hours (VHH), which are intended to be informal discussions with peers, have been scheduled as a venue to learn from sharing with each other.  See the article in this issue about VHH’s for the Small Firm Exchange, Emerging Professionals, and discussion on CA Services and Social Distancing.  Our plan is to continue to schedule at least two per week and identify a few topics to start the conversation.  Please drop by if you get a chance, and remember that you don’t need to be an active member of the committee the VHH’s are organized around.

Resources

The AIA Oregon COVID-19 Resources page was introduced on March 19.  Since then, I suspect that most of us feel overwhelmed with the resources and information we are receiving.  The organization of the page is expanding to simplify the search for information you are looking for, and we are highlighting new and time sensitive information. 

I encourage you to check out our website every few days for new information.  

Remote Working

As Oregon is under Stay at Home orders, many in our profession are working remotely from home.  If you check out most social media platforms, you’ll notice many of our firms are proudly showing their Brady Bunch squared view of their staff meeting together on Zoom or GoToMeeting.  In my various conversations with many of you, I’m happy to see that most of us are at least tolerating, if not enjoying the situation.  

However, an article in Architectural Record tells a different story.  In some part of the country, maybe also in Oregon, some firms are not supporting their people to work safely from home.  As noted above, this is an incredibly challenging situation given the best of circumstances, and it is very discouraging to me to hear that some of my colleague are not supporting their employees.

Maybe their response is based on a fear of the unknown and they need more support to create a supportive and productive environment for their teams.  The COVID-19 Resource page has been expanded to provide more resources for working remotely. I want to thank Boston Society of Architects for their fantastic BSA Firms Best Practices Guide - COVID-19.

Emerging Technology

Wednesday, April 1, 2020 marked the first day of the second quarter of 2020.  Per the AIA Oregon event planning strategy of quarterly themes, we are now in the Emerging Technology quarter.  Our related plans to celebrate emerging technologies are on pause as we adjust to this situation, but we should acknowledge that virtual conference call services are a relatively recent technology that is allowing us to remain engaged emotionally and mentally while we are isolated physically. 

My hope is that we can continue to provide timely and helpful information. Please reach out to me at cwilson@aiaoregon.org to let me know your work situation and how AIA Oregon can best help you.

Thanks,

Curt