AIA membership approved a resolution in 2018 that directed AIA National to form a task force to evaluate the current regional structure and make recommendations to align with recent structural changes. These changes included the reorganization of the board of directors, creation of the Strategic Council, and component accreditation process. AIA Oregon members Han-Mei Chiang, AIA and Rod Ashley, FAIA were appointed to the task force. The Regions Task Force presented their final report to the AIA National Board at the April meeting, and after much discussion, and action was taken by the board. The Regions Task Force final report included two models for discussion and consideration: Renovation of Existing Regions, and Adaptive Reuse of State Components. In summary:

The Board expressed its preference for the ‘Adaptive Reuse of State Components’ approach, and directed that the President take such actions as may be appropriate toward implementation.
The “Adaptive Reuse of State Components” model will eliminate regions from the AIA structure, and create a direct connection between state components and AIA National through state-elected Strategic Councilors.
The elimination of regions is designed for flexibility, allowing individual components the opportunity to create a consortia of components to come together based on shared interests, issues, or concerns.
It is also intended to provide more opportunities to engage new future leaders of AIA. The Board seeks more transparent and equitable election processes of AIA leaders to increase inclusion and diversity.
The International Region will continue to have a designated seat on the Strategic Council.
The Board recognized that there might be iterative change or transitional decisions to achieve a new model based on states rather than regions. This would include analyzing the impact of the decision on the College of Fellows, National Associates Committee, Young Architects Forum, and Small Firm Exchange, each of which currently employs a regional representative structure.
The President will be appointing a new representative task group to analyze the Regions Task Force report and the Board’s direction, to develop recommendations for moving forward, and to present findings to the Board later this year.
The task force will be charged to review and make recommendations on implementation of the new states model, including amendments to the Institute Bylaws for presentation to the delegates at the 2021 annual meeting in Philadelphia.
Until that time, there are no immediate changes to the Institute’s governance model.
The Regions Task Force report was presented to the National Associates Committee (NAC) and the Young Architects Forum (YAF) on April 23, to the Strategic Council on April 30, 2020, and to the Small Firm Exchange (SfX) on May 5, 2020. Communications will be ongoing as the task force begins its work.