AIA’s premier chapter leadership training event, AIA Grassroots and Leadership Conference, took place virtually Feb. 16-19, 2021. This year’s theme, Bring It Home addressed critical issues facing the architecture profession, including COVID-19, climate change, and racial equity. Participants observed best practices and strategies that they brought home to implement successfully in their chapter, firm, and community. The event was packed with keynotes, breakout sessions, workshops, networking, and the opportunity to advocate for AIA’s legislative agenda with Members of Congress.
The event began February 16 with a choice of sessions on developing a partnership between the board of directors and component staff by Bob Harris, CAE, strategically developing the right board and the economy and the pandemic: outlook and implications for the architecture profession.
Following the morning session, AIA leadership reviewed the AIA’s Policy Platform 2021 and provided an AIA update by Dan Hart, FAIA, AIA First vice president and Peter Exley, FAIA, AIA President.
Design Thinking-Tackling Challenges of the Built Environment
Speaker: Dan Roam
Keynote speaker Dan Roam began Wednesday with a session on design thinking, tackling challenges of the built environment. Dan is the author of several books, including the international bestseller The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures, which was named the innovation and creativity book of the year by Fast Company, Businessweek, and The Times of London. Roam is the founder and president of Digital Roam Inc., a management-consulting firm that uses visual thinking to solve complex problems. His analysis of American health care on 50 napkins was hailed by Businessweek as “The World’s Greatest Presentation of 2009,” and it prompted the White House Office of Communications to invite Dan in for discussions on how to visually clarify complex policy issues.
We continued with a roundtable session with components of our own size, 100-199 members. Understanding that our successes and issues are very similar, we enjoyed the conversation with other components.
Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging
Speaker: Stacey Abrams
The afternoon keynote speaker was Stacey Abrams, Political leader, nonprofit CEO, author, and serial entrepreneur. Stacey made history and captured the nation’s attention as the first Black woman to become the gubernatorial nominee for a major party in any state, going on to win more votes than any other Democrat in Georgia’s history. After 11 years in the Georgia House of Representatives, seven as minority leader, Abrams became the 2018 Democratic nominee for governor of Georgia. Her book, Lead from the Outside: How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change, is a New York Times bestseller that serves as a powerful guide on harnessing the strengths of being an outsider and using them for success.
We ended the day with a choice of a final session that included planning and designing for equitable communities, fostering partnerships to advance equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging, and planning and designing for equitable communities.
Katherine Hayhoe Keynote: Talking about Climate Change
Thursday was a shorter day with one keynote and one session. Katharine Hayhoe was the keynote who provided an educational overview on climate change. Katharine Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist, director of the Texas Tech University Climate Center, and CEO. She has authored more than 120 peer-reviewed publications. She also co-authored some reports for the U.S. Global Change Research Program and some National Academy of Sciences reports, including the Third National Climate Assessment. In addition to her research on climate change, Hayhoe is known for her communication around climate change and her advocacy efforts around climate action. In 2014, Hayhoe served as a science advisor to the documentary TV series Years of Living Dangerously, an Emmy Award-winning Showtime series that details how climate change has already impacted lives around the world.
Regions Task Force Update
We had the choice of the sessions staying relevant, mitigating the effects of climate change, transformation at the intersection of climate change, equity, and COVID-19, and architects as Climate Activists. The Architects as Climate Activists was a popular session as we heard from a panel that included Susi Marizola, AIA, former board director and member, AIA East Bay COTE Steering Committee, Henry Siegel, FAIA, LEED AP, principal, Siegel and Strain Architects and past chair, AIA California Cote Steering Committee, Brian Smiley, AIA, LEED BD+C, architect, HOK, and director, sustainability and preservation, AIA Philadelphia and Bunny Tucker, AIA, COTE co-chair, AIA Philadelphia.
This session educated AIA members on working with communities to make them more resilient. Architects are passionate about designing sustainably and responsibly and uniquely positioned to advocate for policies that impact climate change and disaster relief. Members across AIA are devoting significant energy and expertise to advocate for local, state, and federal policies that promote significant carbon reduction in the built environment. The opportunity for architects to lead and assert relevance has never been more pressing.
AIA Wyoming and many chapters are very interested in the information and outcome of the Region Task Force. Regions were developed to elect two Directors to sit on the once AIA Board of Directors and now AIA Strategic Council. Four models on restructuring the governance model came from the task force. One model has been approved by the AIA Board of Directors, giving each state the responsibility to appoint or elect one representative to sit on the Strategic Council. This update provided a deep dive into the efforts made over the last couple of years by the task force, outcome and recommendations made.
We began Friday with a choice of sessions on board roles and goals and creatively generating and maintaining non-dues revenue. Sound financial management is essential to the effective operation of every component. One role of the board is to increase and protect the assets. Beyond the unique aspects of nonprofit financial literacy is a need to be alert to potential risks. We attended this session to learn best practices for financial budgeting and reporting, internal policies, IRS Form 990, and possible risks that can damage a component’s health, such as liability, copyright infringement, antitrust violations, etc.
The final event session of our choice included emerging professionals friendly firm initiative, the unstaffed component experience and strategic thinking during turbulent times. Strategic thinking allows you to think about a desirable future for the next three to five years and make informed decisions in an uncharted business environment. What does it take to make the best decisions in conditions of complexity and uncertainty? How can you avoid analysis paralysis? This session addressed planning methodologies in turbulent times, providing applications for architects and firms and sharing critical capabilities to help you plan for the future.
To end the conference, Keynote Dan Roam provided us with a final message on reflection, thereby bringing us home.
The message was clear that AIA was focusing on COVID-19, climate change and racial equity as the entire event focused on these three issues facing the architecture profession. We thank AIA for putting on this leadership event and appreciate the complimentary registration to four members and staff. b
