2018 Directory

11 T he AIA Wyoming Advocacy Committee continues to meet peri- odically via conference calls as required to address topics as they arise. Members of our committee continue to attend meetings of the state Commercial Construction Committee and will share useful information gleaned from upcoming meetings. During 2018 several legislative topics were evaluated and addressed by our committee: A bill was introduced which pertained to data collection and notices required on projects which include underground utilities in public right of ways. Our committee evaluated this bill and felt it was more applicable to Civil Engineers and Land Surveyors. We voted to yield to the position taken by those groups, who appeared to favor the bill. The bill failed on introduction to the floor. The Alliance for Historic Wyoming initiated opposition to a bill which claimed negative effects are felt on economic activity within the state by the National Historic Preservation Act. This bill appeared threatening to historic preservation efforts in the state of Wyoming. Our committee gathered data demonstrating positive economic impact from several historic preservation projects to share with legislators to assist the Alliance. The bill died in the House of Representatives. There was an attempt to introduce legislature which would have added sales tax to professional services. The Advocacy Committee lodged questions and concerns regarding this bill with the Joint Revenue Committee. Other professional service providers also voiced opposition to this proposed legislation and this bill failed, but may reappear. The Advocacy Committee remains vigilant regarding this effort, and other legislative activities which could affect AIA Wyoming and our profession. Following approval by the AIA Wyoming membership at the fall meet- ing in 2014 the Advocacy Committee worked with Legislators and the Legislative Service Office to draft a document defining the requirements of residency as it pertained to Architects. The LSO drafted a bill which was introduced into committee during the 2015 Legislative Session. However, the bill did not make it out of the committee to be brought to the floor. With renewed approval by the AIA membership at the fall meeting in 2018, we intend to make another attempt at developing a definition for residency requirements using work completed in 2015 as a start point. We also intend to take a more comprehensive approach to explaining our purpose to legislators. Wyoming State Statutes current- ly list residency as one of the criteria to be considered in the selection of professional service providers by state agencies, but do not define or list requirements for a determination of residency. We hope to provide a tool which could be used by state agencies in their selection process by developing a definition of residency free of any financial advantages to Wyoming residents or prescriptive weighting of selection criteria. This Committee welcomes any requests for additional information or questions from anyone regarding these topics or related items. b Government Advocacy Committee BY MARK KUCERA, AIA, CHAIR Committee Members: Mark Kucera, AIA, Chair Charlie Van Over, AIA Lyle Murtha, AIA Colleen Nelson, AIA Michael Potter, AIA Cornelius Kinsey, AIA Working with Citizens and Government Stimson Neg 3289, Preparing for Fishing Trip, Cheyenne, Wyoming, August 1912, J.E. Stimson Collection, Wyoming State Archives